Best Practices Committee

The Best Practices Committee of Efficiency First is composed of Home Performance contractors and other stakeholders interested in ensuring the home performance industry can effectively scale up to meet new demands. The committee’s initial task is to study examples of existing municipal programs that are designed to create market incentives for home energy performance and/or renewable energy. Several of these programs incorporate Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing.

Based on these studies, the committee will deliver white papers written for two intended audiences. The first paper will address program managers and program designers. As local or state agencies and utilities develop energy retrofit programs, it is our intent to have contractors serve as a resource, providing guidelines on home standards, contractor standards, loading orders, metrics and more. The second white paper will address contractors themselves, providing guidelines for working with program managers in the development and implementation of energy retrofit programs

Focus Areas

Efficiency First members have identified four key areas that impact these programs and affect our industry:

Business Models: What are the most successful business models for Home Performance contracting? Use this data to guide program development, and create a system that will help Efficiency First members incorporate these practices into their own businesses.

Finance and Incentives: Identify national, state and local finance models to help all homeowners retrofit their homes, and document finance models that allow homeowners to amortize retrofitting costs over time.

Workforce Development: Enable the Home Performance industry to identify and hire the most alert, intelligent and well-trained workforce available, and position Home Performance jobs as attractive, well-paid careers. These two goals together will help to deliver a consistent and effective workforce for the industry.

Marketing: Review specific program markets and the industry as a whole to identify successful strategies for contacting, educating and engaging consumers to adopt home energy improvements on a large, national scale.

Additionally, the case studies must examine how program results are tracked and how success is measured. To do this we are looking at several key measurers:

1. Energy savings, including reduction in BTU or Kilowatt hours as well as money saved by homeowners
2. Job creation
3. Health benefits
4. Safety measurers

Case Studies

Nine initial case studies are planned:

1. New Jersey Home Performance with Energy Star (State of New Jersey)
   Rebate program that is creating strong demand
2. The Babylon Project (Babylon, N.Y.)
   Energy improvement loan program funded by reclassifying carbon as solid waste and tapping into municipal solid waste reserve fund; loans repaid through garbage collection bills
3. Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (Sonoma County, Calif.)
   A California AB811 program with independent PACE bonds to fund both renewables and efficiency retrofits
4. ClimateSmart Residential Energy Action Program/ClimateSmart Loan Program (Boulder, Co.)
   PACE bond program permitting Renewables and home retrofits
5. New York Home Performance with Energy Star (State of New York)
   Provides incentives or low-interest financing to make energy efficiency improvements in the home. This program examines the whole house retrofit through strict standards.
6. Palm Desert Home Improvement Program (Palm Desert, Calif.)
   PACE program that utilizes the government’s general revenue funds to finance renewable and HVAC system improvements.
7. Clean Energy Works (Portland, Ore.)
   The Climate Smart Loan Program provides full up-front financing for residential energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.
8. Berkeley First (Berkeley, Calif.)
   Pioneering PACE financing program for solar installations only
9. The Austin Energy Power Saver Program (Austin, Tex.)
   The Austin Energy Utility controlled by the City of Austin utilizes its revenue in a reinvestment form to do home energy retrofits and commercial retrofits with rebates for renewables.

Timeline

• Complete interviews and research by November 30, 2009
• Four working groups begin meeting weekly to review raw data by November 30
• Complete summaries by December 15, 2009
• Get feedback from working groups by January 5, 2010
• Develop white paper drafts by January 15, 2010
• Complete both white papers by January 31, 2010

Methodology

Efficiency First has developed a research template for these case studies, incorporating questions written by Home Performance contractors. The template is based on a four-step process, as follows:

Step 1: Initial Research – Conduct background research, review the program Web site, research news and other publication sources.

Step 2: Interview Contractors – Interview one to three contractors who have participated in the program.

Step 3: Interview Program Managers – Interview program managers and related staff.

Step 4: Interview Associates and Partners – Where applicable, conduct interviews with third-party organizations that have been involved in design and management of the program, such as independent management companies, utilities, local business groups or nonprofits.