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FAQs for Companies
The Climate Corps program embeds trained MBA students in companies to identify cost-effective energy efficiency improvements. Climate Corps Fellows spend up to three months identifying and analyzing savings opportunities. They also develop detailed investment and implementation plans that help businesses cut costs and reduce emissions. Their host companies in turn commit to opening up their financial and operational records, providing senior level support and sharing results.
Last year, we had 7 companies and 7 fellows participate. Our first class of Climate Corps Fellows uncovered efficiencies in lighting, computer equipment, and heating and cooling systems that will help the host companies to:
• Save $35 million in net operational costs over five years
• Cut 120 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year—enough to power 10,000 homes
• Reduce over 57,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year— equivalent to taking more than 7,000 SUVs off the road.
This year, we plan to scale up to place 30 fellows in companies across the US.
10 weeks over summer in 2009. The exact weeks will depend on the individual fellow's school schedule.
What is the company’s HR commitment?
The Fellow will be working onsite at the company for the 10 weeks and will therefore need an HR contact, a direct manager, a higher-level supervisor, a workstation, a telephone, a desk, security access, etc.
EDF will host a 3-day training at the start of the fellowship, which includes a copy of the Climate Corps Handbook. There will also be opportunities to interact with EDF staff throughout the summer when specific questions arise.
It is our experience that energy audits take months to schedule and months to complete. The Climate Corps fellow will not have the technical training to perform an energy audit. If no energy audit has been performed, the fellow must have access to internal engineers with the capability to identify efficiency upgrades. The Climate Corps fellow will analyze the identified efficiency measures and make the financial case for making the investments.
The personnel requirements to being a host company are: having an enthusiastic and supportive high-level sponsor, an accessible day-to-day manager and also facilities staff who are invested in the project. To help make the case for these investments, the Climate Corps fellow needs to have access to energy and financial information.
This fellowship is designed to focus on analyzing and facilitating energy efficiency investments. Fellows are chosen for their ability to do financial analyses, project manage and help facilitate organizational change. EDF is only able to help financially support the Fellows and run the Climate Corps program if the projects create direct environmental results in the form of identified energy and monetary savings. This should be the main focus of every fellow’s workplan. Having said that, past fellows have had adequate time to augment their workplans with additional initiatives beyond identifying and analyzing energy efficiency investments.
What support will the companies receive?
EDF and Net Impact will host an orientation call at the beginning of the summer and 2 check-in calls during the program for companies.
What will EDF and Net Impact provide?
- Recruit qualified and interested MBA-fellows
- Train and support the MBA-fellow throughout the 10-week fellowship
- Provide each fellow with the Climate Corps Handbook, a how-to guide on identifying and analyzing energy efficiency investments in office buildings
- Pay a portion of the fellow’s salary
- Aggregate and analyze dollars invested and saved and energy saved through the Climate Corps program
- Publicize the participation of companies in our marketing materials
- Be available for follow-up consultations for one year after fellowship completion
- Provide a dedicated high-level project sponsor for the fellow as well as a dedicated manager
- Make relevant records and information available to the fellow (energy bills, purchase records, facilities records, etc.)
- Ensure the fellow has adequate support from relevant departments like facilities, IT and purchasing
- Invest in a building energy audit
- Pay a portion of the fellow’s salary
- Execute the investment plan presented by the fellow, where feasible
- Continue to track energy use on a ongoing basis
- Provide Environmental Defense Fund with updates on energy use, investments and implementation of energy efficiency measures six months and 1 year after the fellowship is complete
What are some sample outcomes of the program?
All fellows will be asked to submit the information in this grid for aggregation at the end of the summer.
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Initial Investment |
NPV (5% discount rate) |
Annual Savings |
Payback (years) |
Energy Savings (kWh/yr) |
| Lighting |
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| Office Equipment |
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| HVAC |
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| Other |
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Fellows will develop a detailed internal report based on the workplan developed by the company and the fellow.
Here is an outline of a sample report:
1. Major products and outputs of your summer work
- Include relevant statistics (e.g. building square feet, number of employees working in buildings, etc.)
- Attach all written work products/presentation slides (omitting information not covered under EDF’s NDA as necessary)
2. Recommended investment opportunities/actions for host company, including the grid above
- Short term (3-6 months) implementation
- Medium term (6 months-1 year) implementation
- Long term (1-5 years) implementation
3. Barriers to increased investment in energy efficiency identified at host company
- Internal operational barriers
- Internal financial barriers
- External (e.g. leasing) barriers
- Other barriers as applicable
The aggregate results of this program will be made public in order to maximize both environmental and business benefits. However, EDF will not refer to any company’s program or results publicly without prior written approval. EDF’s objective is to demonstrate that energy efficiency saves energy and saves companies money. EDF staff will follow-up with the host companies to find out whether identified measures are implemented and the resulting energy savings. EDF will aggregate these savings over time to give an overall picture of how much money companies can save with energy efficiency. EDF will also take salient stories and anecdotes from the Fellow’s reports to further make the case for energy efficiency. Any public statements about a company will be forwarded to the company for approval.
Please contact Sitar Mody at smody@netimpact.org to host a Fellow today!
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