Earth Advantage Partners with US Department of Energy on Home Energy Information Accelerator
June 2, 2015 | By: Erik Cathcart
The DOE Better Buildings Initiative is a national effort calling on private, public, and nonprofits to make substantial commitments to improve building energy efficiency. The Better Buildings Accelerators are designed to demonstrate specific innovative policies and approaches and once successfully proven, used to accelerate investment in energy efficiency across homes, buildings, and industrial facilities.
DOE kicked off the Home Energy Information Accelerator with a White House Round Table on May 27th. Earth Advantage’s Executive Director, David Heslam, was at the table to pledge Earth Advantage’s participation. According to Heslam, “This is a great opportunity for Oregon to again take the lead on documenting home energy performance. By working with RMLS™, real estate professionals, appraisers and other key stakeholders we’ll propose ways in which home performance records, like the EPS® or 3rd Party Home Certifications can be made more easily available to homeowners and home buyers.”
The Regional Multiple Listing Service will be a leader in the Oregon effort. “We look forward to making it easy for real estate professionals to include home energy performance information in their listings,” said Christina Smestad, Business Analyst / Policy Manager for Regional Multiple Listing Service. Additional partners in the Oregon effort are the Oregon Department of Energy and Clean Energy Works.
About Earth Advantage
Earth Advantage is a Portland, Oregon based nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate the creation of better buildings. They provide knowledge to building professionals and information to consumers through certification, research, education, and product development to help realize a building industry that harmonizes with the natural environment.
About Regional Multiple Listing Service
Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS™) is the Northwest’s largest REALTOR®-owned multiple listing service, serving approximately 11,500 real estate professionals in over 2,400 offices throughout Oregon and Southern Washington. The RMLS™ database holds an archive of over 1.6 million listings, including about 25,000 active listings (plus or minus depending on the season), and over two million tax records.
