Re: Great Meeting You
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Matthew Slavin
Mar 23, 2012, 12:40:57 PM3/23/12
to Julia Friedman, Sustainable DC Energy
Julia, Sorry you had to sign off early.
As you know, there has been some debate surrounding the efficacy of wholly voluntary commercial building efficiency programs. In my 20 years of experience dating back to design and evaluation of the earliest building energy efficiency programs, they haven't worked to produce meaningful market transformation in commercial buildings. As I noted in earlier emails, the SEU programs in DE and VT and Energy Trust in Oregon work because they are backstopped by mandatory state EERS.
At the conclusion of our call, I asked Larry Sprague his opinion and if I understood correctly, he responded that voluntary programs have not proved effective in the past in significantly upgrading efficiency in the commercial building sector. I'm not sure everyone accepts this as truth, but truth it is. For example, see the attached and below excerpt (source: Energy Policy, 2012):
"Economic incentive programs have been only marginally successful. As an example, Sassone and Martucci took a micro-level approach to analyzing the underlying factors influencing business decision-makers participation in energy conservation. In a survey of industrial firms throughout the state of Georgia, they confirm that economic incentives often fall short in that fewer than a quarter of the cost-justified conservation measures recommended to firms by independent auditors were carried out30. The authors conclude that firms under-invest in cost-justified energy efficiency programs due to “low priority and low visibility [of energy consumption]” as well as neglect from top management. More recent studies confirm the weak performance of economic incentives such as the EECBTD."
My hope is that we can all coalesce around the evidence and move forward in a positive and collaborative way to bring the ECO to fruition.
As you know, intrinsic to the ECO is putting in place financing mechanism.
The co-op idea is worth exploring and was on our initial list if I recall. Please let me know what you find.
Best,
Matt
As you know, there has been some debate surrounding the efficacy of wholly voluntary commercial building efficiency programs. In my 20 years of experience dating back to design and evaluation of the earliest building energy efficiency programs, they haven't worked to produce meaningful market transformation in commercial buildings. As I noted in earlier emails, the SEU programs in DE and VT and Energy Trust in Oregon work because they are backstopped by mandatory state EERS.
At the conclusion of our call, I asked Larry Sprague his opinion and if I understood correctly, he responded that voluntary programs have not proved effective in the past in significantly upgrading efficiency in the commercial building sector. I'm not sure everyone accepts this as truth, but truth it is. For example, see the attached and below excerpt (source: Energy Policy, 2012):
"Economic incentive programs have been only marginally successful. As an example, Sassone and Martucci took a micro-level approach to analyzing the underlying factors influencing business decision-makers participation in energy conservation. In a survey of industrial firms throughout the state of Georgia, they confirm that economic incentives often fall short in that fewer than a quarter of the cost-justified conservation measures recommended to firms by independent auditors were carried out30. The authors conclude that firms under-invest in cost-justified energy efficiency programs due to “low priority and low visibility [of energy consumption]” as well as neglect from top management. More recent studies confirm the weak performance of economic incentives such as the EECBTD."
My hope is that we can all coalesce around the evidence and move forward in a positive and collaborative way to bring the ECO to fruition.
As you know, intrinsic to the ECO is putting in place financing mechanism.
The co-op idea is worth exploring and was on our initial list if I recall. Please let me know what you find.
Best,
Matt
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