ICF International – Gabriel Gordon-Harper – 2018

Goals

Retrofit Accelerator, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability’s energy efficiency and clean energy advisory program for large buildings implemented by ICF, has helped thousands of buildings execute efficiency projects, significantly reducing the city’s carbon footprint. The bulk of the program’s impact has benefitted New York’s multi-family building sector. Retrofit Accelerator hoped to increase its impact in the City’s Commercial and Industrial (C&I) buildings sector, but had not yet evaluated which C&I buildings were best-suited to benefit most from the program’s assistance, nor how to most effectively conduct outreach to those buildings. For help, EDF Climate Corps fellow Gabriel Gordon-Harper was brought on board.

Solutions

After organizing and analyzing New York City’s database of buildings in this sector and interviewing a diverse array of relevant stakeholders, Gordon-Harper identified 10 different building typologies which, because of their age and limited access to resources, would benefit the most from leveraging Retrofit Accelerator assistance. He analyzed energy consumption and conservation trends among those building typologies, and researched building ownership and portfolio structures in order to best prepare Retrofit Accelerator’s Efficiency Advisors to conduct effective targeted outreach campaigns. Additionally, Gordon-Harper developed and delivered a sales methodology workshop to help Efficiency Advisors to maximize the impact of their outreach campaigns.

Potential Impact

Gordon-Harper’s recommendations targeted 3,390 buildings in New York City, including some of the least efficient energy consumers in the C&I sector. Additionally, He identified 2,301 contacts to whom efficiency advisors can target outreach, and he organized 323 buildings into ownership portfolios to maximize outreach impact. Gordon-Harper data will be leveraged and his outreach strategy implemented by a new Efficiency Advisor, on boarded to work with New York City’s C&I building sector.