Keywords: startup, federal energy management program, energy efficiency, goals, technologies, workforce
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In this episode of BRITElights, we are joined by guest host Mike Stacey of KPMG and special guest Anna Siefken, Deputy Director of the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) at the Department of Energy (DOE). Anna explains in great detail how the federal government is leading the charge in energy efficiency in buildings by thoughtfully integrating new sustainable technologies across their vast portfolio for both facility and fleet optimization. Furthermore, we emphasize the critical role of federal initiatives in pushing the boundaries of energy efficiency and how programs like AFFECT are encouraging both startups and corporations to get involved.
The group also covers the need for prioritizing energy efficiency retrofits, especially in older buildings, and how collective effort and workforce development can lead to more sustainable federal projects. Anna brought up the brand new Clean Energy Rule, signed by the Biden Administration, which has finalized standards for federal buildings that will eliminate onsite fossil fuel usage for new projects by the end of the decade. The administration projects that the cuts will save $8 million in taxpayer funds from equipment and infrastructure expenses, and they will eliminate 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions and 16,000 tons of methane emissions over the next three decades.
Read more about the Clean Energy Rule | Connect with Anna | Learn more about FEMP | Connect with Mike
Transcript:
00:01
Rick Stockburger
Hello and welcome to this episode of BRITElights. I am so excited today. We’ve got an amazing guest. This will actually be the end of season one, so we’ll have one more recap episode, but we’ve had some great guests leading up to this one, and this is really somebody that I’m super excited about. As we have in our last two episodes, we’ve got our co host, Mike Stacey from KPMG. So first and foremost, Mike, welcome back to co hosting here at BRITElights.
00:33
Mike Stacey
Thanks, Rick. Super excited for part three.
00:37
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. And so today’s topic is really, how is the federal government implementing new tech in its buildings? And you are a great person to be co hosting with me today because you actually had a startup before you were at KPMG, and that’s actually one of the ways that I was able to meet you. So tell us a little bit about that startup, but like, tell us also about your background in building efficiency.
01:02
Mike Stacey
Yeah, absolutely. So lived in this world and really excited for this episode because it is personal for me. So my startup, we had a technology that allowed any window to go clear to dark. So benefits of that are privacy, glare, and energy efficiency for buildings. So this was something that we integrated into window products. And I called on building owners, I called on everyone in that value chain to explore this work with the federal government on different grant programs. And it was such a learning experience in terms of truly understanding how do building owners think, how do they integrate technologies in, how do they buy? And really, how does my technology stack up against everything else that building owners are looking at? And that can be h vac, that can be other energy efficiency retrofits, it can be led lighting.
02:01
Mike Stacey
So I learned a ton from that experience. I was told no a lot. And that’s the common flight of the entrepreneur. But I learned a ton from that experience. For me, why I’m so excited about this episode, it’s amazing to see what the federal government is doing in this area. They are a market mover in the world of energy efficiency and in buildings. And I wish that some of those market moves might have been ten years ago when I was in the entrepreneurial game, but for me, this is personally a thrill to see what’s happening and here to learn a lot more today from our guests.
02:43
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, and even I wanted to give it a shout out. You actually were in one of the early cohorts of a program that we’re happy to be a part of in two, which is the program with Wells Fargo and the national Renewable energy labs. So shout out to in two. And, yeah, all the great things that they do as well. So, yeah, absolutely.
03:04
Mike Stacey
I think organizations, entrepreneurs can’t survive. Many of us can’t survive without organizations like that. And the boost that those groups make is super critical.
03:15
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. Well, I am so excited, like I said, for today, and I know I’ve said that a couple of times, we are super blessed to have Anna Seifkin joining us. She’s the deputy director for the FEMP program at Department of Energy. But she’s somebody that, frankly, has been a mentor to me for the last several years as I’ve been trying to navigate the energy space back when she was at Carnegie Mellon and the work that she did there. And so just being able to have Anna as somebody that I’ve bounced ideas off for the last six or seven years has been amazing. But I’m excited even more so to bring her knowledge, her expertise, and the programs that she’s running to BRITElights to give our audience a little bit of a snapshot into what’s going on in the federal government.
04:00
Rick Stockburger
So without further ado, welcome Anna Seifkin to BRITElights. Thanks.
04:05
Anna Siefken
It’s great to be here. Good to see you both.
04:09
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. Well, Anna, like I said, it’s been awesome getting to know you over the last couple of years and all the amazing work that you’ve been doing. So thanks so much for taking time out of your amazingly busy schedule to be a part of BRITE and to be a part of this program.
04:25
Anna Siefken
Well, I mean, I’ve always been a big fan of your work, and I think it’s really important that we have incubators around the country that are doing this important work. I appreciate you, and I appreciate the work that you’re doing. I’m glad to be here today.
04:36
Rick Stockburger
Awesome. Well, let’s dig in. You know, I think every episode, I always start kind of with the same two questions. And I’ve learned it really helps kind of set some guardrails, but also gets what’s top of mind for our guests when they’re coming on here. And so when it comes to this building efficiency and implementing new tech, you know, what excites you about that space right now?
05:00
Anna Siefken
Well, it’s wide open. I think that’s the thing that I like the most. So we’re at this critical juncture, really, in history when we have a supportive administration where we have funding that’s available, we have opportunities abound in terms of what we can actually accomplish. And so it’s like we have everything sort of lining up. We have startups who are engaged, we have incubators who have support, we have great people out there with incredible ideas. I just think that we’re at this. It really is an inflection point where we have this opportunity to really take advantage of everything that’s out there, be it funding or all of these different mechanisms, these ecosystems around the country, around the world, really. I mean, this is a global issue we have with climate change. And so that’s the part that I find the very most exciting.
05:56
Anna Siefken
I know your next question is going to be, which is what scares me the most. Right. Which is the flip side of that coin. So the flip side is we don’t take advantage of this moment, that we don’t get everything done, that we don’t mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, that we don’t take advantage of incredible funding opportunities, that we don’t have programs that land in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by energy generation over the past x number of years. I just feel like there are a lot of things that if we don’t quite do it right, we really might miss. So I think that actually is what scares me the most, is that we can’t get to everything and we’re not moving fast enough.
06:42
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, opportunity abounds and, you know, it is unbelievably exciting, but, you know, it’s a point in time that, you know, we’re all going to, I think, remember, and hopefully we’re going to be good ancestors. So our kids remember the actions that were took, you know, in the early years of the two thousands, if you will. I guess we’re a quarter of the way into the century now, aren’t we?
07:08
Anna Siefken
Yeah, we are. We are. You know, there’s so many activities that need to happen between now and 2030-203-5205 in order to really mitigate the worst impacts of climate change and energy is at the center point of everything. And so it is a really exciting time.
07:27
Rick Stockburger
Awesome.
07:29
Mike Stacey
Anna, could you maybe talk a little bit about the mission of Doe’s federal energy management program? I think our listeners would love to hear about that.
07:40
Anna Siefken
Absolutely. So FeMP is the federal energy management program. It historically has been in the eere, which a lot of people know, the energy efficiency renewable energy part of the Department of Energy. But interestingly enough, FIMP has been around for 50 years. So we’re older than the DOE itself, and our mission is to help the country’s largest consumer of energy, which is the federal government to meet all of the goals related to facilities, fleet, energy, water, throughout all stages of energy management. And so we do that a number of ways. We do it through policy and planning. So we analyze all of these energy mandates that have come out. We help agencies plan to meet those legislative goals, and I’ll talk a little bit about those. We do analysis and strategy.
08:33
Anna Siefken
So we work alongside all of the agencies, there’s 26 of them, to identify short and long term opportunities to cut costs and save energy and meet these goals. So we have execution and funding. Where we offer funding opportunities, particularly things like performance contracting, support, we focus, we have an entire team that focuses on optimization and maintenance. So we provide resources to ensure that facilities and fleet are actually at their optimal state. And then we also have results and recognition. So we award the best of the best. So we find ways and opportunities to actually guide data reporting, and we use that information to showcase the significant energy and water savings contributions that these different agencies are going to make. So, FEMP, I mentioned that we support 50 years old. We’ve been around for a long time. We’re now in the office of infrastructure.
09:30
Anna Siefken
I can talk a little bit about that. But the portfolio that we touch is about 350,000 buildings, 600,000 cars and trucks. Right. So there’s a huge opportunity there. It’s about 3 billion gross square feet.
09:49
Mike Stacey
Wow. Off by a couple.
09:50
Anna Siefken
The opportunity is really huge. We work with the White House, federal agencies, congress, industry is a huge player. The national labs, and sort of the mush market, which is municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals, to facilitate public private partnerships and provide energy leadership, really to drive the entire country. Right. Because when you have a portfolio of that size and you’re trying to help with trainings and providing grant funding and tracking agency success, you really sort of get towards the White House goals, which are pretty ambitious.
10:27
Mike Stacey
Wow, that’s an amazing scope and amazing charter. What would you say some of the accelerators of your mission are?
10:37
Anna Siefken
Well, there are actually four. Four of them that really are driving us, and they’re all sort of federal mandates. So even though the SEC sort of measures some things and different parts of the federal government are monitored, commercial buildings have benchmarking legislation, et cetera, at the state and local level, we have executive orders that we follow. So the first one is actually the Energy act of 2020. So in that agencies are supposed to be using performance contracting. And I’ll talk a lot about performance contracting in terms of opportunity for at least 50% of the energy conservation measures. I’ll start using acronyms now, the ecms that are identified for implementation, the second one is actually really the big one, which is an executive order. It’s 1405.
11:23
Anna Siefken
Seven for those of us who are tracking, which requires 100% net zero buildings, a zero emission fleet, 24/7 carbon pollution free electricity, and net zero federal operations by 2050. So that goal post that I was talking about, so the third is called the Climate Smart Building Initiative, which has agencies, these federal agencies, establishing emission reduction targets delivered through performance contracting, which is a great way to sort of finance a lot of these projects while increasing onsite electricity generation. A huge part of what we do is trying to encourage emission free electricity generation. And the third is actually interesting. It’s somewhat related to what happens in commercial buildings. But we have a federal building performance standard, which sets a goal of zero scope. One, emissions from on site fossil fuels use in 30% of the portfolio again by 2030.
12:30
Anna Siefken
So there’s a lot of incentives that we have that are driving the performance metrics. So we end up providing, again, technical assistance, training, funding tools, and interagency partnerships with communities and try to really focus on best practices and lessons learned. And we do it through a lot of performance contracting, sharing of success stories. But it is a very ambitious set of goals.
13:03
Rick Stockburger
I feel like between last episode with Jetta Wong and this episode with you, I’m saying, wow. A lot. Wow. The breadth of the work, but also the depth of impact that is in line with y’all’s roles is just amazing. And personally, I’m very grateful that the president has selected people as talented as you and as talented as Jeddah to be in these roles. So, you know, my next question here really is, what specifically are you doing to have the government lead by example in this space? So what are you like, what are you working on?
13:46
Anna Siefken
So, well, the first thing I wanted to give you, just a couple of highlights, because you were saying, wow. So it’s just going to allow you.
13:52
Rick Stockburger
A little bit more. It’s going to wow me all the way out the door.
13:56
Anna Siefken
We have about $16 billion in project investments that have been awarded. We’re estimating that in terms of energy savings, it’s about 63.8 trillion btus reduced annually. The economic sort of drivers, in terms of workforce development, we’ve developed about 128,000 jobs. And our environmental impact is estimated at 3.6 million metric tons of CO2 reduced annually. So impact is huge. And so what I work on is everything that I can associated with that. So I support our director, Mary Sotos, sort of the strategic direction of the entire organization. So how do we put together partnerships? How do we measure funding? How do we find the policy levers that we can work with and activate them? And so I would say, most importantly, we have been tracking energy use.
15:01
Anna Siefken
And so I can report that we’ve saved 50% of our electricity load for the federal government since we started tracking in 1975. So that’s over half a century. We’ve helped federal agencies with these bold energy and water saving schools, and we’ve set standards exactly like you said, by leading by example. So with clean energy, it’s not an easy task, particularly because we are this huge portfolio. And so, most recently, I’m proud to actually announce that FEMP is. Is delivering on Congress’s mandate to cut emissions from federal buildings with the finalization of the clean energy for new buildings and major renovations for federal buildings rule. That’s a mouthful. We call it clean energy rule. Clean energy buildings rule.
15:49
Rick Stockburger
Yeah.
15:50
Anna Siefken
So in 2000, 715 years ago, were called upon to tell and work with all agencies, you to phase out the use of fossil fuels in federal buildings and construction projects. And so this will start with a 90% reduction in fossil fuels for use in projects started between 2025 and 2029. And beginning in 2030, the rule is going to call for complete elimination of on site fossil fuels in federal building projects. So in order to do that, it goes back to what our mission is. We are conducting trainings, so we’re bringing some together this summer so that federal agencies can actually learn more about how to do these energy conservation measures. Like, what can they do? We’re offering funding, and we have about $250 million still left in a program that we call affect.
16:43
Anna Siefken
And I’m going to talk a little bit more of that, of which we have a second phase open. So they’re. Right now, agencies are working hard to pull together applications for us, due on June 27. And then we provide technical assistance, and we pull together working groups and forums so that we can support the efforts that they have. So that is actually really huge, this clean energy rule, to move the entire portfolio as fast as we can away from or towards emission free electricity.
17:15
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, that’s amazing. And I got to say, too, I was fortunate enough to attend the energy exchange conference, and what an amazing, just education a on what’s happening and all the opportunities out there, but learning from industry and folks that are part of the government all coming together. Honestly, it’s one of the best conferences that I’ve been to. And so thanks so much.
17:39
Anna Siefken
We deliver somewhere between 50 and 60,000 hours of technical training with ceus. So these are accredited professionals working in federal procurement jobs. That particular conference had about 2900 attendees, and they were all there for the exact same purpose, which is how can we take these existing buildings and any new buildings that might come up in this enormous portfolio, and how can we make them more energy and water efficient? How can we reduce the emissions by using CFE? Carbon. Carbon pollution. Carbon pollution free electricity. CFE. So, you know, that’s, it’s at the core of our mission. And so, yeah, that’s a really great conference. We’re really excited to be doing it for the 8th year, next year in Anaheim.
18:27
Rick Stockburger
That’s awesome. So leaning towards the private sector, what examples have you seen in the private sector of maybe companies that are looking to you from the federal government and then actually doing the work on their own or alongside of you in the private sector? So what are some of those companies or projects that you’re seeing out there that the private sector’s adopting?
18:52
Anna Siefken
Well, you know, one of the best ways that private sector gets involved with FEMP is through performance contracting. And so what that means is they’re forming public private partnerships, well, partnerships with us, but then also working with and for the federal agencies through contracting vehicles to use third party financing to support the projects. So if you think about it, through performance contracts and utility energy service contracts. So utilities are really interested in supporting this because then they don’t have, you know, if there’s energy efficiency in a federal building, then that particular power plant doesn’t have to increase its capacity to handle a different peak load. Right. So they can actually not create additional generation. They can use that generation for other uses.
19:45
Anna Siefken
So utilities are very interested in the work that we do, and commercial buildings can follow in similar pathways by, again, energy conservation measures, thinking through what are the priorities that they have? What kinds of investments can they make now that will save them over the long run? This is all an investment game, right? It’s all about how do we take the money that we have now, either through appropriations, which is how the federal government do it, or through private investment or equity or however one might do it. How do you use the money now to make the investment? And then it pays dividends over time through energy savings, and then that savings can be used for other things. So industry gets involved because they’re at every part of the supply chain, right? They’re at the electricity generation part.
20:31
Anna Siefken
They’re creating batteries and solar panels that the federal government is interested in purchasing there’s obviously huge procurement and supply chain related issues and a lot of that. It’s why we got moved into the Department of Infrastructure, which is a new part of the DOE. Right. It was as a part of bill, were given about $63 billion to implement hundreds of programs. And so they put us all into this Office of infrastructure, which also includes manufacturing and energy supply chain LPO. A lot of people know jigger Shaw, the grid deployment office, the state and community energy programs. Right. So we’re all working together, engaging with industry, engaging with partners, and finding ways to implement these projects as quickly and efficiently as possible.
21:20
Rick Stockburger
Yeah.
21:22
Mike Stacey
Anna, maybe if I can drill into that a little bit. Being in the Office of Infrastructure, you talked a bit about buildings, but for lack of a pun, how are you also leading the charge and vehicle fleets?
21:39
Anna Siefken
Well, we are working, so I don’t work specifically on fleet optimization, and there are a lot of folks on our team that do. So I’ll start from that point. We are very interested in making sure that our fleets are electric. And so as the fleets are turning over, we provide incentives and technical assistance to help people understand not only the fleet itself, so the vehicle, but also the charging system. So evse the supplies, supply equipment. Right. And so we also have a vested interest in, like, vpps, like, how can a building actually carry the load and the vehicle supports that? We also have to think about someone who, you know, the postal service. Great opportunity. You know, how many vehicles. I remember the number a lot. Thousands and thousands of vehicles.
22:37
Rick Stockburger
The largest fleet in the world, I think.
22:39
Anna Siefken
Largest fleet in the world. Right. And they’re in the process of, you know, thinking through how to. When do you charge? How do you charge? How do you quickly charge? What about when someone goes home? Do. Do they go and they park their vehicle and then jump in their ice and drive home? Like, you know, it’s like there’s all kinds of ways that we’re trying to incentivize this. Carbon free electricity. Carbon. Carbon. Pollution free electricity. So that when they are drawing down in the charging stations, they are using cleaner sources. But then we’re also trying to think through all of the different modalities. Right. I heard a story recently about, you know, employees who need to drive that vehicle home, because then we actually have to think through what’s the charging opportunity that they have at their house.
23:28
Anna Siefken
And so it’s like an entire sort of shift in the way that we think about vehicles, particularly with a fleet of this size. The other part is really just infrastructure overall. Right. It’s like, how do we make sure we have all of the charging infrastructure in all of the places where people will need it? So it’s available to federal government employees at work, at home consumers. There’s a whole platform. And so that’s a combination of different parts of the Office of Infrastructure that are looking at that. And they’re partnering with the vehicle technology office. They’re partnering. So there’s like, it’s difficult to describe how many synergistic things are happening right now at the administration. It’s all of the things that you hope would happen.
24:17
Anna Siefken
You know, in fact, there’s a meeting every single week where we all get together within the office of infrastructure, and we talk about opportunities and obstacles. And I think that’s exactly what you want your government to do. That’s, like I said, the vehicle charging part of it is like one piece of this enormous pie, but a really important one.
24:38
Rick Stockburger
And I do want to throw a plug out there for Irina Filipova of Electrada, one of our startup companies, was talking about how they’re addressing fleet optimization and really their programs and their systems, too.
24:51
Mike Stacey
Anna maybe wanted to just drill down into that sea of opportunities you mentioned. How do you evaluate and prioritize those? Because it sounds like tremendous goals and even tremendous progress. But as you break down these opportunities within buildings and fleet, how does femp prioritize and thinking about economics, thinking about carbon reduction, what is that? What are those meetings look like?
25:19
Anna Siefken
Well, it’s an enormous opportunity is what it is. And so we’re finding that, on average, about 967 million new energy conservation measures are identified by the agencies every single year. So we have this huge opportunity. Yeah, I mean, they’re reporting through energy audit data that they found $2.9 billion through facility evaluations just in three years through December of 2020. Obviously, that was a little while ago, but the point of the matter is that there’s this huge, there’s the enormity of what I’ll call the backlog or the deferred maintenance. It’s really huge. And so prioritization comes down to data and trying to make key decisions. And so a lot of what we focus on through our programs is on emissions reduction. Like, how do we get to net zero? How do we get closer to net zero?
26:24
Anna Siefken
And so when you use that lens and we have a program that’s called e project builder, where, you know, it’s like all of these different data points that an agency would put together as a part of an application to us, then we will really see which energy conservation measures are going to have the biggest impact, the soonest, when third party financing is available. We also have investment tax credits, and we have all these other mechanisms that third party financing is using. Who owns the equipment? You know, GSA, for example, they don’t own. They lease a lot of space. So they have to make decisions based on what their portfolio looks like overall and then on a building by building basis. And that part gets really hard because, you know, your priority is the work of your agency delivering mail or energy conservation measures. Right.
27:24
Anna Siefken
And so what we try to do is provide them with the information that they need to get the payback. And then, you know, through things like performance contracting, we can actually, you know, because someone uses appropriations to do a project, it’s like they pay for, it is done. Whereas if they use a performance contract, it actually spreads out the cost over time. And that’s easier in most cases for the federal government to kind of absorb. So we see a lot of estimated cost savings. We see a lot of detail coming across to us in terms of how people are benchmarking and what kind of performance they are seeing.
28:05
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, no, that’s awesome, too. So I want to jump back to something you talked, you briefly mentioned earlier, but I want to bring that back to the top. So the affect program, it sounds awesome. You guys had 250 million, I believe, in bil funding for that. So what are the goals of, for affect and how can companies get involved? And we will also make sure we put a link in the liner notes on how to. On where to go.
28:31
Anna Siefken
Well, so the affect is open for federal agencies. So that’s the first part is that there are, we are the only sort of facing the federal government part of the Department of Infrastructure. So everyone else is actually working more outward. We are working directly with all of these agencies to help them with these decisions. So affect stands for assisting federal facilities with energy conservation technologies affect. So we’ve been running this program since 2014 kind of at a lower funding level, chugging along, making some great improvements. Somewhere around 70 or 80 projects had been selected. And then bill came out. Right? So $250 million that were using specifically to drive buildings towards net zero targets. So January of this past year, we announced the disbursements of the first 104 million of it. It went to energy conservation measures at 31 different facilities, 18 states.
29:35
Anna Siefken
And so these projects are all expected to double the amount of carbon free electricity capacity of federal facilities over the amount brought online in 2022. So huge, right? So the projects go even further because they’re leveraging about $361 million in private investment. So you’ve got the funding that came in from us, but then there’s all this other funding and all of the other work that I talked about in terms of, you need a workforce to do that. You need a performance contracting company that has a supply chain implication. You need manufactured goods. So all of that starts to be activated by this program. So we’re in the second phase of what we’re calling bill affect bill specifically. And so we have new selections that are coming. In fact, it’s an open window right now. People are working on their applications, and they are due.
30:33
Anna Siefken
It’s due in June of 2024. And so, as a whole, like I said, we have all of this funding that we’re trying to get out. And so this program is actually a way that people can really kind of activate their funding mechanisms, and we’re seeing ideas across the board. One thing that’s interesting, though, is that they’re all tried and true technologies, right. Because when you have this additional funding, like these funding mechanisms, and you need to show your ROI within a particular window, you’re not trying the bleeding edge technologies you’re using. Tried and true. So we see a lot of.
31:14
Rick Stockburger
That’s where we live.
31:16
Anna Siefken
That’s right. We use a lot of. We see a lot of solar. We see a lot of building integration systems. We see geothermal. But we’re always interested in finding ways that new technologies could be implemented if they meet the risk profile. But interesting, there are ways that technologies can meet the profile that we can use. One of them is the GSAs green proving ground. So they actually have a program. You guys are well aware of it, last episode, right, where they’re using the real estate portfolio of the GSA to test out innovative building technologies. And so we lean in on some of those, partner with them, talk with them about how to implement those technologies. And that way we’re. It’s like the best. We’re being the best stewards of taxpayer dollars because that’s what a lot of this comes down to, right?
32:13
Anna Siefken
This is not private capital. This is federal taxpayer money. And we want to be the best stewards of that we can. So DoD has a similar type program that does technology testing. Lots of acronyms, the strategic environmental research and development program. And they have another one called the Environmental Security Technology Certification program. SERDP and SCP, eSTCP, two different programs that people can use.
32:45
Mike Stacey
Anna, could we talk a little bit about some of these older buildings in retrofits? Do you have a top five list of energy efficiency retrofits for older buildings.
32:56
Anna Siefken
Well, the thing that we all know, giant elephant in the room, is that every building is completely different from every other building.
33:04
Rick Stockburger
Ours was made in 1907.
33:08
Anna Siefken
It’s true. Just like every house has, it has a different set of systems, a different set of requirements, a different set of users, a different style of use. Every building is different. So I kind of hesitate on picking a top five. I mean, I have top five favorites, right. But what we are seeing is that people, when they’re focused on the investment and they’re focused on emissions reduction, they’re making decisions that are actually helping them reach somewhere between, like, you know, 50% conservation. Like they really are driving down through these technologies. So we see kind of an overarching strategy around energy efficiency, water efficiency, considering electrification, and then downsizing systems, lowering electric costs. So a lot of the sort of on site distributed energy and storage technologies, we’re also seeing a lot of that on our sites.
34:11
Anna Siefken
And then for electrification technologies, we see heat pumps. We see heat pump water heaters. We’ve seen a lot of sort of effective solutions with that. But then, you know, distributed energy and water technologies. So I think that’s the kind of thing that we’re seeing the most of is these sort of systems level approaches. Gone are the days of, you know, lighting retrofits, although occasionally we will see a really good lighting retrofit. And a lot of people are doing these with energy sales agreements, esas. So we’re trying to find, again, different ways and mechanisms for people to use contracting vehicles for these different technologies. So when we look at affect specifically, we did see solar and geothermal. We saw a lot of the ones that you would think that we would see.
35:08
Rick Stockburger
Yeah.
35:08
Anna Siefken
So top five really hard, really depends on your building, fruitless building, stone building, glass pane building. Do they need the glass film, the treatment that you had from your previous company, shading. You know, there’s all sorts of things that we’re seeing in these buildings.
35:28
Mike Stacey
Right.
35:31
Rick Stockburger
I can tell you a dirty secret of mine. I love talking about window treatments, and I also like to make sure I call them window treatments so people know that I really know what I’m talking about when it comes to what we’re putting over our windows. So. And I want to get into kind of our last question of the day. This has been amazing, by the way, and thanks so much for all the great knowledge on this. But what are some of the innovative ways that you look to improve government buildings? And how can the startups and even the larger corporates that are involved in BRITE’s network get involved with the program.
36:04
Anna Siefken
Well, because the federal agencies are our sort of customers, they are always looking for great vendors. So they have a higher risk profile, again, because of the way that things are structured. But I would say that they are trying to find ways of testing technologies. Again, things like the green proven ground, the ones from the DoD. Those are testing grounds that I encourage folks to get involved with. Obviously, ArPA E is a way that new technologies can be tested and piloted. And then, you know, we’re looking for technologies that are further along the technology readiness level scale. Right. We need things that are fully commercialized in most cases. But that being said, we do find that buildings, you know, a lot of our building operators at the local level are very interested in understanding what technologies are available to them.
37:04
Anna Siefken
So every, you know, building management systems, there isn’t like a one system that fits everyone. And so those building systems, the building management systems at the local level, in many cases, there’s different things that can kind of be tested and tried. But again, it’s a bigger sort of machine in the way that we think about things.
37:29
Rick Stockburger
Absolutely.
37:29
Anna Siefken
And our risk profile is pretty high. So corporations can get involved in the supply chain. Right. Because this opportunity that we’re trying to incentivize is huge. In fact, I’ve heard there are about 600 manufacturing plants coming up in the United States right now because of Bill and IRA Chips and Science act. Right. So all of these Biden administration related different policies and levers are actually having their intended impact. We do have administrative support plus corporate engagement, plus manufacturing. And, you know, the supply chain reshoring to the United States. We have all of these different things that are coming together in ways that you can’t not think about the opportunities that it would have at the local level in the supply chain.
38:30
Anna Siefken
So I encourage companies that are coming up to get in touch with us, to get in touch with our colleagues, whether at ARPA E or in other parts of the department, myself included. Please just contact me, reach out to me on LinkedIn and we will find a way to sort of insert what you’re working on. Because, because we do receive pitches all the time. We receive people who are interested, and a lot of them we can’t necessarily accept. Again, our risk profile is a little bit different. Well, yeah, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for them within a different part of the department. Navigating the department is kind of a part of all of our jobs is helping people land where they’re supposed to and finding and connecting the opportunities together.
39:14
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, well, and our role here at BRITE is really getting those products to market faster so you all can use them. So having an eye on the end result, I think it’s really important for our startups to have and understand, you know, what the opportunities are that are there now that maybe when their technology is at that TRL level nine, you know, they can, they have a great pathway for an amazing customer. So, wow. I think, I think this should be titled wow. I mean, I don’t know what else to say from that standpoint. Do what an amazing bit of insight into the FEMP program. 50 years old and still and doing better work today than they’ve ever done before. I put that on the deputy director’s leadership.
39:59
Rick Stockburger
So, Anna, thanks so much for joining us here on BRITElights and all you’ve done for BRITE over the years. And myself grateful beyond belief for that. And Mike Stacey, thanks so much for co hosting again. This is your third episode and you’ve been an amazing part of this and thanks for KPMG lending you out to us for this. We’re greatly appreciated of that. I know my kids would not, the last episode, they didn’t hear me say like and subscribe. And as kids that watch YouTube from time to time, they’re like, dad, what are you doing? So I want to make sure that I tell you to smash that like and subscribe button on Spotify or wherever you’re listening to this today. Any last words? Anna? Any last words? Mike?
40:50
Mike Stacey
Anna, thank you. This is, yeah, I learned a lot. It’s super encouraging as a recovering entrepreneur to see these things in play. I think there’s a lot of promise ahead.
41:02
Anna Siefken
Well, my last comment is get involved. So anyone who’s out there who’s interested in the clean energy economy, we have so much work to do. We don’t just need the technical experts, we don’t just need the phds, we need everyone. In fact, we need thousands of workers are going to be needed in these spots. There are hundreds of jobs of available at the DoE and in other companies. If you see there are many jobs that are available.
41:34
Anna Siefken
And so I just encourage people to not only look for some of these specifically clean energy jobs that are available because we are building this workforce of the future, but to really consider where you are and think about the procurement opportunities that you have in your current company, like how can you influence the sustainability measures that are happening where you are and take advantage of that, too. So there’s a lot that can be done. It is a collective effort, and I think there’s room for everyone.
42:03
Rick Stockburger
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And as we always say, on the outro of this, we’ll catch you on the BRITE side.
