With unprecedented federal funds available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), states have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accelerate the clean energy transition and mitigate the effects of climate change for their communities.
The big question is how to make the most of it.
For 37 years, we’ve been helping leaders in clean energy solve their most complex challenges. From energy efficiency and building decarbonization, to transportation electrification and demand management, we plan, design, and deliver innovative programs and pilots that optimize energy use, serve the most vulnerable among us, and produce measurable and enduring results.
Read below to learn more about how we can help you take advantage of federal funding, wherever you are on the journey.
Before you can roll out a successful program, it’s essential to understand the full scope of factors that will shape how it operates on the ground. Landscape Mapping is the framework VEIC uses to carry out this type of foundational analysis.
A landscape map can help with program planning by identifying key project partners and stakeholders, aligning legislative policies with federal funding opportunities, analyzing market opportunities and challenges, and evaluating performance, workforce capacity, and supply chains of existing programs.
A landscape map can include a gap analysis to identify lapses in current program offerings and pinpoint areas where key determinants for program success are absent or under resourced, such as availability of trained contractors and product distributors.
A landscape map can also catalog existing and planned workforce development initiatives to identify core needs and corresponding federal funding opportunities.
VEIC also relies on thorough Incentive Analyses to provide clients with critical information about program design and financing options that will leverage all available funding sources in as simple a way as possible—for both you and the customers you serve.
An analysis of financing options provides curated recommendations to optimize capital stacks from federal funding, tax incentives, and other complementary sources to increase program affordability and expand support for low- and moderate-income communities.
An analysis of financing options can also provide specific recommendations for designing and braiding incentives to maximize impact.
With comprehensive tracking and monitoring of federal policies, program requirements, and opportunity deadlines, VEIC can manage the ongoing flow of information and provide Planning Guidance to ensure you don’t miss important opportunities.
With a deep bench of Certified Measurement and Verification professionals, VEIC can provide technical Measure Analysis to establish standards and specifications that fulfill eligibility criteria, ensure program compliance, and account for relevant contextual considerations. When standards are absent, our team can establish and document guidelines consistent with industry best practices.
Much of the funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act must meet core equity requirements outlined in the Justice40 Initiative, prevailing wage regulations, and other federal provisions. With over 50% of our energy efficiency implementation work directly serving socially vulnerable customers in 2021 and 2022, VEIC can help you make sure you meet these requirements with equitable program design that reaches your least-served communities.
Prioritizing the needs and goals of communities served, especially those who have been historically underserved, builds community resilience and delivers highly effective programs.
A proprietary customer journey framework to engage priority customer segments provides a proven approach to stakeholder outreach including methods to collect and incorporate input from community-based organizations (CBOs), identify customer needs and barriers, and implement continuous improvement processes.
Uplifting the leadership and priorities of communities by empowering CBOs leads to broader participation and long-lasting community engagement.
Read more about our equitable and inclusive program designs here, and here.
To make the most of federal funding, it’s critically important to drive increased program participation—especially for underserved communities. VEIC’s full-service in-house marketing firm and consumer insights research group can help you develop and implement effective, multi-lingual marketing and customer support strategies to drive participation across different customer groups. We can make sure you reach folks who have participated in the past and those who have yet to engage with clean energy programs.
Designing customer-centered marketing plans to focus marketing efforts on key customer segments and strengthen participation from low- and moderate-income (LMI) and socially vulnerable communities.
Building and scaling engagement channels and providing multilingual customer support to increase program accessibility and drive participation among non-native English speakers, especially in LMI and socially vulnerable communities.
Communicating the advantages of aggregating incentives to market efficiencies of scale to customers, maximize uptake, and accelerate actualized benefits.
Program funding often requires data-driven documentation to verify energy savings, GHG emissions reductions, cost effectiveness, and other program impacts. As an objective third-party, VEIC can provide Evaluation, Measurement, and Verification (EM&V) services to help you evaluate the impact of your programs, identify areas for improvement, manage risk, and understand the effects of your program on the market.
As the implementor of three large-scale energy efficiency programs, VEIC verifies a wide range of performance metrics to meet its contractual benchmarks. Among many others, these include energy efficiency savings and GHG emissions reductions, cost effectiveness, peak demand reductions, green collar job creation, increased renewable energy generation, and improved energy efficiency for low-income properties. Our EM&V team identifies metrics, tracks, and reports results, and always accounts for the real-world subtleties that can have enormous effects on performance.
Our team of EM&V experts can work with you to define performance metrics that reflect ambition and attainability.
Establishing data collection and analysis protocols can streamline reporting, improve program operations, and enhance transparency.
One of the best ways to implement programs effectively is to partner with established and reputable Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). As sub-grantees, CBOs can provide invaluable on-the-ground support for program goals.
VEIC can help you recruit partner organizations and design and administer a subgrant dispersal process by monitoring and troubleshooting any issues that arise.
Our Team can also serve as a community navigator listening to and tracking input from stakeholders, and sharing lessons, best practices, and resources to guide pathways forward.
Read more about our work with Community partners here and here.
As programs scale in response to increased federal funding, it will be critical to establish and maintain quality assurance and quality control protocols that ensure customer satisfaction and program results.
Engaging project partners and gathering stakeholder feedback through diverse channels can provide real-time feedback and enable program efficiencies.
An adaptive management framework promotes continuous improvement by monitoring results, gathering data, and evaluating the efficacy of implementation strategies in real time.
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