Efficiency First

Efficiency First’s Best Practices Working Groups

Monthly Digest – June 2011

What our Best Practice working groups have been working on:

Business Models

1. HVAC transition paper which will provide a blueprint for how to transition your business from HVAC to whole house performance.

Finance and Incentives

1. Summary of financial options – what a contractor can use today
2. Studying the Sensible Accounting to Value Energy (SAVE) Act and its implications for the home performance industry

Marketing

1. Working on a library of power points about energy efficiency and home performance
2. As an educational campaign for SEO, the group is working on a guidebook for the industry’s key terms, citations and listings
3. Marketing resources for contractors:
   1. Creating a Homeowner Profile Template
   2. Working on a home performance resource database of marketing information, data, logos, brochures, etc for contractors to use when creating sites/presentations on energy efficiency
   3. Marketing support tools for contractors and energy auditors can be downloaded at: http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/marketing/
   4. Outreach effort to get home performance contractors to speak/present to local communities

Multi-Family Homes

1. Finishing 3 case studies and a white paper of challenges and recommendations for multi-family programs

Real Estate

1. GreenMLS: Contributed content for GreenMLS Toolkit which was inspired by Efficiency First presentation at ACI. Updated toolkit is available at www.greenthemls.org
2. Tracking Retrofit Value: Proposed an Appraisal Essentials for Home Performance Contractors resource
3. Home Sale Labeling programs: the first draft of a labeling white paper is completed and REWG is monitoring EF chapter areas with labeling activity
4. Tracking Consumption and GreenMLS; if the home performance industry can track it more thoroughly, the real estate industry can report it in the GreenMLS
5. Host monthly learning calls for REWG members on the third Thursday of every month. Recent topics include GreenMLS panel (June), overview of City of Austin labeling program (May) and Energy Trust of Oregon labeling program (April)

Workforce Development

1. Has completed a hiring toolkit with resources to help home performance companies find and hire qualified staff
2. The committee has also provided feedback on the HERO online self-assessment, a resource for job seekers to help them determine the best career paths and training opportunities in the home performance industry
3. Wrote a letter to the Department of Labor supporting the creation of a weatherization technician apprenticeship. Currently crafting recommendations on how such an apprenticeship could be structured

We are continually working hard to develop a thriving Home Performance industry and if you would like to join any of the nine working groups that we support, we’d love to have you on board.

For more information on Efficiency First’s Best Practice working groups, check out http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/take-action/best-practices/

If you’d like to contribute in one of our working groups, please send an e-mail to internpolicy@efficiencyfirst.org with your contact information and which group you would like to join.