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Commercial Building Energy Alliances

Suppliers play a critical role in providing energy-saving technologies and strategies. Learn more about how suppliers can participate with the alliances and submit descriptions of new technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Commercial Building Energy Alliances are driven and managed by key industry partners. Their goal is to transform the energy efficiency of commercial buildings. These alliances play a critical role in achieving the goals of the Commercial Building Initiative. Here you will find an overview of the alliances and how they operate.

Alliances Overview

The Commercial Building Energy Alliances (CBEA) work with the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories to help guide research and encourage industry to move toward energy-efficient design and strategies.

  • Retailer Energy Alliance

    Buildings are a huge part of a retailer's operating budget. The Retailer Energy Alliance has attracted large and small retailers who are committed to reducing the energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and overall operating risks of retail businesses.

  • Hospital Energy Alliance

    Energy-efficient hospitals provide great benefits to the people they serve by reducing facility expenses and providing a more comfortable environment. The Hospital Energy Alliance is composed of leading health care companies and industry organizations working toward this common goal.

    In the future, DOE will form other institutional alliances for state governments, local governments, colleges, and universities. These alliances will work to develop strategies leading to present and future cost and energy savings.

  • Commercial Real Estate Energy Alliance

    Those who build, manage, and sell buildings are perhaps most susceptible to volatile energy prices and the effect of greenhouse gas reduction policies on profitability. The Commercial Real Estate Energy Alliance brings together portfolio owners and operators to promote research, technology, and best practices that will improve the energy efficiency of commercial real estate buildings.

Learn more about the research efforts to improve building energy efficiency.

How the Alliances Operate

Alliance members participate in face-to-face meetings, periodic conference calls, and online networking to set goals and strategies. Through these forums, they:

  • Discuss unique energy challenges facing particular building types and industries

  • Share nonproprietary information that can accelerate the adoption of technologies

  • Achieve cost reductions in high-efficiency building equipment through combined purchases

  • Engage building owners conducting energy savings assessments that benchmark energy consumption and identify process and equipment improvements

  • Define potential areas of high-impact research and development

  • Explore variations to system designs suited to specific geographical locations (e.g., evaporative cooling in the southwestern United States).

Members can also reply to solicitations to become National Accounts, which involves committing to work with DOE's technical assistance to construct at least one new building and retrofit at least one existing building. New buildings should achieve at least a 50% improvement in efficiency; existing buildings should achieve at least a 30% improvement, relative to ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004.