CEEA's first webinar Big Buildings Big Data

If energy efficiency has been around for about 35 years our real challenge today is how to keep going after tackling the so-called low-hanging fruit. How do we accelerate energy efficiency? That was the question posed by Philippe Dunsky, president, Dunsky Energy Consulting, as he moderated CEEA's first webinar Big Data, Big Buildings. You can now listen to the webinar in full.

Some of the session's key takeaways
To Dunsky big data plays a critical role in pointing to more opportunities, allowing for more effective marketing, outreach and design, and ultimately cost efficiencies. The panelists, all CEEA members, added to the discussion and talked about how they were using big data expand the reach energy efficiency.

Brian Bowen, Regulatory Affairs and Market Development manager, FirstFuel, discussed the importance of combining traditional push consumer engagement with a pull approach. First Fuel specializes in zero-touch analytics. It's a customer intelligence platform...MORE

Even though Parliament is not in session yet, it's incredibly busy in Ottawa as the new government takes shape and MPs, cabinet ministers and the bureaucracy begin setting their agendas. With so much going CEEA was still able to give participating members a full day of meetings and briefings on November 18 with insiders about what the new federal government means for the business of energy efficiency.

Public servants, mandate letters and other opportunities for EE
The opening session, presented by the Pearson Foundation for Progressive Policy, looked at the "new" Ottawa from three different perspectives: the journalist; the senior bureaucrat; and the lobbyist. All of our panelists talked about the refreshing openness of government and the resurgence of the bureaucrat, which means bureaucrats might be able to once again influence government after being limited in their reach by the previous Conservative government.

Reporter Susan Delacourt spent considerable time with Mr. Trudeau during the election campaign and found him to be a true pan-Canadian who wants to reflect the country and not just Ottawa. She stressed the importance of reviewing the Liberal platform and what has been said because she believes he will be true to his word. She also referred to the importance of the recently released mandate letters to each minister, which are essentially a blueprint for the next four years.
Susan Scotti, a senior vice president at the Canadian Council of Chief Executives indicated some of the challenges that senior public servants will be facing. She pointed out that most ministers do not have staff - and that briefing notes are often written by those below the Director level - so we cannot....MORE