On March 15th and 16th, 2011, grantees from across the South Central Region gathered at the San Antonio Convention Center to participate in a DOE sponsored EECBG and SEP networking and peer-exchange event. Around 90 people attended, including 74 grantees from 37 unique city, county and state governments in LA, TX, KS, OK, CO and NE. DOE Project Officer and other programmatic representatives also attended, along with moderators from the Technical Assistance Program (TAP). By all accounts, the event was a success!

Grantees at the South Central Regional Peer Exchange Meeting. 

During the event, attendees participated in five organized discussions and were provided with ample time for networking. The final session of the event was a panel presentation entitled “The Continuation of Sustainability Programs Post-ARRA,” which delved into various strategies regional leaders are taking to ensure that their EECBG and SEP programs will survive after the grant period ends. The four other panel sessions provided attendees the opportunity to learn from peer city and county governments about programs related to:

• Leading by example: energy efficiency in public buildings,
• Financing efficiency retrofits,
• Developing sustainable transportation plans, and
• Creating public outreach and communications campaigns around the EECBG programs.

These organized discussions were led by grantees of different sized communities from around the region. Each session was well received and helped spark conversations during the networking breaks, during which grantees from various states discussed their communities’ needs in an informal setting, increasing peer connections and building on the network of energy/sustainability managers throughout the South Central region. One of the attendees remarked that the “combined networking and panel discussions have helped keep the momentum going so that EECBGs objectives are met.”

Peer exchange at the South Central Regional Peer Exchange meeting. 

Some of the meeting highlights included:

• Peer matching – During the networking sessions, grantees were able to meet their colleagues from communities around the region and learn about the EECBG projects in which they were investing. This allowed the grantees to benefit from each others’ experiences and learn best practices from those farthest along in the process. A contact list of all attendees was also provided, allowing for on-going discussions and peer exchange after the conference concluded.

• Ideas for new programs – As grantees and other attendees participated in the discussion sessions and networking breaks, they learned about other programs from around the region and developed new ideas for their own communities. Some highlights include ideas for new lighting technologies, to community energy and climate management plans, and many more.

• Opportunities for community outreach – The panel on communications and community outreach highlighted a number of best-practices that grantees use to engage their communities and amplify their messages of efficiency and sustainability.  There was also a fruitful discussion on uses of social media, which are tools of increasing use and importance to cities and counties.

• The morning of the second day started with a networking “Breakfast and Brag” poster-board session. This session allowed six featured grantees to speak about their communities’ projects in front of all of the attendees while a light breakfast was offered. The featured grantees were selected because their projects are unique, far along in the implementation process, or are regarded as good examples of project design. The poster board presenters spoke about a broad range of topics including renewable energy generating strategies, building codes, historic preservation, and more. The “Breakfast and Brag” session provided another informational resource from which attendees could draw on for guidance and best practices within the region. One attendee noted, “the poster board presentations were like science fair exhibits that provided more information for us to think about in the future.

• Outside of listening to and networking amongst each other, grantees in attendance also valued being able to meet face-to-face with their project officers, DOE HQ staff, and technical experts from the Technical Assistance Program (TAP). By providing a venue to connect DOE projects officers with grantees, many programmatic questions were answered and plans were developed to further address various grantee needs. After meeting with a project officer, a grantee noted that the “face-to-face time really humanizes the information requests, which makes answering questions related to reporting less frustrating.”

As the event came to a close, there were two key areas that grantees noted that they could use assistance with moving forward. Although the event did provide a venue for grantees to have many questions about EECBG and energy management answered, the attendees were interested in learning more about.

• Approaches to measurement and verification – although the event did not cover this issue in detail, it was raised several times, including during the Best Practices in Energy Efficiency session when a presenter discussed their use of Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager. The fact that there is a general concern for measurement and verification among the grantees is good know and the TAP intends to provide more resources to support the best practices in measurement and verification.

• Partnering with utilities -  this is a complex issue that cannot be addressed over the course of a two-day meeting, however the event did help grantees learn about strategies that others are using to develop utility partnerships.  Grantees were encouraged to start thinking about the processes that might enable them to work more closely with their utility on developing and deploying energy efficiency programs.

• Measurement and verification, as well as partnering with utilities, are both key components of ensuring the future success of energy and sustainability programs.

If you have any comments or questions about these topics, or the South Central Regional meeting, please feel free to enter them in the comments section below or reach out to your project officer or regional coordinator.  Specifically, it would be interesting to hear how you address utility partnerships or measurement and verification issues in your community. 

The South Central Peer Exchange event helped to re-energize local and state staff, create connections among government energy/ sustainability practitioners, and highlight resources that will be useful throughout the rest of the Recovery Act timeframe and beyond.  Our gratitude goes out to the staff with the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Convention Center, who generously hosted our grantees and offered free use of the Convention Center.

Content for this blog post courtesy of Zach Abrams and Micah Brill, North and South Central Regional Coordinators, ICF International.