Stars of Energy Efficiency Nomination Guidelines 2013

General Information

Eligibility: Both domestic and international submissions will be accepted for group, company, organization, or individual nominations, providing submitters adhere to the following:

• The entry form must be complete, accompanied by the correct entry fee, and received by the stipulated deadline;
• Previous submissions are eligible, but discourage prior award winners from entering; and,
• Self-nominations are acceptable from all except Alliance Board of Directors and their companies, who can submit nominations for others but cannot self-nominate.

All entries will be screened to verify eligibility. An incomplete and/or late submission will not be considered. All eligible entries become the property of the Alliance to Save Energy and will not be returned. The Alliance reserves the right to publish or electronically post the nominations received.

Deadline: All entries must be received by the Alliance no later than March 29, 2013.

Fee: There is a mandatory entry and processing fee for each submission of $100. If you submit your nomination by February 8, 2013 the processing fee is $50.

Entries: Each entry must include the following:

• A completed Alliance entry form including payment.
• An overview and/or explanation of the nomination that does not exceed one page. A page is defined as one side of an 8½ by 11 sheet of paper – typed and single-spaced.

Submission: Nominations should be submitted electronically. If for some reason you are unable to submit an electronic nomination form and payment, please contact the Alliance Events Team at events@ase.org. 

*** The Alliance to Save Energy reserves the right to publish all nominations received. ***

Winners will be announced in early-June and publicized by the Alliance in print and electronic media.

Award Categories

Entries will be judged and awards bestowed in six groups, as outlined below. Please be sure your nomination is entered in the correct category based on the descriptions below. No more than six awards will be selected in any one year by the Alliance Dinner & Awards Committee.

Please note that Honorary Alliance Chair, Senator Mark Warner, at his discretion, may select an organization or individual to receive the Chairman's Award. This is presented to an individual or organization that has shown exemplary service to the cause of energy efficiency. This is the only award for which an Alliance Board member or his/her company is eligible.

Charles Percy Award for Public Service
This is the Alliance’s most prestigious award. It is presented to an individual in the public or private sector in recognition of an outstanding public service contribution and/or a lifetime commitment to energy efficiency.

"Galaxy" Star of Energy Efficiency
Nominees with more than $150 million in annual revenue are eligible in this category.

"Super Nova" Star of Energy Efficiency
Nominees with less than $150 million in annual revenue are eligible in this category.

"Andromeda" Star of Energy Efficiency
Nominees with less than $10 million in annual revenue are eligible in this category.

"I-Star" Award for Energy Efficiency
The international star of energy efficiency award recognizes the outstanding contributions to energy efficiency achieved through special projects or activities overseas that are led by nominees based outside of the US territories.

“Innovative” Star of Energy Efficiency Award
The Innovative Star award recognizes an emerging technology or service that has the potential to transform a sector of the energy efficiency market but which, given the early stage of the innovation, has yet to generate proven savings.
 
Special Notice: The Dinner Committee may choose to give Excellence in Energy Efficiency Awards to those nominees who have demonstrated an outstanding contribution to energy efficiency, but were not selected to receive a star award. Only one award can be given in each category, and these will be made at the discretion of the committee. The nominee selected to receive this award will be recognized in all dinner-related materials.

Judging Committee

The 2013 Dinner and Awards Committee is an outstanding panel of energy experts. Each year, the Alliance receives close to 100 nominations from almost every sector of the energy industry, and the committee meets several times to carefully review and judge the entries based on the guidelines outlined below. The judges will identify the award recipient for the Charles H. Percy Award and the Stars of Energy Efficiency Awards only. The Chairman’s Award is selected by Honorary Alliance Chairman, Senator Mark Warner, at his discretion.

Judging Criteria
1. Degree to which nominee has demonstrated an outstanding and/or unique contribution to energy efficiency beyond that which is to be expected. (35 points)
2. Degree to which nominee can evidence quantifiable, cost-effective energy savings. Measurements given should be in the format listed below.  For “Innovative” Star calculate the quantifiable impact the new technology or service could have within its market segment. (30 points)
3. Degree to which nominee can evidence that actions taken (i.e., program, practice, etc.) can be replicated, and/or can serve as a catalyst for further efficiency gains.  For “Innovative” Star the unique approaches being taken to overcome market barriers, and the anticipated timeline and sequence for implementation. (15 points)
4. In meeting the energy-efficiency goals described in the submission, nominees will receive credit for: (20 points)

• innovation and creativity;
• degree of difficulty in overcoming challenges to meeting efficiency goals;
• scope of work (local, regional, domestic, international);
• contribution to environmental goals in addition to efficiency gains; and/or,
• leadership within the nominee’s sector (industry, academia, govt., etc.)              

Total Points Achievable = 100

 
How to Report Energy Savings:
For an energy-efficiency program, e.g., a utility-sponsored program, a government or NGO sponsored program, or a corporate internal program:
 

• Report any energy savings in engineering units: kWh, kW, Therms, Gallons of Oil, etc.
• Report any expenditure or energy savings in terms of an achieved savings level over a stated time period, e.g.: ACME Corporation spent $10M over 5 years & achieved 100 million kWh savings over that same 5-year period.
• In some portion of your presentation put in an annual achievement statistic, e.g.: ACME Corporation spent $10M over 5 years & achieved 100 million kWh savings over that same 5-year period.  Our average savings was 20 million kWh/yr and our banner year was 2004, in which we saved 33 million kWh.

If yours is a new technology, or new application:
 

• Describe it in terms of its technical potential, and its achievable potential, e.g.: Our new Light Sticks can be taped to your ceiling to light any room in your house.  They offer an energy efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to incandescent bulbs.  There are currently 10 billion incandescent bulbs in US homes.  While not suitable for outdoor use, we estimate that our new light sticks will work in at least 5 billion of those sockets.
• What are the savings associated with your new technology at the maximum technical potential and at the estimated achievable potential, e.g:
  Our Light Sticks use no energy at all, save about 100 kWh per bulb replaced.  If all bulbs were replaced, they would save 1 trillion kWh.  The achievable potential is about half of that or 500 billion kWh.
• Again, please also express the savings in some form of annualized number and in engineering units, e.g.:
  With current prices and programs, we believe they will enter the market at about 1 billion annually, saving 100 billion kWh annually
   

Helpful Hints: Consider what the judges need in order to distinguish your entry from the others. The principle consideration for judges will be the impact of the nominee's efforts on reducing overall energy use in the sector and willingness to go “beyond the call of duty” in the name of energy efficiency. Please do not provide additional materials.

Please Note: Submittal instructions must be followed to maintain consistency for judging. All nominators must complete INDIVIDUAL forms for each entry they wish to submit and must attach the allotted one-page only overview outlining their response to the judging criteria.  The committee will only accept the first page of overviews exceeding the one-page limit.