Industry News

CallSource Welcomes New President

CallSource, the industry leader in call tracking and recording, performance analytics, sales and management training, has named Mark Sadosky to the post of President for the Westlake Village, California, firm. “I’m very excited to be part of CallSource! For the past four years, I’ve been observing its evolution as a company. I noticed that, even in a down economy, their growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. Experience has taught me that the only way to accomplish such dazzling success is by consistently delivering results and creating value to your customers. I’m also impressed with the firm’s groundbreaking business solutions, substantial customer base, dedicated management team, and engaged corporate culture. I see even greater achievements on the horizon as we expand into new markets and enhance our technology platforms. It’s definitely a great time to be at CallSource,” said Sadosky.

Placing a strong emphasis on performance metrics, Sadosky holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Finance from California State University-Long Beach. His credentials include a strong track record in executive management, sales, marketing, customer service, business analytics, and learning management. Year after year he achieves operational goals while demonstrating a well developed capacity for dynamic communication, motivational sway, and leadership proficiencies. Prior to joining CallSource, Sadosky was Assistant Vice President of Sales for Equity Residential, the largest REIT in the multifamily industry, with more than 500 apartment communities (135,000 units) nationwide and $2 billion in annual revenue. During his tenure at Equity, the company’s web-to-foot traffic increased by 23% and phone-to-foot traffic saw a 21% improvement creating more than $34 million in revenue for 2010.

Council Releases National Study of Home Energy Efficiency Programs

The National Home Performance Council (NHPC) released a new study that gives an overview of the universe of whole-home energy efficiency retrofit programs in the U.S. The study provides information on the 126 programs across the U.S. that promote whole-home approaches to residential energy efficiency. Among other characteristics, the study found that more than half of the programs offered free energy audits, and slightly more than half offered financing to pay for the cost of an energy efficiency retrofit. "This is a time of tremendous change and growth for the energy efficiency retrofit industry," said NHPC Managing Director, Robin LeBaron. "In five years, the field will look very different than it does now. This study provides a baseline for us to study how the field evolves." An energy efficiency retrofit can not only improve comfort by tightening leaky homes, but it can also save a homeowner as much as 20% to 40% of the cost of their monthly utility bill.

A whole-home energy efficiency retrofit program provides information and, often, financial support to homeowners who want to carry out renovations in their home to reduce their energy consumption. Typical retrofit measures include insulation, air sealing, replacement of inefficient heating and cooling systems with high-efficiency models, and similar measures. State and utility-based energy efficiency retrofit programs have expanded rapidly over the past two years in response to new funding provided by the Federal stimulus programs, and initiatives like the competitive, Better Buildings program, are deliberately encouraging experimentation and innovation. "The study takes a very broad view of what a whole-home retrofit is," LeBaron said. "It's helpful to get a broad cross-section of what's being done.”  The study, entitled Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programs in the U.S.: Financing, Audits and Other Characteristics, is available at www.nhpc.org.  Source: PRNewswire

Smart Appliances: As Fictional as the Jetsons?

Nearly 50 years after the Jetsons first appeared, smart appliances are being discussed seriously as an extension of the smart grid. But is this talk any more real than the Jetsons? Unlike the Jetsons, these smart appliances will not automatically prepare and serve six course meals (unfortunately), but rather use real-time communications to manage their energy usage patterns. Appliance vendors are also expected to continue adding new convenience features, but the biggest benefits should come from shifting high energy usage cycles to off-peak (i.e. low cost) hours. Of course, this presupposes that consumers can take advantage of time-based electricity pricing, enabled by smart meters. And herein lays the rub. While smart meter deployments continue to accelerate, the rollout of robust dynamic pricing options, supported by the Home Area Network (HAN) technology to connect smart appliances, will still take quite some time. Standards issues are being resolved, but the regulatory and political environment for strong dynamic rate design is still in a formative stage.

All the privacy and control issues associated with smart meters come into bold relief when appliances are included in the discussion. Even with these issues resolved, there is lower hanging fruit to be targeted for home energy management (especially HVAC), so consumer awareness and acceptance of these concepts will need to be fairly far along before smart appliances gain significant traction. As consumers understand and use home energy management, smart appliances are likely to take on an important role. Forecasters are predicting that they will make up greater than eight percent of the global household appliance market by the end of the decade, with a significantly higher percentage in North America. So, when we reach the 60th anniversary of the first Jetsons episode, we are likely to finally have some of these "space age" appliances in our homes. Let us just hope that we're not echoing George Jetson's frenzied shouts: "Jane - stop this crazy thing!" Source: Reuters

DOE to Provide $21 Million in Technical Assistance to Improve Energy Use

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that 24 projects are receiving a total of $21 million in technical assistance to significantly reduce the energy used in their commercial buildings. This initiative, supported with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was developed to connect commercial building owners and operators with multidisciplinary teams including researchers at the DOE’s national laboratories and private sector building experts. The DOE said the teams will design, construct, measure, and test low energy building plans and help accelerate the deployment of cost effective, energy saving measures in commercial buildings across the United States. “This initiative will demonstrate to other commercial building operators that cost effective, energy efficient technologies exists today that will help lower the operating and energy costs of their buildings,” said Energy Secretary, Steven Chu.

Through the DOE’s Commercial Building Partnerships, teams comprised of private sector technical experts and personnel from national laboratories will help guide projects to achieve 30 percent measured energy savings in existing buildings and 50 percent energy savings in new construction projects. About half of the two dozen projects focus on energy efficiency upgrades for existing buildings. The DOE said the three-year projects will provide comprehensive business and technical case studies for broad publication, including actual energy performance data from the completed projects, to help spur wider adoption of energy efficient building practices across the industry.  The projects are funded with a public/private cost sharing agreement where the building owners and operators contribute at least 20 percent. The selected building owners and operators also will benefit from learning about measures they can apply across their building portfolios. Source: achrnews.com

EPA Seeks to Extend Timetable for Emissions Standards on Boilers

In a motion filed in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking an extension of the current court-ordered schedule for issuing rules that would reduce emissions from large and small boilers as well as solid waste incinerators. The EPA said the additional time is needed for the agency to re-propose the rules based on a full assessment of comments received since the rules were originally proposed. The rules would cut emissions of pollutants, including mercury and soot, which can cause a range of harmful health effects.  In order to meet a court order requiring the EPA to issue final rules in January 2011, the agency proposed standards in April 2010. While the agency requested and received some information from industry before the proposal, the EPA said the comments received following the proposal shed new light on a number of key areas, including the scope and coverage of the rules and the way to categorize the various boiler types.

Industry groups and others offered this information during the public comment period after the EPA proposed the rule. After reviewing the data and the more than 4,800 public comments, the agency believes it is appropriate to issue a revised proposal that reflects the new data and allows for additional public comment. The EPA has estimated that there are more than 200,000 boilers operating in industrial facilities, commercial buildings, hotels, and universities located in highly populated areas and communities across the country. The EPA has estimated that for every $5 spent on reducing pollutants, the public will see $12 in health and other benefits.  The EPA is under a current court order to issue final rules on January 16th and is seeking in its motion to the court to extend the schedule to finalize the rules by April 2012.For more information, visit: www.epa.gov. Source: EPA