The Need

• Knowledge -- Building owners and managers need new knowledge to develop sound investment strategies for energy efficiency. 
• Skills -- Contractors, manufacturers, and systems integrators need greater skills in developing compelling business cases for energy efficiency upgrades.
  
• Simplification -- The complex environment of programs, policies, incentives, and processes need to be condensed into a simpler set of factors to enable rational decision-making by building owners.
  
• Standards -- Many disparate entities are already collaborating on standards, but need a unifying strategy to drive agreements that apply across multiple trades.
  
• Workforce -- A qualified workforce with knowledge, skills, and capacity to grow the market is required - beyond the current focus of policy-makers on construction workers.
  
• Research -- A much deeper understanding is needed in the areas of market dynamics - and potential areas of greatest impact - to assure appropriate priorities, policies, strategies, and tactics for the many segments of this market.
  
• Integration -- An integrated approach to all of the above is required to release the market forces that will accelerate growth. 
  

A market development intermediary is needed to bring structure to this market. This intermediary would convene stakeholders at the state and regional levels to create programs that address the needs outlined above. A core group within this intermediary would have expertise and relationships in each of the following areas:

• Decision-makers -- Building Owners and Managers
  
• Specifiers -- Architects and Engineers
  
• Standards -- Industry associations
  
• Regulators -- CPUC, CEC, and CARB, plus major municipalities
  
• Manufacturers -- Industry players and their associations
  
• Utilities -- Particularly the IOUs
  
• Market Makers -- Contractors, ESCOs and systems integrators
  
• Labor -- Unions and their associations
  
• Workforce -- Education providers and workforce investment boards
  
• Regional Clusters -- Economic development entities plus their partners and constituents