Forging Ahead On Global Superior Energy Performance

With Contributions by Julia Sendor

In July 2010, the world’s first Clean Energy Ministerial brought together leaders from around the world to Washington, D.C., to promote policies and programs that advance clean energy technology. The high-level forum assembled heads of state from more than 20 nations to discuss advancing economic growth, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding access to clean energy resources and jobs through international cooperation.

On Feb. 14-15, 2011, London will host a preparatory meeting for the second Clean Energy Ministerial, to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from April 6-7, 2011. London also will host the third Clean Energy Ministerial in 2012.

Participating governments launched more than 10 international clean energy initiatives as part of a Global Energy Efficiency Challenge to reduce energy waste. One of the initiatives, the Global Superior Energy Performance (GSEP) partnership, calls for improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in large commercial and industrial facilities, which account for almost 60 percent of global energy use. The International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC), an international forum to explore and promote energy efficiency, adopted GSEP as a task group in September 2010. The partnership also was cited in the U.S.-India Global Strategic Partnership in November 2010.

 Triple Threat Approach

GSEP will be launched in tandem with its U.S. counterpart, Superior Energy Performance, a voluntary certification program developed by the U.S. Council for Energy-Efficient Manufacturing (U.S. CEEM) and endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy. With initial funding of $3 million, the international GSEP program is organized and executed through three working groups:

• The Certification Working Group (led by the United States), which seeks to harmonize various national-level certification programs and ensure continuous energy efficiency improvements in commercial buildings and industrial manufacturing facilities (including industrial process and manufacturing operations), especially through the implementation of the forthcoming, internationally-recognized ISO 50001 energy management standard;
• The Power Working Group and the Steel Working Group (both led by Japan), which seek the accelerated adoption of clean and efficient best practices and technologies within targeted subsectors (e.g., steel industry, hospitals and hotel chains). Initial participants in the sector-specific task groups include JFE Steel Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company; and
• Cross-cutting technology task groups to facilitate the adoption of targeted mature, energy-efficient technologies through policy and financing mechanisms.

The Certification Working Group already is collaborating with technical experts from each of the participating countries in order to map existing and needed resources. The Power Working Group and Steel Working Group will expand upon the scope of work initiated under the Asia-Pacific Partnership's Power and Steel task forces, which will hold final meetings in the coming months to discuss which activities to continue under GSEP.

Program Participants

The GSEP taskforce comprises 12 governments (Canada, the European Commission, France, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and the United States). The following companies and university will pilot the GSEP program in their facilities: 3M Company, Cleveland Clinic, Dow Chemical Company, Grubb & Ellis Company, Marriott International, Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nissan, Target Corporation, and Walmart Stores, Inc., as well as Indian companies Infosys and Wipro. Pilots for the working groups, expected to last 12 to 18 months, are scheduled to begin in the first half of 2011.