Energy Future Coalition (EFC)

Jump Start Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, 2011-2012 

As part of its Rebuilding America campaign, the Energy Future Coalition helped to jump start commercial building retrofits in the City of Chicago. With collaboration from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well as a remarkable steering committee, we developed a broad coalition of building owners, civic organizations, local government, utilities, contractors, investors, and executives, and grew deep roots in Chicago that we hope will flower into the type of action that will make the city an American model for energy efficiency. Jump Start Chicago began in mid-2011 with initial meetings and interest gauging, and effectively ended around one year later with the very successful Value-Added, Energy-Smart event on June 28^th, 2012. In that relatively short span of time, the Rebuilding America coalition built a substantial highlight reel of accomplishments:

• Held 8 stakeholder workshops on topics such as ESAs, PACE Financing, Performance Contracting in Commercial Buildings, and Building Benchmarking
• Built a large database of building owners and leading executives
• Put in a place a project development funnel process for building retrofits
• Provided a step-by-step guide for engaging building owners
• Held a strategy discussion with other local non-profits on commercial building energy incentives
• Facilitated the creation of a $600 million  retrofit investment fund with Hannon-Armstrong and Schneider Electrics
• Learned valuable lessons for any future action in Chicago and elsewhere

Despite major challenges, we are proud to say that we met the goals we set out to meet. Although we were unable to establish a permanent presence in Chicago, we were able to lay the groundwork for a campaign of increasing building energy efficiency that will hopefully take a life of its own, independent of support from the Energy Future Coalition. Jump Start Chicago truly was a mutually beneficial experience for all parties, and we plan to put the lessons we learned to good as we continue to Rebuild America.

If you have any further questions about Jump Start Chicago, please direct them to info@energyfuturecoalition.org.