Close Quarters: Retrofitting America’s Multifamily Dwellings
Wednesday, February 22  @ 12:30 PM EST/9:30 AM PST
FREE for Efficiency First Members: Click Here to Sign Into Your Account & Register!

Non-members are invited to view this webinar for a $50 fee.

Qualifies for up to 1.5 BPI CEUs.

Description:
Based on an upcoming suite of case studies and a white paper from the Home Performance Resource Center (HPRC), this webinar will provide a basic road map for programs and building performance companies looking to expand their services into the multifamily homes sector. These resources will provide industry guidance on multifamily retrofit programs.

On the webinar, panelists will discuss:

• How building performance companies can successfully leverage multifamily homes projects
• Sales and marketing strategies for increasing work within the multifamily sector
• Guidelines for implementing successful multifamily programs
• Lessons learned from industry veterans from both the programmatic and building performance professional perspectives
• Information about multifamily-sector specific certifications in building performance

Panelists:

Courtney Moriarta: Principal, Sangfroid Associates

Jerone Gagliano: Director of Energy Engineering, PSD Consulting

Ryan Merkin: Director of Multifamily Energy Services, Steven Winter Associates

Weatherization to Home Performance — Tools & Tips for Developing For-profit Services
FRIDAY, February 17  @ 12:30 PM EST/9:30 AM PST

FREE for Efficiency First Members: Click Here to Sign Into Your Account & Register!

Non-members are invited to view this webinar for a $50 fee.

NCAF Weatherization Agencies click here to register at a discounted rate.

Qualifies for up to 1.5 BPI CEUs.

Description:
Are you a local low-income weatherization agency or contractor considering whether to offer home performance work to your services?

Please join Efficiency First, the Home Performance Resource Center and the National Community Action Foundation for this upcoming webinar. While many of the technical skills needed to perform retrofits are similar, running a for-profit home performance company requires a new skill set in marketing, sales, customer service, and other areas. This webinar will be for those who have already mastered the fundaments of business planning and maintaining financial systems. It will be focused on providing energy service-specific business modeling tools and best practices from the market, which your company can use to enter and find leads within the for-profit home performance industry.

Panelists:

Meg Power: President, Economic Opportunity Studies; Senior Advisor, National Community Action Foundation

Matt Golden: Principal, Efficiency.org

Sam Flannery: President, Building Science Energy Services

If you are having trouble accessing your account or the webinar please send an email to info@efficiencyfirst.org.

Registration:
Efficiency First Members click here to log-in to your account and register.

Non-members click here to register for a $50 fee.

NCAF Weatherization Agencies click here to register at a discounted rate.

Media Contact:
Jay Murdoch — Executive Director, Efficiency First
202-680-8915

Home Performance Industry Applauds EPA and DOE’s Decision to Keep the ENERGY STAR Brand in Retrofit Programs

Washington, DC — Efficiency First, a national trade association of building performance companies and industry allies, applauds the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for the decision to continue the usage of the federal ENERGY STAR brand in residential retrofit programs. While the agreement has not yet been finalized, all indications are that it will be completed soon.

This welcome news comes after months of speculation that the popular ENERGY STAR brand would be eliminated from use in residential retrofit programs as those programs transition to DOE.  Efficiency First thanks EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu for working to resolve this issue in the way that make that most sense for the industry and consumers.

In November 2011, Efficiency First called on EPA and DOE to work out their differences and to continue using the ENERGY STAR brand in residential retrofit programs managed by DOE. Efficiency First also led the effort in pressing both agencies to find agreement. Very quickly, over 475 companies endorsed Efficiency First’s letter on this issue.

“Our members know first-hand that ENERGY STAR is the most recognized and trusted brand in the industry,” said Jay Murdoch, Efficiency First’s Executive Director. “Because our members touch the consumer and homeowner every single day, they know that the elimination of the ENERGY STAR brand would have been a major setback for the future of the residential retrofit industry.  Efficiency First would like to thank Administrator Jackson and Secretary Chu and for listening to input from the building performance industry on this matter. We look forward to working with DOE to promote industry growth with initiatives that maintain the high integrity associated with the ENERGY STAR brand.”

An Efficiency First representative is available for comment.

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Efficiency First is the trade association for America’s home performance industry – uniting home performance companies, building product manufacturers and related businesses and organizations.

Efficiency First represents its members in public policy and regulatory discussions at the local, state and national levels to promote the benefits of energy efficiency retrofitting, and to create market and industry demand for member products and services.

For more information: www.efficiencyfirst.org

Check & Verify: Why Quality Assurance Programs Matter
Tuesday, February 7^th @ 12:30 PM EASTERN/9:30 AM PACIFIC

FREE for Efficiency First Members: Click Here to Sign Into Your Account & Register!

Non-Member Registration: Non-Efficiency First Members are invited to join this webinar for a $50 fee. Please click here access non-member registration.

Description:
Across America, local governments, utilities, state agencies, and other organizations are implementing building performance programs with a quality assurance component to insure high quality work, healthy indoor environments, and to protect rate payer and tax payer investments. Increasingly, building performance companies are incorporating quality assurance programs into their private market jobs because they know this helps differentiate themselves, in the eyes of the consumer and positively impacts their P&L in the form of reduced call backs and warranty issues. Learn about the latest in quality assurance programs for residential and light commercial buildings. Understand how effective quality assurance programs protect consumer interests, can contribute to industry growth and learn tips on how your business can best leverage and operate under quality assurance programs.

BPI CEU credit pending.

Panelists:

Blake Ratcliff: Director, IBTS

Dave Abrey: Director of Quality Assurance, GreenHomes America

Lisanne Altman: Director of Residential Programs, LIPA

If you are having trouble accessing your account or the webinar please send an email to info@efficiencyfirst.org.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RECORDING. (Please scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Many thanks to our panelists and attendees for making this webinar successful.  Over 800 people tuned in to learn about the new bill, our largest turn-out ever.

Also, please click here to sign our 25E petition to show your support for the Cut Energy Bills at Home Act.

We had over 150 people tuned in to hear our panelists give an overview of the Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum and how to best use it within the home performance industry.

For those who couldn’t make it and for those interesting in viewing the presentation again, a recording of the webinar has been posted to the Efficiency First website, which you can now watch at your own leisure.

Efficiency First members, click here to access the audio file as well as the accompanying PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.

Non-members can access the recording by clicking here. Non-members have access to the recording and PowerPoint presentation for up to 30 days.

We hope you can join us for an industry-wide webinar on 25E, open to EF members AND the general public to learn more about the bill.  Here’s the info:

WEBINAR — Introducing 25E: The First Performance-Based Tax Credit for Homes
When: Tuesday, December 6th @ 4PM EASTERN / 1PM PACIFIC
Open to the public: This webinar is free and open to the general public
Register: Click here to register

On the webinar, we’ll be joined by representatives of some of our national partners who have been suppporting this legislation. Panelists will outline the key components of the bill and look ahead to discuss how we can move it forward.

Also, please check out our 25e website for the latest updates on the legislation.

Efficiency First members, click here to access the audio file as well as the accompanying PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.

Non-members can access the recording by clicking here. Non-members have access to the recording and PowerPoint presentation for up to 30 days.

Media Contact:
Jay Murdoch — Executive Director, Efficiency First
202-680-8915

Home Performance Industry Applauds New Energy Efficiency Tax Credit Legislation

New proposed tax credit would boost job creation in hard-hit construction sector and help reduce America’s energy consumption

Washington, DC — Efficiency First, a national trade association of home performance companies and industry allies, applauds Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) for their bipartisan bill to create a performance-based energy efficiency tax credit for homeowners.  The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act was introduced in the Senate earlier today.

The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act, if passed, would create the nation’s first performance-based energy efficiency tax credit for home retrofits.  For the first time, homeowners would be rewarded with a federal tax credit for projects that achieve a percentage reduction in energy use, rather than for installing a certain piece of equipment. The legislation would provide tax credits of $2000-$5,000 for qualified residential energy efficiency retrofits that save 20-50% respectively, up to 30% of the cost of the retrofit.

“This performance-based legislation is crucial to the success of the growth home performance industry while also sending an important message to homeowners:  save more energy, get more tax credit, save more money,” said Efficiency First Executive Director Jay Murdoch.   “We urge Congress to pass the 25E tax credit which would go a long way toward spurring growth and employment of home performance contractors while saving energy and reducing utility bills.”

Greg Thomas, CEO of Performance Systems Development and Chairman of Efficiency First, added: “This legislation makes ground-breaking strides at accessing the current infrastructure and best practices of the home performance to provide common-sense financial savings to consumers for whole house energy improvements.”

To coincide with today’s introduction of the legislation, Efficiency First has launched a grassroots effort to build support for the bill. More information can be found at www.efficiencyfirst.org/25e.  An Efficiency First representative is available for comment.

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Efficiency First is the trade association for America’s home performance industry – uniting home performance companies, building product manufacturers and related businesses and organizations.

Efficiency First represents its members in public policy and regulatory discussions at the local, state and national levels to promote the benefits of energy efficiency retrofitting, and to create market and industry demand for member products and services.

For more information: www.efficiencyfirst.org

Incorporating the EEM with Energy Rebate Programs | The Team Approach

November 17, 2011 @ 12:00pm EST / 9:00am PST

Conference Dial in: (712) 775-7000 (new dial-in as of 4/12/2011 Participant Access Code: 647614#)

The next REWG learning call will feature a roundtable discussion with Kevin Nunn. Kevin is a Residential Mortgage Loan Officer with Comstock Mortgage of Sacramento and in nearly two decades of mortgage lending he has developed extremely efficient processes for the EEM, 203k, and several other programs that support energy retrofitting in residential financing. In this series of videos Kevin and his team describe their respective roles in the process, and share their approach and strategies in financing residential energy efficiency upgrades under the auspices of the Energy Upgrade California rebate program:

Please review the related video in advance.

http://energy-financing-options.com/videotestimonials/eem-euc-video/

Kevin has personally originated more EEMs than anyone in the nation and he wants to show everyone how his approach can work in any market across the country. Join us on November 17th when Kevin and his team will share their secrets and and answer any questions or concerns.