2016 Fire Awards Winner

Champion
Andy Darrell, Chief of Strategy, Global Energy & Finance, Environmental Defense Fund

About
The building sector is responsible for 40% of global energy use. Despite wide acceptance that efficiency upgrades can dramatically reduce energy use, often 40% or more, building upgrade projects are often not pursued due to uncertainty about energy savings and financial returns, as well as the expected difficulty in project aggregation, caused partly by disparate methodologies that are used to predict savings. According to a McKinsey study, the U.S., the market for energy efficiency is estimated at $1 trillion. Europe needs to invest € 60-100 billion annually in order to reach its energy and climate targets in 2020, and yet current investments are below half of these requirements and one-fifth of that required to deliver 2050 decarbonisation targets for buildings.

The Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is an initiative to accelerate a global asset class for investor-ready efficiency projects, by scaling up a platform for standardized efficiency upgrades in buildings.

Barriers Addressed
• Lack of standardization
• Uncertainty about return on investments
• Limited private funding

Approach
A project to accelerate a global asset class for energy efficiency investment in buildings through the standardization of projects, from initial project design through to measurement and verification, increasing confidence in predicted returns and enabling scale up of investments globally. To achieve these effects, the project assembles existing engineering standards and practices into a consistent and transparent framework, certifies compliant projects as “investor-ready”, providing the consistency needed to “bank” on efficiency as an effective investment and demand-side resource.

BNEF On-Stage Pitch