Pete DeMarco, senior director of special programs for the IAPMO Group, testified on April 16 before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over appropriations related to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of the Interior, and other government departments and programs, heard Mr. DeMarco's remarks during two days of public witness hearings held April 16-17, 2013, in Washington, DC. During his testimony, Mr. DeMarco - who serves as the co-chair of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC) Working Group (WG) 1, Building energy and water assessment and performance standards, along with Stephanie Reiniche, manager of standards for ASHRAE - highlighted the important work being done by the collaborative, while also addressing important priorities related to water use, water efficiency, and water conservation. Both IAPMO and ASHRAE are ANSI members and audited designators.
"The objective of the collaborative is to assess the energy and water-efficiency standardization landscape, and carry out the development of an EESCC roadmap and compendium," Mr. DeMarco said during his testimony. "The standardization roadmap is intended to identify what standards, codes, and conformance programs are available or under development, what gaps exist, and what additional standardization activities are needed to advance energy and water efficiency in the United States; and to support the adoption and implementation of standards, codes, and conformance activities among the public and private sectors."
The EESCC is a cross-sector initiative dedicated to increasing awareness, adoption, and implementation of standards, codes, and conformance activities related to energy efficiency in the built environment among policy makers and the market. The EESCC working groups were formed in November 2012 [see related article] and have been meeting regularly since December to begin carrying out the standards needs assessment process and to lay the strategic groundwork for their portion of the roadmap [see related article].
The EESCC encourages interested parties to become more directly involved in its work by becoming a member of the Collaborative. Broad and varied participation is essential to ensuring that important decisions on the future of energy efficiency are made through consensus and collaboration. To learn more about the benefits of joining the collaborative, as well as other important information, please visit www.ansi.org/eescc.
To read Mr. DeMarco's full remarks, click here.
