Expert Columns

As-a-service business models are growing in popularity - and one of the most impactful may be Efficiency-as-a-Service. This column from Better Buildings discusses this pay-for-performance, off-balance sheet financing solution that allows customers to implement efficiency projects with no upfront capital expenditure, including how it works, alternative approaches, and advantages and disadvantages.

The U.S. solar industry is continuing to flourish with the help of the federal investment tax credit, otherwise known as the ITC. As this column from EnterSolar notes, this incentive has been a major part of solar project economics for the past decade, but changes are coming in 2020. Here is what you need to know about the ITC Step-Down, and how your company can maximize the monetary benefits of a solar project today.  

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Better Buildings Alliance partner REI for the energy productivity advances made in its Arizona distribution center located in Goodyear, Arizona. The center has achieved an annual energy savings of 18% and annual cost savings of $170,000 from the baseline in the first two years of operation. The goal is to have the facility be net-zero energy. How was this accomplished?

Despite the global explosion of cloud-based solutions and digital transformations across industries, many companies still rely on manual data entry to power their energy data collection programs. This column from Urjanet examines the costs of poor data quality, delayed information, and misused resources—and discusses steps towards a solution.

Many companies portray sustainability issues as good public relations — even as evidence is growing that they are material to strong financial performance. This column from Ceres shows that these failures to communicate the financial value of sustainability have real costs.