City of New Orleans
At a Glance
Industry
Government/Public Administration
Project Types
Commercial Energy Efficiency, Data Analysis, Industrial Energy Efficiency
Year
2018
Location
New Orleans, LA
Summary
Hitesh Goyal helped the City of New Orleans conduct an energy challenge to encourage buildings to lower their energy use, and laid the foundation for an energy benchmarking policy.
Goals
As part of its ambitious Climate Action Strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, the City of New Orleans launched the Downtown NOLA Energy Challenge in an effort to help buildings lower their energy use. Buildings in the downtown area engaged in a friendly competition to benchmark and reduce their energy consumption, with prizes and recognition awarded at the end of the contest. The City is also planning to implement Energy Benchmarking Policy and was looking for recommendations for the policy. For help, they brought on board EDF Climate Corps fellow Hitesh Goyal.
Solutions
Goyal worked with the judging committee to finalize the parameters for the challenge and followed up with 40 participants to assist with data collection and troubleshooting. He ensured data integrity and analyzed ENERGY STAR Portfolio Management submissions to identify challenge winners. He then provided recommendations for the future versions of challenge based on the lessons learned during the first challenge.
Goyal also assisted in hosting five Big Building stakeholder engagement sessions and presented his findings to the building managers and representatives of non-profits in the city. He researched energy benchmarking policies of different cities and provided input on a policy that New Orleans could adopt.
Potential Impact
The first downtown energy challenge was a success, with more than 17 million square feet of the downtown area participating. With Goyal’s assistance, the City is in a better position to pass and implement an energy benchmarking policy.