Along with the white paper (download the PDF), we also worked with Tom Krymkowski to put together some short interview videos to help people quickly grok the point of the fund. They’re embedded with the release below.

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Manufacturers, schools, churches, and clinics throughout the United States could cut up to $15 billion a year on their energy bills over the next decade, thanks to a pioneering new financial tool launched today by the efficiency-services financer Metrus Energy and CalCEF, an organization focused on accelerating clean energy technologies.

The new Efficiency Resource Fund (the Fund) will provide otherwise hard-to-get financing for small and medium-sized businesses to make energy-efficiency improvements, with no risk and no upfront costs. This innovative approach bridges the funding gap that has stymied these small- and mid-sized retrofit projects—some 4 million buildings nationwide.

“The Efficiency Resource Fund is a trail-blazing investment vehicle that taps a massive, underserved market opportunity,” said Paul Frankel, Managing Director of CalCEF. “We’re enabling a whole class of projects that would otherwise not be completed, while at the same time delivering not just savings for customers but also attractive returns for impact investors and generating capacity for utilities.”

Here’s how it works: The Fund signs an Efficiency Services Agreement (ESA) for up to 10 years with a building owner, and then hires contractors to design, install, measure, and maintain energy-saving improvements. As a result, the customer sees a reduction in its total utility bill, while making buildings more functional, productive, and comfortable. The Fund recoups its investment by billing customers for their realized efficiency gains.

Since the useful life of the energy efficiency equipment continues well beyond the life of the ESA, customers continue to save for years to come.

“We are excited to bring our efficiency finance know-how to the small and medium sized project market. The Fund will enable these customers to access financing to upgrade their facilities and reap all the benefits that energy efficiency has to offer,” said Bob Hinkle, President and CEO of Metrus Energy, the Fund’s manager and creator of the ESA.

The Fund is an especially attractive investment for pension funds of the construction trades. It garners a substantial return on investment, while also generating new local construction jobs that will increase pension contributions. Such targeted investments are becoming more popular throughout the United States. Recently, Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller and trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, urged its portfolio companies to increase investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“There’s a huge amount of money to be saved—and, for investors, earned—by improving energy efficiency throughout our economy and putting professional contractors and skilled tradesmen to work,” said Jim Willson, Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), and a 20-year pension trustee.

The Fund will sell efficiency as a service to building owners and provide tax-exempt returns to private foundations, pension funds, and other community-based financial institutions.

“The Efficiency Resource Fund is a unique opportunity for investors to put money to work in an area that will produce multiple positive outcomes,” said Cathy Halstead, trustee of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, a long-time grantor to CalCEF. “We’ve supported the development of this novel financing mechanism because we see its potential for advancing green buildings, green jobs, emissions reductions, and cost savings for small and medium businesses.”

“We believe this new finance mechanism will help members of business organizations like ours save money by reaching their energy efficiency goals sooner. We want to bring regional chambers of commerce to the table,” said Diane Doucette, Executive Director of Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, a national network of chambers of commerce. “Trade associations and other industry groups, like the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), will be key channels for helping identify suitable projects and for matching them with vetted local contractors.”

The Fund is now accepting customer applications from facility owners who have efficiency retrofit projects that cost less than $1 million.

CalCEF expects to raise $10 million from investors by the end of the year. Details of the Fund are explained in their concept paper, “The Sub-Million Dollar Question: Leveraging Impact Investment and Service Agreements for Small and Mid-Sized Energy Efficiency Projects.”

“California has been ground zero of the housing crisis. At the end of 2011, one out of every three homes were underwater and the state accounted for 26 percent of the nation’s negative equity,” said Lori Bamberger, the report’s lead author and CalCEF Entrepreneur-in-Residence. “By coupling the worlds of borrower protection and energy efficiency, we can protect homeowners from the unforeseen surprise of high energy bills and ultimately stabilize loan portfolios, improve home values and meet our climate targets.”

The report, “Pulling the Trigger: Increasing Home Energy Savings,” [PDF] recommends a set of government and utility initiatives for integrating energy efficiency (EE) retrofits into key trigger moments when homeowners already act and invest resources, such as the time of sale, time of renovation and at the time of energy rate tier increases. By embedding mandatory energy disclosures, customized financial incentives and system upgrades into these ordinary and revolving events, policymakers can mobilize large-scale residential EE improvements and stimulate the nation’s economic development.

“This report identifies the most promising moments of opportunity for improving a home’s energy performance during its life cycle,” said Stockton Williams, HR&A Advisors, former senior advisor, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. Department of Energy. “Its recommendations provide practical, common sense steps that policymakers can take to help families save money by living in more energy efficient and environmentally responsible homes.”

CalCEF identified four categories of actions—disclose, enforce, incentivize, and finance—to be implemented at each trigger event. Recommendations include:

• Disclose the energy costs and efficiency of a home at the time of sale and standardize an energy feature list for all the Multiple Listing Services (MLS).
• Re-target and customize existing EE incentive programs and funding to better serve homeowners at each trigger point.
• Enforce stricter standards and permitting requirements to qualify access to incentives for energy upgrades.
• Broaden the distribution of utilities’ tier-alert notifications to all ratepayers and include warnings on the long-term costs of high-tier rates, offering consumers that remain in upper energy rate tiers an EE upgrade – and funds from averted costs — to reduce consumption.
• Develop modifications to existing mortgage financing, refinancing and home equity products that incentivize and incorporate EE.

Greater efficiency will reduce and stabilize home energy expenses, reducing household indebtedness and protecting the homeowner’s ability to make mortgage payments.

“Understanding a prospective home’s utility costs gives borrowers a more educated decision about home affordability, and results in a marginally lower risk for financial institutions,” said Brad Blackwell, Executive Vice President and Portfolio Business Manager of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

The whitepaper is the outcome of a series of convenings and interviews with critical stakeholders from the energy efficiency, utility, real estate, construction and banking industries as well as state and federal legislators. CalCEF will continue its leadership role in collaborating with these stakeholders to progress California’s Energy Efficiency Program for Existing Buildings (AB 758) and through ongoing CPUC EE financing proceedings.

About CalCEF
CalCEF works to promote the transition to a clean energy economy by creating institutions and investment vehicles that grow markets for clean energy technologies. CalCEF is a non-profit umbrella organization that pursues statewide and national agendas via two affiliated entities governed by separate boards of directors comprised of prominent policy makers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and financial professionals. CalCEF Innovations, a 501(c)(3), leads CalCEF’s analysis and product development, designing real-world solutions—market strategies, business models, and public policies—that rapidly advance clean energy adoption. The California Clean Energy Fund, a 501(c)(4), executes and scales the CalCEF investment strategy via a fund-of-funds model, partnering with leading investment managers.

About BlueGreen Alliance
The BlueGreen Alliance is a national, strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. Launched in 2006 by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, this unique labor-environmental collaboration has grown to include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Wildlife Federation (NWF), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), United Auto Workers (UAW), and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The BlueGreen Alliance unites 14 million members and supporters in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy.

About UC Berkeley Labor Center
The Center for Labor Research and Education (Labor Center) is a public service and outreach program of the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (formerly the Institute of Industrial Relations). Founded in 1964, the Labor Center conducts research and education on issues related to labor and employment. The Labor Center’s curricula and leadership trainings serve to educate a diverse new generation of labor leaders. The Labor Center carries out research on topics such as job quality and workforce development issues, and we work with unions, government, and employers to develop innovative policy perspectives and programs. We also provide an important source of research and information on unions and the changing workforce for students, scholars, policymakers and the public.

The University of California at San Diego (UCSD) has a long history of self-reliance when it comes to energy. Opened in 1960, the university came of age in an era of energy awareness, and its founders sought to position the campus as a home for leading-edge science and technology research.

Today, by embracing clean energy technologies in its operations and by collecting data to build an ambitious long-term sustainability plan, UCSD offers a glimpse into the future. While academics and research are at the core of UCSD’s energy initiatives, the university has also worked to integrate advanced energy technology into its campus. An on-site cogeneration plant, completed in the 1990s, produces more than 87% of electricity consumed. But beginning in 2006, the campus challenged itself to go further and develop an energy-independent microgrid.

Today, the campus produces 92% of its own energy. It’s striving to go further with a combination of new clean energy resources, additional on-site generation and storage, and innovative demand-reduction strategies. The cornerstone of this effort is the OSIsoft PI System, which gathers data from hundreds of sensors, serves as a universal translator that synchronizes and coordinates operations of the campus’ complex energy assets, and supports UCSD’s efforts to create a sustainable environment for learning and innovation.

Download the case study from Sustainable Industries

“…It’s just plain spectacular, from content to design to delivery, and I’m proud to distribute it.

[T]his past week, my visit with [a potential client] included two lead communications people. The report stopped them in their tracks, and in the best way, brought the meeting to a halt. [...] They poured over every page and raved about what a top drawer job this “magazine” is. I love that they call it a “magazine”.

At [potential client #2], the CEO, who summed up our meeting with the words “Would somebody please tell me why we wouldn’t do this?” was so drawn into the report that I don’t think he heard a word of my presentation.

Kudos and thanks for a really great job which, once again, makes me proud to be on the B Corp team.”

— Yola Carlough, Northeast Community Development, B Lab

But my favorite pieces in this year’s report are those that show off the B Corps themselves. The “Best for the World” feature looks at companies that have achieved top scores on the B Impact Assessment, both overall and by category. “Rockstars of the New Economy” profiles companies that have performed well on both financial metrics and the community, environmental, and employee impact areas that earn companies B Corp certification in the first place. There are some wonderful, creative people running B Corps, and I loved getting to chat with them about their work.

Check out the full report here.

See select press coverage on the report here.

This piece was also published at Streetsblog San Francisco