Better Buildings Case Competition 2012

The DOE held its first Better Buildings Case Competition on March 2, 2012 on the White House Campus. Students from 19 universities from around the country traveled to DC to present their ideas on four different case studies. Reviewing student ideas, from left: Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council; Energy Secretary Chu; and Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency.

University Teams Present their Proposals

University teams-led by their respective energy clubs-are challenged to analyze case studies focusing on a range of barriers to energy efficiency faced by private-sector organizations and state and local governments. The case studies consist of real scenarios, background information, and data provided primarily by Partners in the Better Buildings Challenge program, a broad public-private partnership working to achieve President Obama's goal of making America's commercial and industrial buildings 20 percent more efficient by 2020.

Judges Weigh the Proposals

Houston Judges(from left to right) Nandini Mouli-Business Manager with the Maryland Energy Administration, Billi Romain-Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Berkeley, Mona Khalil-Senior Energy Analyst at U.S. DOE, and Dean Fisher-Program Manager with the Maryland Energy Administration.

A Student Participant Presents

Shane Stanfield, a first year MBA student at University of California, Irvine, presents his team's HEI Hotel case on ways that hotel owners and brands can work within the guidelines of the franchise ownership agreement to promote energy efficiency projects and other socially responsible programs.

A Student Participant Presents

Noah Walker, a first year MBA-Master of Environmental Management joint degree student at Yale University, presents his team's Cassidy Turley Office case on solutions to the classic multitenant office building retrofit scenario, where the challenges of limited capital and split incentives between owners and tenants must be solved in order to implement energy efficiency projects.

Annoucing the Winners

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the winners and congratulated them for their efforts to address some of the most consistent and stubborn barriers in energy efficiency. The winners included Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, The George Washington University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, University of Colorado Denver, and University of Southern California.

Students Get a Behind-The-Scenes Tour

Eric Jeremiah (front-center), Chief Engineer of Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, leads Patrick DiCiaccio and Monica Neukomm (U.S. DOE, far left) and a group of 2012 Better Buildings Case Competition students on a behind-the-scenes tour of the hotel's energy efficiency measures.

Better Buildings Case Competition

As part of the Better Buildings Initiative, the DOE engages collegiate students through the Better Buildings Case Competition. This competition provides the next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and policymakers with skills and experience to start careers in clean energy and generates creative solutions to real-world problems to be used as models by businesses and other organizations across the marketplace. Through the Better Buildings Case Competition, the DOE seeks creative and innovative solutions for energy efficiency that could be implemented by the commercial industry, thereby serving as "models for success".

The inaugural Better Buildings Case Competition was held on Friday, March 2, 2012 at the White House campus. Students from 19 universities traveled across the country to compete in an all day workshop. The student teams competed to find the best solutions to the energy efficiency challenges presented in real-world case studies for the City of Houston, the District of Columbia, HEI Hotels and Resorts, and Cassidy Turley, More information on the specific case studies and criteria for selection is available HERE.

The Better Buildings Challenge program is a broad public-private partnership working to achieve President Obama's goal of making America's commercial and industrial buildings 20 percent more efficient by 2020.