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PG&E Adopts ICP for 0% On-Bill Financing

8/3/2017

PG&E’s On Bill Finance (OBF) providing 0% loans for energy efficiency projects is now available and leverages the Investor Confidence Project’s (ICP) Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE) certification process. ICP, PG&E, and ARUP will be hosting a webinar to explain how to use the ICP process to qualify for this program on August 23rd at 2 pm (Pacific Time Zone).

This expansion of the On-Bill Financing (OBF) program beyond the PG&E incentive programs is designed to give customers and project developers more control and flexibility in the way they take advantage of the OBF product. PG&E has chosen to implement the ICP System in lieu of spending time and resources to develop a set of proprietary technical requirements. Furthermore, PG&E benefits from the ability to utilize credentialed ICP providers for its quality assurance process providing greater flexibility and a more streamlined approval process.

ICP continues to be integrated into more programs across the nation as a growing number of programs in New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Texas, and other states recognize the value that ICP brings to programs which includes:

Industry tested best practices and a pathway to success for participants
Reduced costs to implement and maintain technical requirements
Quicker processing of project reviews and program approvals
Access to ready made networks of project developers, QA providers, and investors
Ability to easily transition to market-based solutions for technical reviews.
Increased confidence in savings by owners and investors resulting in increased program uptake

If you are in PG&E territory and interested in learning how to take advantage of this unique opportunity which offers up to $4m of funding please register for this event and/or add the August 23rd 2017 event to your calendar. If you would like to learn more about becoming an ICP Credentialed Provider, how ICP can apply to programs in other territories, or about ICP’s Investor Ready Energy Efficiency Certification please contact ICP.

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ICP Now Available In Four Languages

1/27/2017

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We are pleased to announce the release of three ICP Protocols in the Bulgarian, German and Portuguese languages, now available through the ICP Europe website.

The Energy Performance Protocols are the cornerstone of the ICP System. They define a standardised roadmap of best practices for developing energy retrofits following the ICP Project lifecycle. They leverage existing and commonly accepted European and national standards in conjunction with ICP specified elements, procedures, and documentation based on the various stages of a project life-cycle to create standardised projects with reliable returns.

The ICP Protocols cover commercial (tertiary) and multifamily (apartment block) building energy efficiency projects. The first IREE™ project, an NHS three-building hospital in Liverpool, UK, was certified in June 2016 and used the ICP Standard Tertiary Protocol. Since then project developers, funds and frameworks have started using ICP Protocols in projects in the UK, Germany, Portugal and Austria.

If you’d like to learn more about the ICP System and how to use the Protocols in your country, don’t hesitate to contact the appropriate national contact.

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Announcing the ICP Building Button

12/12/2016

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The Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is proud to announce the launch of the “Building Button,” a new initiative that standardizes data from commercial and multifamily energy efficiency projects. The Building Button Specification enables market participants including investors, building owners, and developers to publish, share, amalgamate, and analyze project level data. This is a first for the industry which has up until now been characterized by a distinct lack of available data which has inhibited the realization of the industry's full potential.

The Building Button Specification leverages the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL), Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES) to create a standardized dictionary of terms and definitions that define energy efficiency data in a common language. The specification is built around three use cases: Technical Due Diligence, Financial Underwriting and Actuarial Data. The use cases allow any organization to share project data across platforms in a common language to reduce underwriting costs, build trust in energy savings, and drive market demand for energy efficiency. The specification also maps to the full range of commercial and multifamily ICP Protocols to facilitate data collection for ICP Investor Ready projects offering investors and building owners increased confidence in energy savings backed by empirical, project-level data across multiple projects.

The Building Button Specification was created by a large stakeholder group consisting of project developers, technology providers, investors, insurers, program administrators and other market actors who helped develop the specification by identifying and evaluating all the possible data associated with an energy efficiency project. ICP would like to thank LBNL, participating stakeholders, and ICP technical forum members who contributed towards bringing this specification to market.

The LBNL Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES) team has allocated engineering resources to make adoption of Building Button easy and cost free. For stakeholders that collect or distribute building energy performance data the BEDES team can provide free technical assistance to companies by mapping their data sets into Building Button / BEDES data spec. Once this mapping process is complete, users of Building Button and BEDES will be recognized by DOE/LBNL on the web site and in communications materials, and featured in events, conferences, press releases, success stories, etc. Sign up to be contacted about this exciting offer.

The release of the Building Button Specification is the first step towards the reality of standardized industry-wide "big data" for the energy efficiency industry. ICP is calling on all those interested in energy efficiency data to participate in further development of this opportunity through upcoming webinars, technical forums and more. Learn more about how to join the effort here!

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Why ICP Europe is gaining momentum

12/6/2016

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On the 30th November the European Commission published today the “Winter Package,” a major energy policy update, which references the Investor Confidence Project Europe (ICP Europe) as a “best practice” to maximize environmental performance in new buildings and buildings requiring energy efficiency upgrades.

The “Winter Package” is a set of new legislative proposals aimed at creating a European Energy Union and focused on reducing the Union’s dependence on energy imports and on fighting climate change. As a priority it is proposed that energy efficiency targets for 2030 should be set at 30% compared to 1990 levels. The building industry is the largest energy consumer in the EU, with buildings using 40% of total energy consumption and representing 36% of its CO2 emissions. Building renovations represent a massive opportunity for massive investment which as well as achieving energy security and climate gains will create jobs, boost GDP, produce better living spaces and reduce consumers’ bills.

In this context, the Investor Confidence Project Europe brings efficient tools to enable the growth of the building energy efficiency retrofit market, still nascent in Europe and to date mainly supported by public capital. ICP Europe is a sister project of the Investor Confidence Project launched five years ago in the United States by Environmental Defense Fund to standardise energy efficiency upgrades in a way that reduces due diligence costs and performance risks. Projects that follow the ICP system are accredited against industry standards and best practices, and can be certified as Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE™). This increases transparency and confidence in savings which can help engage private capital and scale up energy efficiency investments globally.

“Today’s endorsement will accelerate energy efficiency deal-flow and help us reach the €100 billion per year needed to meet the European Union’s 2020 energy efficiency target,” said Panama Bartholomy, Director of ICP Europe. “Together with our Investor Network, and our partnership with Green Business Certification Inc., ICP is on its way to becoming the premier global underwriting standard for energy efficiency projects around the world.”

Paul Hodson, Head of the European Commission's energy efficiency unit, said: “The potential of the Investor Confidence Project to develop good practice in de-risking energy efficiency investments has been recognised and described in the Commission Staff Working Document on Good practice in energy efficiency, that will accompany the Energy Efficiency Directive legislative proposal to be adopted on 30 November. The ICP approach addresses the needs of investors looking for standardised projects that reduce the time, risk, and costs involved in funding energy efficiency building retrofits.” With a European market for energy efficiency worth €60-100 billion, the ICP System is particularly relevant to investors. "Standardized energy upgrade approaches such as ICP accelerate project progress, facilitating a more structured project development approach, which greatly enables access to financing’, said Lada Strelnikova, Director Deutsche Asset Management and Investment Manager for the European Energy Efficiency Fund (eeef), which provides financing for energy efficiency projects in the public sector in Europe.

ICP Europe has launched its IREE™ Certification in June 2016 and a first project developed by the Carbon and Energy Fund was certified in Liverpool, UK.

Interested parties can find more information on ICP Europe’s Investor Network here. For further details, please email [email protected].

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Breaking Down Barriers to EE at European Utility Week

12/2/2016

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Engerati’s Adam Malik discusses with Panama Bartholomy, Director of ICP Europe, the challenge of attracting investment into building energy efficiency projects. Bartholomy outlines the certification programme that allows global investors to know that forecasted energy savings will be achieved.

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ICP and GBCI Join Forces

10/4/2016

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On behalf of the Investor Confidence Project, I am excited to announce a new partnership with the Green Business Certification, Inc. (GBCI) to create a scalable platform that will establish ICP as the global underwriting standard for energy efficiency projects.

I want to personally thank our many stakeholders for helping us reach this critical milestone. It’s one thing to embrace the idea of improving confidence in the performance of energy efficiency projects. It’s another thing entirely to do the hard work necessary to make it happen. ICP’s working group members, Ally Network, Investor Network, Certified Providers, partners, and other stakeholders have made this possible.

Our work together over the past three years has brought ICP to a point where it will now become part of GBCI’s world-renowned portfolio of building certifications and professional credentials and certificates, including the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating systems, the PEER standard for power systems, the WELL building standard, the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) program, the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES®) and the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB).

As ICP has continued to gain adoption in both the US and Europe, this new partnership represents a critical and exciting step forward. Starting in the new year, GBCI will assume responsibility for administering the ICP system and will carry forward standards development, credentialing, training and certification to establish ICP as a key component of the GBCI portfolio.

GBCI brings global staffing resources, systems, and relationships that will strengthen the brand and expand the reach of ICP, and enable us to achieve a true, worldwide standard to unlock the potential of energy efficiency. We could not ask for a better partner in this effort.

The core ICP team, who you are used to working with, will continue to operate as part of GBCI and little will change from an operational perspective. The remainder of this year we will be working with EDF and GBCI to define future governance and undertake long-range strategic planning.

All of you, as our key stakeholders, partners, and contributors, have been a huge part of ICP’s success and your continued input and support is critical. We will keep you all in the loop as more details come to light.

Thank you for all your contributions to date, and consider this the start of a new and exciting chapter for ICP. Onwards!

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ICP Launches New OBF Pilot with PG&E

8/17/2016

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Environmental Defense Fund’s Investor Confidence Project (ICP) recently announced Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the largest utility in the United States, has received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to accelerate energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings by providing interest-free loans to projects that follow ICP’s rigorous protocols. ICP Protocols define industry best practices for energy efficiency project development and a credentialing system that includes third-party validation.

“Together, ICP and PG&E are welcoming a new era of market-driven energy efficiency performance,” said Matt Golden, Project Director for EDF’s Investor Confidence Project. “By establishing a series of benchmarks and best practices for the retrofitting of existing buildings, ICP slashes transaction costs, accelerates project timelines, and shows a clear path to profitability for the finance and performance contracting sectors.”

Customers participating in PG&E’s On-Bill Financing program, which provides interest-free loans for energy efficiency projects, can now make upgrades based on measured energy savings via SmartMeter™ technology. For this new pilot, customers will work with energy performance contractors who use ICP’s Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE) certification. This certification brings rigorous measurement and verification metrics to energy efficiency retrofit projects, standardizing the way such projects are developed and brought to market — and making them more attractive to investors and building owners alike.

PG&E’s On-Bill Financing program offers qualifying businesses interest-free loans ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, or up to $250,000 for government agencies. Supporting the energy efficiency provisions of recent California state legislation Assembly Bill 802, this new On-Bill Financing pilot could increase investment in energy efficiency retrofits across California, and provide a model for similar efforts in other states.

“Standardization is key to attracting the capital necessary to meet energy efficiency’s true potential, achieve climate targets, and generate financial returns,” said Andy Darrell, chief of strategy for global energy and finance at EDF. “PG&E’s new pilot with EDF’s Investor Confidence Project is a step toward making the vision of bringing energy efficiency to market a reality.”

EDF’s Investor Confidence Project, which came to fruition in 2014, is also running a pilot through the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), and is the standard for property-assessed clean energy loans (PACE) in the state of Texas. Additional ICP programs for building owners, investors, and performance contractors exist in a half-dozen other states in the U.S. and across the European Union.
For more information on the Investor Confidence Project, visit www.EEperformance.org.

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ICP Co-sponsors Important EE Event in SF

7/26/2016

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On August 11th, ICP will team up with PG&E and Joule Assets to host an exciting live event: Opportunities in California’s Emerging Energy Efficiency and Building Automation Markets

California's energy efficiency market is evolving with the integration of programs and mechanisms that are enabling a shift towards pay-for-performance models and incentives. The event's seminar and networking lunch will provide powerful tools and information for successfully navigating the state's changing approach to generating and funding energy efficiency. The event will feature panel discussions with industry leaders including Rich Chien (SF Environment / BayRENaffiliated), Al Gaspari (PG&E), Matt Golden (ICP), Todd Quayle (CA Electric Supply), Dennis Quinn (Joule Assets), Brian Renehan (ARUP), and others.

The first panel will examine upcoming changes in the California regulatory landscape and implications for stakeholders. The following panel consists of program sponsors and service providers who are on the front lines of meeting sustainability and efficiency goals and will discuss the impact of shifting incentive programs and additional code requirements, barriers to project completion, emerging partnership models including readily available and accessible financing alternatives and case studies of demonstrated success.

The event is already filling up, so please REGISTER soon for the event which will take place on Thursday August 11th (please register by August 9th) at 8:30am and will include lunch and a lunchtime networking session. The location will be in San Francisco at DPR Construction, 945 Front Street. More information is available here.

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ICP Introduces Improved Targeted Protocols

6/16/2016

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The Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is pleased to release a new and enhanced second version of the ICP Targeted Commercial and Targeted Multifamily Protocols. Once again, we would like to thank our vast network of stakeholders in both the United States and European Union for the thoughtful feedback through this process.

With the introduction of ICP Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ project certification in the marketplace, stakeholder feedback has provided input resulting in the release of the 2.0 version of both the Targeted Commercial and Targeted Multifamily Protocols. ICP would like to thank all the members of both the ICP North America and ICP Europe technical forums, diverse program partners including PG&E and NYSERDA, and various stakeholders from both continents for providing input and effort to further develop the ICP System.

This 2.0 version of the Targeted Protocols incorporates a number of key improvements including:

Seperation of requirements into Underwriting and Performance Periods
Introducing retrofit isolation to satisfy baseline for specific energy conservation measures
Allowing an Option C approach for Targeted M&V
Introduction of portfolio based M&V utilizing normalized metered savings
A revised engineering certification and checklist

The Targeted Protocols strike a balance between engineering rigor and efficiency to allow ICP standardization of very simple projects with limited measures and interactivity. This version of the protocol incorporates suggestions that focus on making the protocol even easier to utilize and implement. Relevant changes from this protocol will be applied to the ICP Standard and Large protocols in the near future as ICP’s Technical Forum turns its attention to revising other protocols. If you are already a member of the ICP Technical Forums - stay tuned.

If you would like to be involved in the on-going development of the ICP Protocols and ICP System, please sign up!

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ICP Launches Investor Ready Certification

6/7/2016

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After years of work, and countless hours provided by dedicated stakeholders, EDF’s Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is proud to announce the launch of the Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE™) Certification. This certification represents the final component of the ICP System and provides building owners and investors at-a-glance confirmation of an energy efficiency project’s level of quality in engineering and projected financial returns.

Supporting this launch is the release of a number of Investor Ready Energy Efficiency (IREE™) project profiles that demonstrate the range of projects undergoing certification and how ICP credentialed providers are integrating ICP into their business models.

The profiles also illustrate how the ICP System is deployed in the marketplace to add value to project origination for developers, investors, building owners, program managers and others. ICP would like to thank the following ICP Credentialed Project Developers who participated in the development of the initial IREE project profiles:

The ICP System is gaining momentum and these initial projects represent the tip of the iceberg.

"ICP creates a standard approach...The protocols will provide the investment community with the confidence that projects will yield actual benefits and results similar to those that were predicted.”
- Andrew Brooks, AEA

ICP creates confidence in energy efficiency project performance, and Bright Power is proud to deliver one of the first IREE projects.”
- Jeffrey Perlman, Bright Power

"ICP protocols provide a much needed industry standard for project development and align with JCI’s engineering and development practices providing owners and investors greater confidence.”
 - Robert Mitchell Jr., Johnson Controls

“These projects are multi-year commitments for NorthWrite, our financing and insurance partners and our customers. The ICP certification process gives all parties an additional level of scrutiny and verification of the key project engineering and financial metrics before committing to the project.”
- Dave Burchfield, NorthWrite

“As investors that provide capital under pay for performance structures, ICP's Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™.certification allows us to underwrite investments more quickly, easily and accurately.”
- Maria Fields, Joule Assets

"Incorporating ICP into our existing processes. not only validated the rigorousness of our own development methods, but it also gives comfort to future co-investors regarding the quality of our projects.”
- Steve Gossett Jr., SCIenergy

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PG&E Adopts ICP for 0% On-Bill Financing

ICP Now Available In Four Languages

Announcing the ICP Building Button

Why ICP Europe is gaining momentum

Breaking Down Barriers to EE at European Utility Week

ICP and GBCI Join Forces

ICP Launches New OBF Pilot with PG&E

ICP Co-sponsors Important EE Event in SF

ICP Introduces Improved Targeted Protocols

ICP Launches Investor Ready Certification

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