Season’s Greetings and News from Energy Shrink 2017

Winter Solstice

Dec 21, 2017

From global thinking to local action, Energy Shrink has been making strides towards fulfilling its mission to facilitate the market adoption of energy efficiency in the buildings sector.
  The EDGE Green Buildings Program, an innovation of IFC, a member of the World Bank, is available in 130 countries, and designed to transform the mass market at speed and scale. We continue to help develop global technical policy for it. Smita Thomas was also the lead author of an important paper on refrigerant management in buildings titled “Refrigerant Selection to Reduce Climate Impact“ published via the World Bank.

  The Energy Star program has provided measurable benefits to the global building community for years. We are providing support to projects seeking Energy Star certification such as the eQuest model we developed for one multifamily project, and guidance to another DC-based multifamily building.
  DC’s benchmarking law is helping move the capital closer to the global climate change mitigation goals. This month DC’s Mayor Bowser pledged to make Washington, DC carbon-neutral and climate resilient by 2050, joining 25 other C40 member cities in committing to this goal. We are helping benchmark buildings for compliance with these laws and help achieve these critical goals.
 Regionally, Montgomery County has led the DMV region with its benchmarking law and introduction of PACE financing. Energy Shrink was certified as a PACE contractor in MD. We are also serving as a subcontractor to Ensight Consulting to assist Maryland’s Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection with its Green Business Certification Program.
  California is a national leader in energy efficiency implementation (Okay, #2 behind Massachusetts). Energy Shrink was pleased to be selected for the regional innovative utility Sonoma Clean Power’s master list of organizations for providing technical assistance to zero energy buildings including end-use fuel switching.
A majority of the potential savings continue to be locked in existing buildings, which are 98% of the US building stock. Working in partnership with expense reduction associates, we provided recommendations for energy efficiency options to a nursing home to reduce their operational costs.

Smita Thomas, while serving as co-chair of the USGBC-NCR Existing Buildings Task Force 2017, helped organize a 3-session series about greening existing buildings. The goal is to unlock the substantial savings potential in existing buildings.