HomeFrequently Asked Questions
FAQs on the Southeast Rebuild Collaborative
A working draft by Julio Rovi
- What is the Southeast Rebuild Collaborative (SRC)?
- Who is in the Technical Support Team?
- How did the SRC Collaborative originate?
- How does the SRC propose to save energy?
- Does the SRC have tangible goals?
- Is the SRC targeting specific institutions to help meet its goals?
- How can the SRC meet its goals?
- Is the SRC reaching out to specific individuals within the targeted institutions?
- Can you summarize the Types of Members?
- What is the process for joining?
- Do individuals need to meet eligibility criteria to be accepted as SRC participants?
- Can any individual within a target institution sign up on behalf of the institution?
- Must interested institutions meet eligibility criteria to be accepted as SRC Affiliates?
- Are Rebuild America, EnergySmart Schools, and ENERGY STAR Partners welcome into the SRC?
- How is participation demonstrated and what is received?
- How do Members contribute to the SRC?
- Please indicate examples of in-kind contributions
- Does the SRC provide materials and guidance to make the in-kind contributions?
- What are the measures of success?
- How are improvements in energy efficiency measured?
- How is success recognized?
- What is the ENERGY STAR Challenge (the Challenge)?
- What’s the Connection between the SRC and the Challenge?
- Who can answer other questions about the SRC?
What is the Southeast Rebuild Collaborative (SRC)?
The states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina joined to create the Southeast Rebuild Collaborative (SRC). This collaboration promotes energy efficiency among school districts, state and local governments, and colleges and universities in the member states with a goal of motivating institutions to save energy and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The SRC will rely on a Technical Support Team to provide expertise.
Who is in the Technical Support Team?
The SRC relies on a team of experts led by The Cadmus Group, Inc. Other organizations in this team include Catalyst-Financial Group, the Council of Educational Facility Planners International, Florida Solar Energy Center, Public Technology Institute, the Sheinkopf Group and Southface Energy Institute.
How did the SRC Collaborative originate?
All five states are Partners with EPA and DOE in programs such as Rebuild America and ENERGY STAR. In 2005, the SRC took up the Challenge to make a better world ten percent at a time. In spite of broad support from the federal government, states lacked the resources to bring this federal program to the local level. To overcome this barrier, the SRC was created thanks to a grant from the State Technologies Advancement Collaborative (STAC) issued by the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO). This seed money enables the SRC to make it easier for school districts, local governments, and other institutions in the Southeast to utilize best energy management practices, software, training, and technical support developed by ENERGY STAR and deployed by a team of experts.
How does the SRC propose to save energy?
The SRC proposes to save energy by making it easier for people to learn how they can make a difference and encouraging them to persuade decision-makers in their institutions to commit to take action. Actions can range from learning about products and services available at no cost, or tracking and measuring energy use, to implementing comprehensive energy retrofits and energy upgrades in their facilities. SRC’s Technical Support Team has developed strategies for the target institutions in the member states.
Does the SRC have tangible goals?
Through the 30-month project, the SRC intends to: (1) directly influence at least 1,300 institutions—encouraging them to promote a culture of energy efficiency and establish best management practices; and (2) transform 10 percent of the organizations influenced—indicated by at least one building upgrade project within the institution under way that demonstrates best energy efficiency design and practices. If successful, the multi-state program will become self-sustaining after a 30- month start-up period supported by SRC.
Is the SRC targeting specific institutions to help meet its goals?
SRC’s goal of collaborating with approximately 650 facilities per year will be achieved by reaching out to organizations with whom SRC’s offices have existing relationships by responding to ad-hoc calls from interested parties that learn about this project and by utilizing existing list-serves that reach facility, budget, environmental and health officials in SRC’s five states. Each state has set recruitment and support goals shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of Institutions to Influence and Transform, by State and Sector
|
K-12 Sector |
Government Sector |
Higher Education |
Multi-Family |
|
|
||||||
STATE |
No. of Schools |
Influence 10% Schools |
Goal: transform 10% of schools influenced |
No of Local Governments |
# of LG to Influence (10%) |
Goal: transform 10% of buildings influenced |
# of Institutions to Influence |
# of Institutions to transform |
# of Institutions to Influence |
# of Institutions to transform |
Influence |
Transform |
AL |
1,537 |
154 |
16 |
518 |
52 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
218 |
24 |
FL |
3,526 |
353 |
36 |
470 |
47 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
408 |
43 |
GA |
2,236 |
224 |
23 |
687 |
69 |
7 |
|
|
|
|
293 |
30 |
MS |
1,039 |
104 |
11 |
378 |
38 |
4 |
16 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
162 |
20 |
SC |
1,154 |
116 |
12 |
315 |
32 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
156 |
17 |
Total |
9,492 |
951 |
98 |
2,368 |
238 |
24 |
28 |
7 |
20 |
5 |
1,237 |
134 |
Source: DOE, EIA information. SEO and Cadmus estimates. |
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|
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How can the SRC meet its goals?
The SRC’s strategy will focus on identifying and enlisting public sector market leaders who can motivate their peers. These leaders are public sector institutions, the associations that support them, and emerging organizations that promote green buildings. To move quickly and to minimize costs, SRC will use existing branded federal materials, tools and resources, such as ENERGY STAR, and guidance such as DOE’s High Performance Schools guide. The SRC’s selection of the Cadmus Group as the implementation contractor—a firm intimately familiar with these materials, tools, and resources—is designed to minimize ramp-up time and costs. SRC has chosen to use existing tools to determine ways to save energy in new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovations, resulting in reduced facility life cycle costs. Development costs will be kept at a minimum.
Is the SRC reaching out to specific individuals within the targeted institutions?
The SRC recognizes the contributions that different stakeholders can make to the success of this program. For teachers, students, and champions for the environment, the SRC provides an opportunity to learn more about energy efficiency and take action in their school districts. These individuals can join as Participants. For government and education decision-makers, it’s a readily available platform that provides campaign materials, training, and technical support to improve the way institutions are using energy. Institutions join as Affiliates. For national, state, and local for profit and non-profit associations, it’s a way of bringing the national campaigns to the local level using the power of the private sector and grass-roots organizations to help others save energy. This third type of organization can join as Allies. SRC Participants, Affiliates and Allies are collectively referred to as members.
Can you summarize the Types of Members?
Participants: Individuals.
Affiliates: Institutions that own or lease buildings.
Allies: Private sector and grass-roots organizations with energy saving, pollution prevention, or other goals consistent with the SRC.
What is the process for joining?
Participants and Affiliates can join several ways. The easiest way to join is to fill out the simple online New Member form at southeastrebuild.org. Alternatively, you can email your Microsoft Outlook Address card to join@southeastrebuild.org with the subject line: JOIN. After you join as a Participant, check to see if your organization also qualifies to join as an Affiliate. If it does qualify, then join online as an Affiliate as well. Affiliate information includes three contacts: (1) the person who can officially represent your institution, such as the Mayor, the City Manager, the Superintendent, or the CFO; (2) a second party responsible for public information; and (3) the organization’s energy or facilities manager. Alternatively, you can send us their full Outlook cards to join@southeastrebuild.org with the subject line: JOIN, and we will prepare an acknowledgement letter. The application is considered complete when the formal representative confirms.
Do individuals need to meet eligibility criteria to be accepted as SRC participants?
The SRC is open to any individual Participant. By providing their contact information, they will receive free publications, invitations to events, training opportunities, and tips on how to save energy.
Can any individual within a target institution sign up on behalf of the institution?
The SRC does not want to build barriers to entry. Any one employee of the institution can sign up as an individual Participant and request basic information to serve that institution. To receive member services, such as an account manager, technical support, or program support, a senior manager from the institution must formalize the relationship with the SRC by answering additional questions in their application, also available on the SRC website.
Must interested institutions meet eligibility criteria to be accepted as SRC Affiliates?
Due to funding limitations, the SRC can assist a limited number of organizations. The SRC uses simple eligibility criteria in accepting members. Support will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis to:
- Target institutions in a participating state.
- Those pledging to provide matching resources to be able to take advantage of the technical support, particularly a designated energy manager or equivalent.
- Institutions that have telephone, Internet access, and other essential communications capabilities.
Are Rebuild America, EnergySmart Schools, and ENERGY STAR Partners welcome into the SRC?
Yes, existing partners of federal programs such as Rebuild America, EnergySmart Schools, and ENERGY STAR can be grandfathered into the program by email request from any senior staff member from the organization . Many partners joined these programs, but experienced difficulty leveraging the benefits of those federal programs. The SRC can fill that gap. Grandfathered institutions must still meet the eligibility criteria, are expected to update their contact information, and establish their goals. The SRC will send an invitation, and the reply will be considered a suitable request for inclusion. These organizations will join as Affiliates.
How is participation demonstrated and what is received?
Participation is demonstrated by the intensity of the activities and programs undertaken by your institution. All participation is voluntary and is defined around the goals of the SRC.
Membership Level |
What They Pledge |
What They Receive |
Anticipated Outcome |
Participant |
|
|
|
Members |
And may optionally:
|
|
|
Allies |
|
|
|
How do Members contribute to the SRC?
In order to meet our sustainability goals, the SRC tracks participation in order to document who receives assistance. There is no monetary cost to eligible institutions, but the SRC requests in-kind contributions to help defray the costs of this initiative.
Please indicate examples of in-kind contributions
In-kind contributions consist of materials, expertise and time documented in the effort to promote energy efficiency. For example:
- Recruiting a school district, a town, a county, a college or a university
- Hosting an SRC presentation or an event
- Promoting any SRC campaign
- Reproducing SRC articles in your newsletter, website, webzine, or list
Does the SRC provide materials and guidance to make the in-kind contributions?
Yes, members have access to the member-only section of the website. All materials are available for downloading. We have PowerPoint presentations, videos and documents in PDF format. We will also provide guides and training for your event. You can reproduce any materials from our site, but we ask that you credit the appropriate authors.
What are the measures of success?
The measures of success for this project will be both qualitative and quantitative. To measure success, Cadmus, the SRC’s implementation contractor, has set in place the ability to track metrics of state-wide activity within the national ENERGY STAR program. The metrics that will be used to gauge the success of the program include:
- Number of institutions reached
- Number of institutions influenced
- Energy savings (kBtu and cost savings) per institution influenced and the subsequent pounds (lbs) of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions avoided
- Number of institutions transformed
- Energy savings (kW and cost savings) per institution transformed and the subsequent pounds (lbs) of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions avoided
- Economic value of energy upgrades and the number of jobs created per state
How are improvements in energy efficiency measured?
The EPA makes it easy for states and associations to track energy performance improvement with its national performance rating system tool, Portfolio Manager. Portfolio Manager is an Internet-based software system providing facility owners with data analysis and results. Performance measurement is at the heart of building improvement, and Portfolio Manager does the energy accounting. Data from other software platforms may be imported into Portfolio Manager using automated data transfer protocol (XML web services) or data upload spreadsheets.
How is success recognized?
Every concrete action that helps reduce energy use by 10% or more helps the nation reduce energy waste. Overall, the SRC will utilize ENERGY STAR’s performance rating system to measure and track energy use and savings. Each state is also developing forms of recognition. A number of associations are developing other ways to recognize improvements made by their members. For example, Public Technology Institute (PTI) is developing an award system that recognizes local government members at the building, agency, and government levels—each one recognized for 10% or more improvement. The National Association of Counties (NACo) provides recognition to county courthouses that meet energy savings goals.
What is the ENERGY STAR Challenge (the Challenge)?
The ENERGY STAR Challenge—Build a Better World 10% at a Time is a call to action by the EPA and 30 states—including SRC members. It encourages building owners to improve the efficiency of their buildings by 10% or more and to capitalize on the environmental benefits and cost savings that will result. The SRC is the local implementer of the Challenge, and we make it easy for people in organizations to learn more and take action.
What’s the Connection between the SRC and the Challenge?
To avoid duplication and save costs, SRC states are taking advantage of materials developed by national experts and made available to states that took the Challenge. By adopting this platform, our resources are spent wisely:
- Getting the message out to our constituents beyond the national campaigns
- Supplementing existing materials to ensure a good fit with SRC states’ geography and climate
- Providing customized training and technical support to motivated organizations
- Spending time helping institutions that take action
- Provide state and regional recognition and seek national recognition for superior results
Who can answer other questions about the SRC?
You can contact us or call us toll-free at 866-src-4999.Senior staff includes, CEO equivalent such as Superintendent, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer, School Board Member; City Mayor, City Manager, City Council, County Executive; University President, Vice-President, University Board Member. Facility-related senior staff include: Director of Facilities, Director of Environment, Energy Director or any person listed in the original partnership agreement.