From Efficiency First:Great news from Washington, D.C. — In a victory for Efficiency First members and the home performance industry, indications are that the ENERGY STAR brand will continue to be used in residential retrofit programs run by the Department of Energy, like Home Performance with ENERGY STAR.

Details are still being worked out between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE), but I wanted to share the update with you ASAP.

Help us say thanks:

Send a thank you note to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and ask them to finalize the agreement soon.

Late last year, we asked you to endorse our letter urging EPA and DOE to reconsider their decision to discontinue use of the ENERGY STAR label, now that Home Performance with ENERGY STAR has moved to DOE Management. Almost 500 companies endorsed the petition — and it looks like they’ve listened.

Click here to send your thank you note.

This is a testament to the work we can do as an industry when we act together.

There’s no doubt, of course, that we have larger challenges ahead of us to grow the building performance industry and retrofit America’s homes. I’m looking forward to working with all of you on those solutions.

View our press release here.

Best,

Jay Murdoch
Efficiency First

Efficiency First is supported by our members: home performance companies and industry allies all across America.

Not a member? Visit www.efficiencyfirst.org/join to learn more and sign up.

Get Local: Learn about Efficiency First chapters in your area, and opportunities to work with other home performance companies on industry growth initiatives: www.efficiencyfirst.org/chapters.

Member benefits: Efficiency First members have access to special members-only benefits: discounts on tech tools, trainings, conferences, branding and web services, business insurance, debt collection and more.

Take advantage of these deals by visiting www.efficiencyfirst.org/home/member-benefits.

Job Title:  City of Seattle, Sr. Planning & Development Specialist
Job Type:  Full-time, term-limited assignment
Salary:  $35.81 – 41.72 (hourly, benefited position)
Location:  Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Ave., Seattle, Washington
Shift:  Day
Closing Date/Time:  Tue. 01/24/12 4:00 PM Pacific Time

Position Description:

Buildings have a major impact on almost every aspect of Seattle’s environment. Approximately 26 percent of the City’s greenhouse gas emissions stem from energy used in buildings.

 To address the critical area of energy use in existing buildings, the City of Seattle has enacted a program mandating energy benchmarking, disclosure and reporting requirements for existing private and public sector buildings. This ordinance will make information about energy use in buildings more transparent, and allow building owners, business owners, tenants, and others to make more informed real estate investment and operational decisions. By April 2012 approximately 9,000 buildings in the city will be subject to these requirements.

The City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE) is seeking a Program Associate to assist with outreach and implementation of the Energy Benchmarking and Reporting (EBR) Program.

The Program Associate will work with local stakeholders, federal agencies, national policy organizations and members of the real estate and utility sectors to assist in implementing policies to benchmark and disclose the energy performance of buildings, and increase public awareness and compliance with the program’s requirements. This position requires strong analytical, organizational, and communications skills, and the ability to both work independently and to collaborate with other OSE programs and partners.

Responsibilities:

Under the direction of the Program Manager, the Program Associate will broadly support implementation of the EBR Program. He/she will perform the following functions:

• Support stakeholder outreach programs, including various communications activities and the development of content, and management of outside services responsible for layout and production of informational brochures, white papers, fact sheets and other materials.
• Coordinate with stakeholders and partners at the local and regional levels.
• Schedule and coordinate meetings and speaking engagements involving trade, professional and local neighborhood groups.
• Develop and implement an outreach plan for engaging with building tenants, business owners, and real estate professionals to raise awareness of their ability to request disclosure of building energy performance information.
• Coordinate with partners who are developing and delivering training.
• Assist with analysis of data sets related to real estate and energy metrics, including the City’s
• annual analysis of benchmarking data.
• Assist in responding to non-routine requests for interpreting program compliance requirements.
• Perform research to address questions escalated from Technical Support staff, and input corrections to database of existing buildings as needed.
• Conduct administrative tasks such as taking meeting minutes and drafting summary reports.

Qualifications:

Applicants must be familiar with building sciences and/or energy efficiency in buildings.  Excellent

writing and oral communication skills, and strong organizational, problem solving and analytical skills are required.  Candidates should be comfortable with public speaking and quantitative analysis. LEED AP is a plus.

Applicants should have an undergraduate or graduate degree in communications, economics, business, architecture, engineering, urban planning, real estate or related field, and need to have 2 to 5 years of relevant work experience. Real estate and/or energy efficiency background is strongly preferred, as is experience with public outreach and basic knowledge of policy implementation at the state or local level. Salary is commensurate with experience.

To apply:

To submit an application for this position, email a resume and a brief cover letter with “EBR Program Associate” in the subject line to: Jeanie.Boawn@seattle.gov, by the closing date January 24, 2012. More information on City of Seattle jobs openings can be found at our website:  http://seattle.gov/jobs/

This full-time temporary position, located in the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment is grant-funded and has guaranteed funding through the end of 2012. Continuation of the position beyond 2012 is dependent on obtaining additional funding.

CSG chosen to provide quality assurance for BPI Accredited Contractors

Malta, NY, January 2, 2012 - The Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI) has selected three organizations to provide Quality Assurance (QA) services nationally to its Accredited Contractor network. The National Quality Assurance Providers are Conservation Services Group, Energy and Environmental Training Center of Kansas City, and Everblue Energy, Inc. 
“BPI is proud to announce our partnership with these three organizations that have each been widely recognized for their outstanding delivery of quality assurance services in home performance,” said Larry Zarker, BPI CEO. “With the growth of BPI’s Accredited Contractor network across the nation comes our obligation to provide rigorous third-party QA services the market demands. BPI staff can’t be everywhere at once. Thus we are confident that these three firms will provide the quality assurance in their respective regions the industry needs to maintain BPI’s standards.”
As part of BPI Accreditation, these firms will deliver QA services that ensure adherence to BPI Standards and Accreditation requirements. They will conduct QA home visits for a minimum of five percent of annual work volume of jobs completed by Accredited Contractors, as well as a Quality Management Introduction (QMI) office visit and an annual QA office visit. In addition, they will provide detailed recommendations to enhance contractors’ QA infrastructure.

Service territories

• Conservation Services Group: Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.
• Energy and Environmental Training Center of Kansas City: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
• Everblue Energy, Inc: Alabama, California, Delaware, District of Columbia (DC), Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.
• BPI will continue to cover New York. 

About BPI Accreditation and QA

BPI Accreditation gives contractors the edge against low-bid competition. It differentiates contracting companies by offering clients house-as-a-system solutions backed by building science and a third-party Quality Assurance Program. Accreditation helps contractors expand their business model and earn more revenue doing home performance assessments and home energy retrofits.    
 

About the Building Performance Institute
The Building Performance Institute, Inc., (BPI) is the nation’s premier building performance credentialing, quality assurance and standards setting organization. BPI develops technical standards using an open, transparent, consensus-based process built on sound building science. BPI is approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc. (ANSI) as an accredited developer of American National Standards.  
 

BPI offers the following:  

• National standards to ensure top quality, consistent protocols are being followed throughout the home performance and weatherization workforce
• Certification of individuals in building analyst, heating, AC/heat pump, shell/envelope and multi-family designations
• Accreditation of contracting companies committed to delivering quality home performance improvements
• Quality assurance to verify conformance with BPI Standards and provide feedback for continuing improvement
• Partnership with testing organizations that deliver BPI services in their market 

__________________________________________________________________________

Looking for a job in the home performance industry?

Visit BPI’s Green Jobs Connection Page!
 

See green collar job opportunities at:

- Jobs with Accredited Contracting Companies

- Jobs with Industry Partners

- Companies Seeking Certified Professionals

- Jobs with BPI

 
Looking for qualified workers?
Check out our list of BPI certified professionals seeking employment.  
__________________________________________________________________________ 

For more information on BPI, visit www.bpi.org.
Building Performance Institute, Inc.
107 Hermes Road, Suite 110
Malta, NY 12020
Phone: (877) 274-1274
Fax: (866) 777-1274
info@bpi.org
www.bpi.org

Initiative 937, the law you went to polls to pass in 2006, is essential to realizing our goals for the future: clean, secure and affordable electricity; a vital, job-creating new energy economy; and reducing health-damaging pollution and doing our part in forestalling climate disaster.

Since its passage, I-937 has:

• Generated about $7 billion in renewable energy investments in this state, especially in our struggling rural communities.
• Resulted in all-time-record efficiency savings for energy consumers.
• Reduced our reliance on fossil fuels, protecting us from pollution and volatile prices.

Please call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and leave a message for your Senator and Representatives:  Please fulfill the promise of Initiative 937, and deliver MORE clean energy jobs to our state.

The legislature will likely consider changes to I-937 during the 2012 session. The 24 organizations that make up the Washington Environmental Priorities Coalition have selected Fulfill our Clean Energy Initiative as one of their three combined priorities for the 2012 state legislative session.

Initiative 937 was selected to ensure that any changes passed by the legislature in 2012 preserve the intent of the law to increase the development of clean and renewable energy. Clean energy advocates are receptive to concerns that have been raised by stakeholders and are looking at changes that make the initiative work better for all Washingtonians. And we will be advocating provisions to the law that help increase our state’s investments in energy efficiency and new renewable resources and avoid construction of polluting power plants.

Please call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and leave a message for your Senator and Representatives:  Please fulfill the promise of Initiative 937, and deliver MORE clean energy jobs to our state.

We will need your help to ensure that any changes to I-937 are reasonable ones that reflect and advance Washington values. It’s possible that some proposals from special interests will go beyond reasonable fixes and we will need you to raise your voice to defend our clean energy future.

Can you stand up and contact your legislators now and tell them that you want them to help fulfill our clean energy initiative. In these challenging economic times, I-937 is delivering real economic development through energy efficiency and new, clean renewable energy projects. More investments, more savings, and more jobs will come to us as long as we keep this pathway open.

We’ll keep you up-to-date on I-937 developments throughout the coming legislative session. Stay tuned!

The Georgetown campus of South Seattle Community College is offering a hybrid-online 4 credit college class, “Lighting Design For Energy Efficiency”, that may be of interest to people with experience working in Resource Conservation Management and energy efficiency fields. The class will be offered Monday & Wednesday evenings and three Saturdays. Classes start January 9th at our Georgetown campus in Seattle. Funding is available for all tuition, books and fees. The flyer lists the type of employment background and prerequisites that would help predict success in this class. Applicants begin the enrollment process by contacting Dixie Yamane at TRAC Associates. Dixie’s contact information is on the flyer which is located online here.

If you, or someone you know are in the market for a new TV check out The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s (NEEA) website for which TVs use the least energy and where to find them in your state: http://energyefficientelectronics.org/

As you may know, televisions are the fastest-growing consumer of residential power in the Northwest – there are more of them, they are on more hours, they have more devices attached to them – and those screens just keep getting bigger!

And if it’s not a TV you are in the market for – the site also lists the top ten most energy efficient refrigerators, dish washers and several other appliances and electronics.

You may remember that House Republicans did not succeed with an outright appeal of the federal lighting efficiency standards – i.e., their infamous “BULB” bill. Instead, they passed a rider to DOE’s budget, prohibiting the agency from spending any money to enforce the law.

We just learned  that the  rider  on DOE’s budget is one issue preventing lawmakers from advancing the omnibus spending package for Energy and Natural Resources. Energy efficiency advocates, lighting industry stakeholders and others are weighing in with House and Senate leadership to ensure the provision is not included in a final omnibus package. Energy efficiency advocates are being urged to ask their Senators to call on majority leader Reid and Chairman Inouye to exclude the House rider from the final package. We are strongly encouraging Coalition members to help. The target list of Senators to call are Oregon’s Jeff Merkely and Ron Wyden; Montana’s Max Baucus and Washington’s Patty Murray.

Calls representing individuals and organizations are needed.  Again, we ask that you please consider contacting the Senators’ offices. You can find more information on our web site http://www.nwenergy.org/issues/ee/why-the-bulb-bill-is-bad-for-america/

Sound Home Performance Seeking Experienced Insulator

Apply your residential remodeling and insulating experience to the growing company that combines green building, energy efficiency, and renewable energy to provide our customers with high performing and high quality energy remodels that improve indoor air quality, comfort, health, energy efficiency and durability.

Qualifications:
We are looking for intelligent, hard-working people to create a positive work environment, provide the highest level of customer service, and maintain quality control in the field. Minimum 2 years experience insulating existing homes.

Other requirements:
Familiarity with PSE and/or State Weatherization Program specifications for insulating existing homes
Experience insulating attic, walls, floors, and ducts of existing homes
Carpentry work including removing and drilling siding, installing attic ventilation, and identifying air sealing opportunities
Finish work, minor repairs, patching holes, painting and cleanup
Able and willing to fit inside an 18” crawlspace.
Willing to work up to 10 hours per day in extreme conditions: very hot or cold/dark places (attics and crawlspaces).
Able to lift at least 50 pounds on a regular basis
Able to wear a heavy-duty partial mask respirator for entire work days
Superior verbal communications skills
Absolutely must have a valid and CLEAN Washington Driver’s License in order to drive a company truck
Clean criminal background

Preferred:
We prefer to hire folks who have an understanding of green building practices. Training and certification in building science such as BPI Analyst, or Envelope specialist, or Weatherization Tech is a major plus.

Compensation dependant on relevant experience

How to Apply
Interested individuals should send a cover letter and resume Corey@soundhomeperformance.com

We’re pleased to announce the release of the 2012 Washington State Energy Strategy.
The document was submitted to the Governor and Legislature this morning and the material is now available on the State Energy Strategy Website.

The 2012 State Energy Strategy represents a fundamental collaboration among Commerce, the Advisory Committee (AC), Technical Experts Panel (TEP), state agency partners, stakeholders and the public. The AC and TEP included a range of members whose experience supported comprehensive analysis and sound policy recommendations. Members met regularly during the 2011 Strategy Update process, and provided expert advice and guidance this year for the 2012 Energy Strategy. The work of the AC and TEP is now complete. Both committees will dissolve by March 2012 as mandated in E2SHB 2658. We do not anticipate any further listserv announcements.