2011 Wrap Up

2011 marked year two in the Alliance to Save Energy's self-proclaimed "Decade of Energy Efficiency." This four-page PDF (see above) features the Alliance's biggest accomplishments in 2011 and includes a personal letter from Alliance President Kateri Callahan. Highlights from the PDF include:

Policy

The Alliance’s work in 2011 in support of the Shaheen-Portman bill and the Appliance Standards bill could positively impact Americans for generations to come. When these bills are enacted into law it is projected that American consumers and businesses will save $200 billion in energy savings over the next two decades, and create approximately 85,000 jobs by 2020 and approximately 155,000 jobs by 2030. The job for the Alliance and the bill sponsors in 2012 is to get the legislation enacted.

In 2011, the Alliance also worked to ensure funding for key energy efficiency programs at DOE and EPA in the overall FY 2011 and 2012 appropriations process; successfully blocked a repeal of the technology-neutral light bulb standards; and launched the Build Energy Efficiency Campaign, which aims to educate new members of Congress about energy efficiency.

Events & New Partnerships

The Alliance hosted another successful series of signature events, including the eighth annual Great Energy Efficiency Day (GEED), 19th Annual Evening with the Stars of Energy Efficiency Awards Dinner, and the fourth Energy Efficiency Global Forum (EE Global) in Brussels, Belgium, which gathered hundreds of policy, business and academic leaders from 40 countries to share best practices, form partnerships and advance energy efficiency.

A takeaway from EE Global 2011 was the formation of an innovative partnership with the League of Green Embassies (LoGE) to conduct an energy-efficient makeover of the 230-year old home to the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. This project led to a “Sweep of Europe” in which Alliance Associates, the LoGE and the U.S. State Department worked with us to improve the efficiency of 11 U.S. Embassies.

Communications

In 2011, the Alliance launched the Lighting Understanding for a More Efficient Nation (LUMEN) Coalition in partnership with the American Lighting Association (ALA) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to help consumers choose new and improved lighting options. With more than 40 partners and a slick website, LUMEN is smoothing the transition to the new light standards that went into effect January 1, 2012.

The Alliance’s media outreach resulted in stories in more than 600 newspapers and magazines and about a dozen TV and radio programs, from NPR to the Washington Post to Bloomberg. Also, the Alliance truly “went viral” in 2011. We more than doubled the number of videos produced on ASE.ORG and YouTube, and our followers on Facebook and Twitter grew by 40%, reaching well over 5,000 people through each platform.

Buildings

The Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP) – our partnership program with NRDC and ACEEE – is “on-the-ground” in more states than ever before, providing state governments with solutions to barriers they face when trying to adopt and comply with building energy codes. BCAP also teamed up with Consumers Union to create an online guide that teaches consumers how building codes make their homes more energy efficient.

The Alliance’s regional organization, the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA), is becoming the driving force for energy efficiency policies, programs and implementation in the 11 Southeastern states that SEEA serves. A hallmark of SEEA’s 2011 work is the BetterBuildings Program’s effort to upgrade the existing building stock in 12 cities across eight Southeastern states and one U.S. territory.

International

The Alliance worked with our offices abroad as well as governments and stakeholders in every region of the world to build local energy efficiency programs and promote energy efficiency policy.

From efforts to establish country-wide EE policies under Peer Review for Energy Efficiency (PREE) to sector-specific work with Asia-Pacific Regions under the Cooperative Energy Efficiency Design for Sustainability (CEEDS), to organizing educational visits of senior Chinese and U.S. officials to cities in both countries, the Alliance is sparking a worldwide surge in new and innovative energy efficiency policies, at both the national and local levels.

Industry & Utilities

A major goal was realized in June with the issuance of the ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard that provides a consistent framework for integrating energy efficiency into industrial facilities’ management practices. The Alliance is working to move the standard into every day practice. The Alliance’s cornerstone program to save both energy and water – Watergy – was implemented for thefirst time on U.S. soil in 2011. This cost-effective and impactful program has been delivering money, energy and water savings for countries outside the U.S. for more than 15 years; it’s entry into the U.S. market is a major milestone for the Alliance.

The Clean and Efficient Energy Program (CEEP) – our unique partnership with the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the Large Public Power Council (LPPC) – provided new tool kits and training in 2011 to help public power utilities across the U.S. break down barriers to large-scale energy efficiency programs.

Education

The Alliance’s campus education program – which for over seven years has been empowering students on 16 California campuses to save energy – expanded to six additional campuses in the Southeast. The program also won several awards and “graduated” the vast majority (85%)of its interns to jobs in sustainability.

The K-12 program raised the number of schools it works with from 200 to more than 500 across the states of California, Alabama, Mississippi, Maryland, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

To view the full Wrap Up, click on the PDF at the top of this page.

35th Anniversary Timeline

If you liked this 2011 Wrap Up, be sure to check out our slick, interactive timeline. Created in celebration of the Alliance's 35th Anniversary in 2012, the new  timeline highlights the biggest headlines from the Alliance's history.