The Investor Confidence Project's (ICP) mission is to increase deal flow and enable an efficient market for investment quality energy efficiency projects. For the last two years, the Environmental Defense Fund has worked with a cross-functional team of industry experts to assemble existing technical standards and best practices into a straightforward set of Energy Performance Protocols that define a clear roadmap to originate investment quality projects with reliable returns. Market adoption of the ICP protocols is designed to overcome some of the barriers preventing the implementation of commercial EE projects including unreliable savings estimates, limited availability of economical capital, long underwriting periods, redundant engineering efforts, and high transaction costs.
For project developers such as ESCO's, engineering firms, and consultants, leveraging the Energy Performance Protocols creates a standardized work flow and project documentation pack that results in a number of immediate benefits for energy solution providers including:
Increasing confidence in project savings projections and economics
Reducing financing transaction costs and underwriting time
Creating standardized repetitive and efficient process for project origination documentation
Enhancing professionalism and credibility with building owners and investors
Making project documentation easier to analyze and approve for decision makers
In the long term, the network effect from widespread adoption of standards will be one of the keys to unlocking an advanced and dynamic marketplace capable of supporting high quality data analytics, securitization of project portfolios, and marketplace exchanges.
The Investor Confidence Project is driven by the needs of an evolving industry. We are constantly looking for feedback on our protocols and input through our active working groups, and encourage interested parties to participate in the process and become a part of our ICP Ally Network. Our allied organizations include equity and debt finance companies, building owners and managers, energy service providers, insurers, engineers, utilities, and a range of NGO and public sector organizations. In addition to supporting our efforts, ICP Ally Network members benefit from facilitated collaboration with other ICP Allies that connect project originators with project investors and other industry stakeholders.
Sign up as an Ally or contact us to learn more about our protocols or how ICP can add value to your organization today!
