This group started with Macalester students
thinking about how to take energy efficiency improvements, already
applied to commerical and institutional settings, and apply it to
communities at a grand scale. Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) have
secured much of the market for energy efficiency at the commerical
scale, but residential and small business ventures are almost
untouched, largely because the small scale makes implementation less
cost effective and logistically much more difficult. However, much of
the energy saving potential is concentrated in these small entities,
and cutting their energy use is an essential step towards building
sustainable communities that can be powered by clean energy. This
working group seeks to solve the problems surrounding community-level
project aggregation, service contracting, financing using mechanisms
like revolving funds,
neighborhood development, and community organizing surrounding
implementing energy efficiency improvements at a community level.