Blog Posts

The Latest

IMT’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2018—Efficiency Onward!

This year has been a breakthrough for climate action in the midst of enormous challenges. As devastating impacts and warning signs mounted, city governments, businesses, real estate leaders, and individuals took on a new level of urgency to deploy solutions that will reduce carbon emissions and move us faster towards a cleaner, more energy-efficient future. … Continued

What You Should Know: Fort Collins’ New Benchmarking Ordinance

After more than a year of private sector and community engagement, Fort Collins, Colo., became the 25th U.S. city to pass a benchmarking and transparency policy for privately owned buildings on December 4. This is a key step in accomplishing Fort Collins’ ambitious climate goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, and follows the City’s … Continued

How PowerForward Can Advance Ohio’s Energy Goals Through Better Data Access

Utilities across the U.S. are continuing to push ahead on grid modernization plans in order to improve reliability and offer their customers new products and services. A recent process you may have heard of is PowerForward, which is being spearheaded by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to envision an Ohio-specific modern electric grid. … Continued

Chicago Launches First Building Energy Rating System in the U.S.

Cities are prime venues in which we can tackle climate change by crafting and implementing proven, common-sense building energy efficiency interventions that reduce energy consumption, save money, and cut back harmful emissions associated with energy generation and use. In this post, we take a look at Chicago’s new building energy rating system and how it … Continued

Small Business Energy Changemakers: Nicole Stika

The Small Business Energy Initiative is led by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the Greater Cleveland Partnership/Council of Smaller Enterprises (GCP/COSE). With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Initiative is partnering with local chambers of commerce and similar small business organizations from five regions across the country to arm them with leading-edge … Continued

Setting Your City Up for Success at the Public Utilities Commission

This post is the third in a three-part series that helps local governments understand why working with utility regulators matters, what they can achieve, and how to set themselves up for success. Read part one here and part two here. In my last post, I talked about Montgomery County, Maryland, which engages at Maryland Public … Continued

Working with Utility Regulators: The Montgomery County Success Story

This post is the second in a three-part series that helps local governments understand why working with utility regulators matters, what they can achieve, and how to set themselves up for success. Read part one here and part three here. Cities across the U.S. are beginning to engage more directly with their energy utilities to achieve … Continued

Collaboration Opportunity: NYC’s Building Energy Label

New York City has embarked on a groundbreaking effort to grow awareness of building energy use by establishing building energy efficiency labels (“grades”) beginning in 2020. The labels are intended to be valuable to you—the community and local market actors—and the city needs your help.  NYSERDA, the New York Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and the Institute … Continued