Take note of Babylon's induction along with a prominent group of international cities into Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room:

“In this time of uncertainty around the ability and resolve of governments to lead the planet to low-carbon prosperity, it is up to businesses and cities to step up and assume responsibility,” said Sir Richard Branson, Co-Founder of the Carbon War Room.  “Mayors are the entrepreneurs of the civic world who realize their pivotal role in the fight against climate change.”



“Babylon is eager to work alongside the caliber of expert personnel at the Carbon War Room like Jigar Shah,” said Supervisor Steve Bellone.  “We are confident that the Carbon War Room will help to shape Babylon’s operational Long Island Green Homes program so that it can go to scale.  Ours has already been an exemplar for many other municipalities in the U.S. and Canada.  We have sought market-based solutions since the inception of our program in 2008 and first interacted with Jigar who generously shared insights based on his pioneering work on power purchase agreements.  Working with Carbon War Room, we will establish program discipline, uniform loan products and demand drivers that will result in unprecedented market penetration for energy efficiency.  To be doing this in the company of larger cities, like our neighbor New York, will be a major game changer.”

“These cities are committed to taking immediate action to be a part of a movement that will create jobs, help local economies thrive, and green cities around the world,” said Jigar Shah, Chief Executive Officer of the Carbon War Room.  “These cities, along with many others that applied for the first wave, have pioneering sustainability visions, but they cannot do it on their own.  The Carbon War Room is committed to working with them to create the mechanisms that will allow cities and the private sector to work together to make these visions a reality.”

In the wake of the DOE announcement, I got to serve on a panel discussing PACE (property assessed clean energy) at Pace Law School.  A core point, was that the Long Island Green Homes program developed a leading edge benefit assessed clean energy prescription which is, essentially, the BACE for PACE.  By billing the obligation for retrofits as a benefit assessment, assignment to the property tax only occurs in cases of delinquency, thus avoiding that onerous 4-letter word 'tax'.  The benefit assessment, affirmed by the Revenue Act of 1933, is a venerable municipal mechanism well constituted to withstand challenge.

From there it was up to Yale to speak about "Best Practicves and Local-level Leadership for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy."  The sessions that included panelists from New York City, Seattle, India and China was filmed for dissemination throughout the world by the US Department of State.  Later that afternoon, Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to DOE Secretary Chu for Recovery Act Implementation, addressed the gathering at the LEED Platinum-certified Kroon Hall at the School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences.  He described how he had been on the horn with formula grant recipients in the hinterlands cajoling them to get stimulus money out the door.  He also described a crack corps of grant evaluators who were determining the most qualified recipients for competitive funds.  I resisted the impulse to disabuse him of his contention, opting, rather, to praise the relationship his boots on the ground in Babylon had developed with the DOE staffers who had had engaged us so consistanly, spotlighting our progress in three DOE webinars.  We both concurred on how gratifying it was to see a re-energized DOE.

Later, at dinner in Woolsey Hall, I punctuated another Rogers presentation with the suggestion that he use his bully pulpit to get Girl Scouts to sell CFLs instead of transfat cookies.  At the following day's sessions, that rallying cry was echoed a couple of times.  Among those others with whom I had the opportunity to interact, were a couple of Senate staffers and the environmental editor at the Wall Street Journal.  Also got to catch up with the grad students who had me address the "Megawatts on Main Street" series they ran through the Yale School on Business and Environment.  There is no substitue for the caliber of contacts you make in these settings, not to mention the added material for my future self-help best-seller, Five-Minute Friends.

The orginal announcement from DOE about awards for their Retrofit Ramp-up grant was originally scheduled for March 15th.  As the deadline came and went, applicants shared their antsiness.  Ten days into April, I developed a pain in my neck which would not go away.  Turns out to have been a sign from Kali, the multi-limbed, Hindu patron goddess of bureaucracy.  The Long Island grant application from one of the leading, operational retrofit programs in the country, poised to ramp-up, was about to be chewed-up and spit out by the sausage factory down in DC.

Don't take my incredulity for it.  Here's what a 25yrs energy efficiency practicioner of national note who actually wrote two of the Retrofit grant winners had written after declaring that the grant language sounded as if it had been written for the Babylon program:

*12/11/09- “Dorian: I am convinced that your proposal will be the strongest from the mid-Atlantic states, mostly due to Babylon program.  I am working on three RRU proposals.”

12/15/09- “Dorian: WOW!   I’d say you will win going away!” 

4/13/10- “GOOD LUCK in RRU.  I don’t know about you, but I am a nervous wreck waiting. I continue to predict your proposal will be among the winners.”                

So I drank the Kool-Aid of Original Intent in the DOE FOA language which anyone can read in our grant section.  And for those academics who have an interest in post mortems, both the operational LI app and aspirational NYS/NYC apps can be found for comparison sake in 'Grants' along with a couple of others, including a very intriguing proposal from Seattle.  Note, for example, that while hundreds of retrofits have been done on LI, NYC wouldn't be extending its first loan until eleven months in.  Oh, and there is also a graphic PPT, "Thriving Without" that visualizes our perspective on the process.

My wife said, by way of consoling, "Now you know what Al gore felt like."  Yeah, those blasted @#%*! activist judges.

Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson, who hosted the Carbon War Room, with the Vancouver Olympics as backdrop, imparts some fundamental principles to all those who are considering what it takes to set up a first-rate energy efficiency program.

1] Screw It, Lets Do It

2] Have fun

3] Be bold, but don't gamble

4] Challenge yourself

5] Stand on your own feet

6] Live the moment

7] All you have is a good name

8] Do some good

9] Value your family and friends

10] You fail if you don’t try

11] Be willing to make a fool of yourself  & make people smile



It began with a phone call to Jigar Shah.  Jigar is the founder of SunEdison who married photovoltaics (PVs) to power purchase arrangements (PPAs) and lived happily ever after. After installing close to 100MW of solar panels atop the roofs of WalMarts and Kohls nationwide, SunEdison was sold to wafer manufacturer MEMC for $289M last November.  Jigar shared the financial chemistry that makes up PPAs and postulated how this would mix with energy efficiency measures rather than solar.  He referred Green Homes to several other bright lights who were noodling through these applications and the conversation continues.

Last year, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group fame founded the Carbon War Room (CWR) along with Craig Cohut, founding partner of Pegasus Capital, and Idan Ofer, chairman of Better Place and Zim Shipping.  Their “mission is to ensure the continued viability of life on this planet by developing a post-carbon economy.”  And Jigar Shah, as CEO, has been charged with bringing the good offices of the Carbon War Room to bear on the challenges of bringing energy efficiency to the built environment worldwide.  To that end, CWR hosted a summit in Vancouver during the first week of the Olympics consisting of financiers, sustainability officers, and not-for profit administrators from throughout the world.  Babylon was honored to be among the participants. 

WHY PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE?

v  The purpose of the Green Capital – Global Challenge is to get substantial private-sector money quickly flowing into energy efficiency and renewable generation projects in cities that are highly motivated and have the team and plan in place to make it happen.

v  The resulting city-led financing initiatives will bring economic development to their cities, create jobs, reduce energy costs for their residents and businesses; and enable achievement of their emissions reduction targets.

v  Figuring out what to do and what has worked well and poorly in other places is challenging for any stakeholder, so the Global Challenge is designed to provide substantial additional support to cities, financial partners, and solution providers in making this happen.

CARBON WAR ROOM’S ROLE

v  The Carbon War Room will put its weight of support behind the most ambitious teams in a ‘first wave’ of 5-10 cities, aiming to get deals completed by end 2010. It will also start to nurture the ‘second wave’ of 25-30 cities, for deal completion in 2011. The pace of development will be driven as much by the city as by Carbon War Room.

Tuesday February 16th — Day One

Location: Pan Pacific Hotel

Setting the stage for the Green Capital – Global Challenge

v  • Jigar Shah, CEO, Carbon War Room

0915-1015 A Perspective from City Leaders— What Cities Need in Order to Implement Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Financing: Obstacles and Ideas for Resolution

Cities have yet to widely adopt EERE financing programs. This session will cover lessons learned and implementation challenges from the perspective of city leadership.

Moderator:

v  Sadhu Johnston, Deputy City Manager, City of Vancouver

Speakers:

v  Sandy Taylor, Head of Climate Change and Sustainability, City of Birmingham, UK

v  Dorian Dale, Energy Director and Sustainability Officer, Babylon, NY

v  Karoline Steen, Deputy Director of Sustainability and International Affairs, City of Copenhagen….

v  Wednesday February 17th– Day Two

v  0930-1000 Launch of the Green Capital — Global Challenge

v  The Green Capital – Global Challenge is a roadmap for accelerated city action to transform the built environment in time for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

v  Speakers:

v  Gregor Robertson, Mayor, City of Vancouver

v  Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group and Founder of the Carbon War Room

v  José María Figueres, Chairman of the Carbon War Room, Former President of Costa Rica and Former CEO of World Economic Forum