By: Matt Golden, Senior Energy Finance Consultant, Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Investor Confidence Project (ICP) aims to bring transparency and accountability to the energy efficiency market by introducing a system of standardization. Traditionally, most energy efficiency analyses are done by the companies selling retrofit services to commercial building owners and investors, resulting in biased results that do not always ensure return on investment (ROI). Additionally, inconsistencies in the methodology for arriving at these ROI metrics have created barriers to standardizing a measure of success for energy retrofits.
For the first time, ICP’s Energy Performance Protocols were used to leverage financing for a $2 million office building retrofit in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This new model could accelerate the vast potential of energy efficiency retrofits in commercial buildings.
ICP’s protocols have been developed with broad stakeholder participation including engineers, industry allies, financial market participants, insurers, regulators and utilities. The protocols aim to significantly increase stakeholder confidence in the resulting savings by: Read More