About the Retailer Energy Alliance

Retail buildings in the United States account for approximately 20% of commercial sector energy consumption and represent the fastest growing subsector, making them an important focus for the Department of Energy (DOE). The Retailer Energy Alliance (REA) — the first of the three Commercial Buildings Energy Alliances — was initiated in February 2008 with an Executive Roundtable in Washington, D.C.

The Retailer Energy Alliance steering committee has identified the following areas of interest for exploring best practices and promoting research in energy-efficient design and operation for retail facilities:

Right-sizing of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration equipment and systems
Rooftop HVAC equipment
Refrigerated display cases
Interior and exterior lighting systems
Process and plug loads including maintenance equipment, electronic displays, and cooking equipment
Building-integrated renewable energy supply systems
Central or building-level energy management systems

One of the goals of the REA is to identify new or underused energy efficiency technologies that have significant potential for energy savings in member buildings and to select the most promising of these technologies for technology procurement projects. The REA members, with DOE support, will develop and implement these projects to help advance new technologies in the marketplace. With this goal in mind, the REA conducted a Supplier Summit on June 5, 2008, to open a dialogue between retailers and suppliers about energy-efficient products for the retail sector.

Why Retail?

An increased focus on energy efficiency has been matched by a wave of new technologies that promise to meet the need for a quantum leap in the energy performance of business operations. But many of these technologies are unproven, pose significant operational integration challenges, or are too costly at current prices to meet corporate and shareholder investment expectations.

The retail industry, however, can broadly and quickly adopt certain energy-efficient and renewable energy strategies, in part because retailers build multiple buildings with the same design. And, because of similarities between companies, lessons learned and technologies used in one company are often easily transferred to others. In addition, the retail sector is strategically positioned to increase its reach by influencing the supply stream of materials used in construction.