Presentation on five steps to building a profitable contractor base. The steps include sensible program design and administration, certification and credentialing, communicating with contractors, contractor requirements (business vs. trade), and training and sales support.

This practitioner-focused Toolkit for Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrade Programs was created by Green For All to assist new, established, and future energy efficiency programs launch and scale initiatives that can deliver the full promise of the green economy. It is intended as a practical resource that offers examples, tools, and templates that a program manager can deploy to implement a variety of aspects of their program including best practice briefs and summary documents, RFPs, contracts, and other program design and implementation templates that communities nationwide have used to create their own efficiency programs.

This toolkit provides information about including and using relevant green data fields in the MLS. This information can help buyers quickly find green homes; make it easy to promote the special features of a green home; and support comparisons when it is time to appraise a green home.

This report covers how to create high road standards and use the momentum of energy sector projects to create safe, well-paying, long-term careers for a diverse group of people. It includes case studies on Community Power Works in Seattle, Washington, and Clean Energy Works Oregon's (now Enhabit's) efforts to use community high road agreements.

Presentation that discusses the Home Energy Score Program.

This peer exchange call summary focused on how to receive and evaluate feedback from customers and contractors.

This peer exchange call summary focused on multifamily information technology tools for project information, marketing, assessment, tracking and evaluation.

Presentation about the pro forma to evaluate the impact of program marketing on contractor revenue developed by the National Home Performance Council.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges, opportunities and solutions of program sustainability.

This peer exchange call summary focused on grant funding investments, program design and revenue streams in the post-grant period.

This peer exchange call summary focused on developing field training and mentoring programs for newly hired contractors.

This peer exchange call summary focused on adapting and adjusting financing strategies after a program was implemented.

A pro forma is a tool of forecasting the impact that adjustments to a business model can have on future financials, using a set of assumptions and inputs. In the residential energy efficiency industry, programs can use pro forma tools to forecast the impact that marketing campaigns, incentive re-structuring, or other program changes will have on the program budget and results.  Example assumptions include the number of homeowner registrations that a set of marketing activities generate in a year, average assessment to upgrade conversion rate, and average incentive per project. By applying assumptions such as these, a pro forma tool can also help your program determine how effective various strategies are at achieving program goals and objectives. Program administrators can help contractors by supporting them with their own business pro forma. To help you get started, here are a few useful resources: the National Home Performance Council developed a presentation on their Integrated Pro Forma Project; for an example program pro forma, see the presentation by Virginia’s Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP-VA); the National Home Performance Council also developed the Contractor Pro Forma Tool.

Tool to evaluate contractor impacts on program revenue.

This peer exchange call summary focused on effective program evaluation and incorporating changes into programs based off evaluation insight.

This peer exchange call summary focused on planning and conducting evaluations.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the advantages, challenges, creation and management of regional networks.

Presentation on the key programmatic elements of financing initiatives.

This peer exchange call summary focused on how programs are devising plans for creating a contractor revenue stream and potential fee structures.

This peer exchange call summary focused on timing program demand with seasonal fluctuation (e.g., contractor schedules, seasonal lulls).

This peer exchange call summary focused on strategies and challenges of getting household energy data.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges and strategies for marketing commercial financial products and attracting financial institutions.

This peer exchange call summary focused on strategies and challenges of working with rental property owners and tenants on multifamily upgrades.

This peer exchange call summary focused on activities to streamline service delivery to customers.

This presentation highlights research from U.S. Green Data showing that it is important to pique consumers' interest with incentives, but that their effectiveness can be maximized by making them simple, focusing on people "ready to purchase," and educating consumers about the value of energy efficiency.

Presentation summarizing the important elements needed to induce and sustain contractor participation in home performance programs.

This peer exchange call summary focused on leveraging effective partnerships for multi-family and low-income outreach and service delivery.

This peer exchange call summary focused on assisting contractors with working capital and the coordination of financing strategies.

This peer exchange call summary focused on strategies, challenges and opportunities in working with condominium owners and associations.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the strategies, challenges and key interaction points with the real estate sector.

This presentation includes the brands, website addresses, and images for most of the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners.

This peer exchange call summary focused on a general overview and implementation plan of the PACE program.

This presentation describes strategies for outreach to energy contractors and auditors, including contractor incentives.

This peer exchange call summary focused on how to gather data for evaluation and reporting.

This peer exchange call summary focused on aggregating, reporting and evaluating information.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges, advantages and keys of working with partners to obtain and maintain an effective workforce.

Presentation explaining the advantages and challenges of electric cooperatives, and discussing the implementation of an energy efficiency program operated by an electric cooperative in South Carolina.

This peer exchange call summary focused on establishing the strategies, challenges and key topics related to financing for future peer exchange calls.

Provides a framework for designing a financial program that accounts for market needs and barriers to success.

This presentation describes steps programs can take to obtain useful feedback from customers regarding their programs.

This presentation introduces new users to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and how to get started with benchmarking.

This process guide includes information on capturing comments from open-ended survey questions and generating actionable items for program improvement.

This peer exchange call summary focused on creating a dialogue between contractors, trainers and jobseekers about program design/implementation and results of workforce feedback.

This peer exchange call summary focused on messaging and delivery strategies of those messages to low-income program participants. 

This document provides a tutorial of MY ENERGY STAR Account (MESA).  MESA is a Web portal that houses program marks for ENERGY STAR Sponsors and contractors as well as various marketing pieces.

Outlines potential partnership structures for energy efficiency program administrators and financial institutions, and discusses strategies for negotiation and communication with financial partners.

Presentation that provides a summary of the role financing plays within energy efficiency programs.

Presentation providing an overview of the PAYS financial model, including information on risks and how to manage them, and successful program examples using the PAYS model.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the background and features of the PowerSaver loan program.

Presentation providing an overview of financing programs, a strategy for continuous improvement, tools for program management, a risk management strategy, and common risks associated with financing programs.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges and effective combinations of quality assurance strategies.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges and solutions to creating jobs, recruitment, training and retention of a workforce.

REED serves as a dashboard for the consistent reporting of electric and natural gas energy efficiency program energy and demand savings and associated costs, avoided emissions and job impacts across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. REED is a project of NEEP's Regional Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Forum (EM&V Forum) and is based on the EM&V Forum's Common Statewide Energy Efficiency Reporting Guidelines.

This presentation provides a list of resources and tips for running a social media campaign.

This peer exchange call focused on strategies and challenges related to multi-family programs.

This peer exchange call summary focused on developing rebate/incentive programs to generate a demand for sustainable programs and products.

This peer exchange call summary focused on what energy efficiency programs are doing to target low- and moderate-income households.

This peer exchange call summary focused on different tenant and resident education programs and how to make them complement larger programs.

Presentation aimed at program administrators that highlights the elements of an income statement, methods for forecasting costs and revenues, the importance of performance measurement, and potential revenue streams.

This ENERGY STAR presentation provides an overview of the power of social media to promote energy efficiency with programmatic examples offered by expert presenters.

This peer exchange call summary focused on available program interest rates and how to lower those rates.

This peer exchange call summary focused on the different types of evaluation methods for residential and commercial programs.

This peer exchange call summary focused on establishing the challenges, strategies and key topics related to the workforce for future peer exchange calls.

This peer exchange call summary focused on establishing the challenges, strategies and key topics related to working with utilities for future peer exchange calls.

This peer exchange call summary focused on integrating income-qualified programs into neighborhood sweeps.

Tips for recruiting and procuring financial partners and developing and negotiating financial partner agreements.

Presentation describing on-bill repayment programs and providing financing lessons learned.

This presentation discusses elements of developing an energy efficiency program marketing and communications strategy, including concepts to consider in a marketing plan.

This presentation covers the importance of collecting and evaluating program data, including data related to marketing efforts.

These training materials include over 30 lesson plans for high school and college students, building and trade professionals, and clean energy employers. Topics include energy efficiency measure installation and best practices in developing train-the-trainer programs for construction trade programs at vocational schools, to programs for undergraduate and graduate students that address the engineering, business, and economics of clean energy.

This calculator provides a simplified tool to demonstrate the business case for energy efficiency from the perspective of the consumer, the utility, and society.

This website provides resources for those working to foster sustainable behaviors. Users can access to the book, Fostering Sustainable Behavior; search databases of articles, case studies, and turnkey strategies; and participate in discussion forums.

The Buildings Performance Database (BPD) is the largest national dataset of real building performance data, and enables users to perform statistical analysis on an anonymous dataset of hundreds of thousands of commercial and residential buildings from across the country. One of the most powerful applications of the tool is custom peer group analysis, in which users can examine specific building types and geographic areas, compare performance trends among similar buildings, identify and prioritize cost-saving energy efficiency improvements, and assess the range of likely savings from these improvements.

This table identifies several challenges and the strategies and tactics that can be used to overcome them.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on working with multifamily and rental properties on energy efficiency programs. It features speakers from  American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Community Housing Partners, and Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships.

The Center for Energy Efficiency and Building Science (CEEBS), a division of the Workforce Development Institute at Hudson Valley Community College, delivers energy efficiency and building science courses. The courses are designed to prepare students for the Building Performance Institute (BPI) certification examinations and are an excellent choice for contractors and remodelers.

This website provides current data on a wide range of national housing and demographic characteristics.