Environmental Defense Fund, Market Leaders Team Up to Drive a New Era in Energy Management

(New York, NY — October 2, 2013) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)’s Climate Corps advanced energy management at 106 organizations across the nation this summer using cutting-edge energy strategies.

In its sixth year, EDF Climate Corps has found nearly $1.3 billion in energy savings for participating organizations. This year’s list includes Apple, Facebook, General Motors and Verizon from the private sector, and the U.S. Army, Chicago Public Schools and the cities of Boston and Austin from the public sector.

Each summer, EDF Climate Corps trains and matches top-tier graduate students with leading organizations to deliver energy savings and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As energy management practices continue to evolve, EDF Climate Corps sees an increasing number of organizations looking to stay ahead of the pack by pursuing strategies for long-term financial and environmental sustainability.

“When we started this program six years ago, no one could have predicted the magnitude of its impact.” said Victoria Mills, managing director for EDF Climate Corps. “Today, we’re catalyzing an industry transformation where smart energy management is a strategic business imperative.”

Data management is a growth area for EDF Climate Corps, as organizations struggle to make sense of the massive amounts of data collected by new technologies. More than 60 percent of this year’s participants report to have tasked EDF Climate Corps fellows with complex data analysis to identify energy-saving solutions.

“Our EDF Climate Corps fellow’s data analysis will provide value for years to come,” said Tom Blue, energy manager at Fort Bragg Army base. “The fellow’s work on this complex task will significantly contribute to future energy management decisions at Fort Bragg.”

Innovative efficiency financing solutions are also increasingly popular for both public and private organizations. EDF Climate Corps fellows focused on crafting financing solutions — like green revolving loan funds — to enable increasing investment in energy projects over time.

“The resources needed to implement energy efficiency projects are especially scarce in the public sector,” said Joe LaRusso, energy finance manager for the City of Boston. “Our EDF Climate Corps fellow’s work helped the City evaluate new ways to fund energy efficiency — ways in which it can build higher levels of efficiency into its capital construction projects.”

The EDF Climate Corps fellow at Darden Restaurants worked on prioritizing investments to help the company meet its energy reduction goal.

“With a goal to reduce our energy usage by 15 percent by 2015, we needed our EDF Climate Corps fellow to identify the most strategic investments Darden should consider for over 2,100 restaurant locations,” said Brandon Tidwell, sustainability manager for Darden Restaurants. “Our fellow was able to identify the two most effective and valuable technologies that could reduce our energy use and save almost $20 million.”

EDF Climate Corps is now accepting applications for companies, cities and universities to host a fellow in 2014. Learn more about EDF Climate Corps at edfclimatecorps.org or e-mail info@edfclimatecorps.org. See a full list of this year’s participants here.