CALL TO ACTION: Participants Sought for ANSI Standardization Collaborative to Advance Energy Efficiency for the United States

Nominations for Working Group Co-chairs Accepted through October 5

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Advancements in energy efficiency can help fuel the U.S. economy, support job creation, and boost energy independence. Realizing this full promise, however, demands a comprehensive national approach, and strategic cooperation between the public and private sectors. To help advance a coordinated approach to energy efficiency for the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has launched the Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC), and is seeking relevant experts to take part in the activity.

The EESCC will assess the energy efficiency standardization landscape and carry out the development of a standardization roadmap and compendium. The roadmap is intended to identify what standards, codes, and conformance programs are available or under development, what gaps exist, and what additional standardization activities are needed to advance energy efficiency in the United States; and to increase awareness of these activities to support the adoption and implementation of standards, codes, and conformance activities among the public and private sectors.

To assess how the collaborative could best help to advance energy efficiency in the United States, ANSI sought the input of a broad spectrum of stakeholders in a series of needs-focused meetings, including an April 2012 exploratory event and subsequent planning meetings.

The EESCC is intended to augment and raise awareness of individual activities being advanced by many prominent organizations with the objective of moving energy efficiency forward, and is not intended to displace or duplicate work that is currently being done. The EESCC will not develop standards, nor will it assign responsibility for their development.

A multi-phased effort, Phase One of the roadmap will focus on five identified areas of need, with each to be addressed by a dedicated working group:

1. Building energy and water assessment standards (including diagnostic test procedures and health and safety testing)
2. Systems energy modeling, integration, and communications
3. Building energy rating and labeling
4. Evaluation, measurement, and verification (encompassing EM&V, energy performance metrics, and standardized and portable data collection and reporting)
5. Workforce credentialing (including standards for workforce training and certification programs, and workforce skills standards)

The working groups will consider each issue area across different types of buildings, including residential, commercial, institutional, industrial/manufacturing, data centers, and water and wastewater treatment facilities, as applicable.

Join the EESCC
All stakeholders interested in joining the collaborative and contributing to the development of the roadmap are invited to return the participation response form and related copyright form to [email protected]. Participation in the EESCC is open to all affected parties, including representatives of companies and organizations, relevant trade associations, standards development and conformity assessment organizations, government agencies, and academia, providing a range of expertise and perspectives. The collaborative is funded via participation fees to offset the costs of administering the work.

Nominations for Working Group Co-chairs Open through October 5, 2012
ANSI is currently accepting nominations of qualified candidates for working group co-chairs and other leadership opportunities within the EESCC to help lead the development of the roadmap. The working group co-chairs will also serve on the EESCC steering committee and provide overall planning and strategic direction for the EESCC and its deliverables. The contributions of the working group co-chairs will be acknowledged and given recognition in the standardization roadmap and other relevant deliverables, as appropriate.

Candidates must demonstrate expertise in the working group's area of focus, have proven experience building consensus among diverse stakeholder interests, and demonstrate knowledge of the U.S. standards and conformity assessment system. Additional information on the roles, responsibilities, and estimated time commitments for EESCC working group co-chairs is detailed in the nominations form.

All nominations must be accompanied by a letter of corporate support and a biographical statement, and must be submitted by October 5, 2012, to [email protected]. Submissions will be reviewed by a nominations committee comprised of ANSI staff and the EESCC co-chairs, with two (2) co-chairs maximum to be selected for each working group area.

Save the Date: November 7-8, 2012

The first full plenary meeting of the EESCC is targeted for November 7-8, in the Washington, DC, area, with final dates and details to be confirmed. ANSI will work with working group co-chairs to schedule alternative dates for specific working groups, if necessary.

For more information, send an email to [email protected] or visit the EESCC web site at www.ansi.org/eescc for an RSVP form and more information.

About the EESCC
The ANSI Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC) is a cross-sector, neutral forum and focal point for broad-based coordination among energy efficiency activities involving or impacted by standardization (i.e., standards, codes, conformance activities) and regulations. The objective of the collaborative is to assess the standardization landscape, and carry out the development of a standardization roadmap for energy efficiency within the built environment.

The EESCC is led by two highly-esteemed co-chairs from the public and private sectors: Benjamin Goldstein, energy efficiency workforce development and standards coordinator in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and John Tuccillo, vice president of global industry and government alliances at Schneider Electric, and president and chairman of the board of The Green Grid.

About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide. The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee (USNC), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

ANSI has a long and successful track record in facilitating standards coordinating bodies to address areas of national priority, from electric vehicles and healthcare information technology to homeland security and identity theft protection. Most recently, the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) released an EVSP standardization roadmap assessing the standards, codes, and regulations, as well as conformance and training programs, needed to facilitate the safe, mass deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in the United States.

SOURCE American National Standards Institute