Season’s Greetings and News from Energy Shrink
We hope you’ve had a good year!
Energy Shrink celebrated its second anniversary this month. It’s been an eventful second year! We’d love to share a few highlights of the year with you and a look ahead.
A Look Back at 2017
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.
Looking Ahead
Energy efficiency in the buildings sector continues to be our vital mission. Locally, Virginia is adopting C-PACE at a quick pace, solar co-ops are making an appearance in Virginia, and DC DOEE is moving from strategy to implementation of its Climate Ready DC plan.
As efficiency and sustainability become increasingly critical in today’s environment Energy Shrink is looking to scale up its impact by partnering with efficiency program providers and policy makers, as well as to pursue all of its current work in these arenas.
With warm regards,
Smita Chandra Thomas
p.s. I’d welcome a note back with your news
You can reach me at:
thomas@energy-shrink.com
202.556.3369
Learn about us www.energy-shrink.com
LinkedIn t: @Energy_Shrink f: Facebook
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Consultancy for High-Performance Buildings
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