Alliance to Save Energy Opens Global Efficiency Conference

The Alliance to Save Energy opened the 10th Energy Efficiency Global (EE Global) Forum on May 8 with the release of a new blueprint for achieving significant increases in building efficiency by focusing on building systems.

In partnership with The Climate Group, the Alliance also announced two new companies — H&M, the multinational clothing retail company, and Cree, the U.S.-based LED lighting and technology company — are joining EP100, the global initiative of leading businesses pledging to double their energy productivity.

EE Global drew more than 400 industry leaders from nearly 30 countries around the world.

The Alliance worked with more than 50 companies and organizations to develop the systems efficiency blueprint, which is accompanied by a call to action for buildings sector stakeholders to collaborate in the goal of achieving the next level of efficiency in buildings. It is the second report of the Alliance’s Systems Efficiency Initiative (SEI), which seeks to capitalize on new technologies allowing smarter interactions of components within and among various building systems, as well as interactions among multiple buildings, and between the building and the electric grid.

The publication is titled “Going Beyond Zero: A Systems Efficiency Blueprint for Building Energy Optimization and Resilience” and can be found here. It is a follow-up to the 2016 SEI report, “Greater Than the Sum of its Parts: The Case for a Systems Approach to Energy Efficiency.”

The blueprint offers a broad range of actions designed to optimize building performance and achieve other benefits, such as improved resilience. It includes 84 specific recommendations for Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments, utilities, and building professionals. The recommendations address opportunities to improve the efficiency of key building systems (e.g., lighting, hot water, miscellaneous electric loads) and their interactions, as well as to achieve efficiency gains through direct-current power distribution, grid integration, combined heat and power, and district energy systems.