Policies for Better Buildings

How to Calculate and Present Deep Retrofit Value: A Guide for Owner-Occupants (Executive Summary)

This might come as a surprise to some, but energy efficiency is about more than energy, and deep energy retrofits, which achieve superior energy savings over conventional retrofits and can reduce a building’s energy consumption by 50 percent or more, offer bottom-line benefits for business beyond energy cost savings alone.

Superefficient Affordable Housing: Solutions to Hurdles

This paper describes the programmatic, financial, technical, and operational hurdles that stand in the way of increased energy efficiency in our affordable housing stock. It then explains possible solutions to each of these hurdles. Through the propagation of these solutions and the diminishment of these hurdles, it is possible to…

Sustainable Zero Net Energy: Identifying the Essentials for Solutions

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities available for the electricity and buildings industries as the adoption of distributed generation, energy efficiency, and zero net energy designs grow. This paper considers the following questions: how will increased penetration of distributed resources and ZNE buildings affect cost and value for the…

Turbocharging Efficiency Programs: Going for Broader and Deeper Savings

It is a new era for utility efficiency programs. Policymakers and regulators have required many utilities to achieve more efficiency savings than ever before, and the amount utilities spend on efficiency continues to increase at a rapid pace. Momentum for utility efficiency programs has never been greater. Utilities have been…