Getting Started

The Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center is organized around the six primary functions that all successful programs consider. Your organization might not handle each of these on its own, but will need to identify resources and partners to ensure each is addressed.

• Market Position & Business Model – Identify your organization’s optimal market position by understanding existing market actors, gaps, competitors, and potential partners. Develop a business model that will allow you to sustainably deliver energy efficiency products and services.
• Program Design & Customer Experience – Design a residential energy efficiency program that provides customers with a positive experience by integrating marketing and outreach, contractor coordination, incentives, financing, and program evaluation in a streamlined way.
• Evaluation & Data Collection – Develop evidence-based insights into your program’s performance through third-party process and impact evaluations. Craft effective data collection strategies and timely evaluations to identify important program achievements as well as opportunities for making improvements.
• Marketing & Outreach – Spur customer demand for your program’s services by understanding your target audience and motivating them to act using effective messaging, marketing and outreach tactics, and attractive program offers.
• Financing – Ensure that your program’s customers have access to affordable financing, so they can pay for the products and services you offer.
• Contractor Engagement & Workforce Development – Engage your most important partners, the workforce that delivers your program’s products and services in customers’ homes. Identify what kinds of support local contractors need to help achieve your program’s goals.

You will see these icons referenced in the Solution Center:

The four program design phases below provide a framework for designing and implementing a successful residential energy efficiency program. These are not necessarily sequential and can be considered concurrently. Designing an effective program is often an iterative process of revisiting several stages in order to establish a program, while continuing to refine your design to achieve your program’s goals.

Strategy Development         

• Assess existing market conditions to decide which customers your program will focus on and the products and services you can provide, to create a program that resonates with your community.
• Define program goals and objectives that encompass marketing, financing, contractor engagement, and workforce development activities.
• Identify and involve partners that can help you administer and deliver your program. Partners can help with marketing, energy assessments, financing, rebates and other incentives, home energy upgrades, quality assurance, and others.
• Design the program that will serve your customers’ needs and meet your program’s goals and objectives.

Planning

• Develop an implementation plan to ensure that all program components work together, from pre-launch to ongoing program delivery.
• Develop metrics and methods for an evaluation plan that will help you understand the effectiveness of your program design and implementation.

Implementation

• Develop program resources that will help you implement your program, create a positive customer experience, and interact effectively with your partners (e.g., lenders and contractors).
• Deliver your program in a coordinated effort to meet the needs of your customers and partners and to achieve your program’s goals.

Evaluation

• Assess and improve your program to identify bottlenecks and to continually refine over time.
• Communicate program impacts to build ongoing support from customers, partners, and other stakeholders.

The Residential Program Solution Center includes detailed guidance, templates, tools, and examples for each step and program component to help you establish or refine a residential energy efficiency program.

You will see these icons referenced in the Solution Center:

The Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center is composed of nearly 60 handbooks.  A handbook is a reference manual that explains why and how to implement specific stages of a residential energy efficiency program. Links to handbooks are designated by the  icon.

Each handbook contains a series of tabs that allows users to quickly identify the type of information and resources they are looking for. The tabs are:

In recent years, hundreds of communities have been working to promote home energy upgrades through programs such as the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR^®, utility-sponsored programs, and others. See the Tips for Success in each handbook or download the handouts below to get started on learning from these programs.

Download Lessons Learned handouts:

• Overarching Program Design Lessons Learned.
• Financing Lessons Learned.
• Marketing & Outreach Lessons Learned.
• Workforce Development Lessons Learned.

Residential Program Solution Center users have the option to register to create a personal user account.  Click “Register” in the upper right corner of the Solution Center and fill out the account information.  By creating a user account, you can enhance and customize your use of the tool. Registered users can:

• Save handbooks and other materials in their customizable “My Favorites” folders. Look for the icon to quickly add content you want to save.
• Subscribe to email updates about Solution Center content. Look for the “Subscriptions” tab in your user account to manage your subscription preferences.