Yale students to present plans to the Department of Energy

Six students representing the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale School of Management will present proposals for making commercial buildings more energy efficient to Department of Energy (DOE) officials on Friday, March 2, in Washington, D.C.
 
The Yale team will offer a plan to enhance existing energy-efficiency programs in public and private buildings as part of the DOE’s Better Buildings Case Competition, involving 19 universities, at the White House Conference Center and Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
 
The competition is part of the Better Buildings Challenge, which is run by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The challenge is a national energy-efficiency initiative and a core element of President Obama’s plan to make commercial buildings 20% more energy efficient by 2020. The students are also invited to attend a panel discussion at the National Building Museum on “Making Performance Public: Mandatory Disclosure of Energy Use in Buildings.” The panel will be moderated by Matthew Wald, an energy and environment reporter for The New York Times. On March 3, the teams will be given a White House tour by members of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
 

The Yale team is comprised of Kristen Demeter, Erin Gill and Sameer Kwatra, all candidates for master’s degrees in environmental management; Noah Walker and Justin Lindenmayer, both joint M.B.A./environmental management students; and M.B.A. student Matt Schmitt. They were advised by Stuart DeCew, director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale.
 
“The interdisciplinary nature of the team is one of our biggest assets,” says Gill, who has a background in local energy policy. “We were well-positioned to address the technical, economic, political, institutional and social barriers to energy efficiency.”
 
After the winners are announced, the proposals will be made public on the DOE website.