Helping banks to measure the decarbonization impact of their loan portfolio.
To help banks and financial institutions assess and finance energy efficiency projects, the Efficiency Valuation Organization just released a white paper titled What Financial Institutions Need to Consider for Measuring and Monitoring the Decarbonization Impact of Energy Efficiency Loans.
For financial institutions, financing energy efficiency measures is a market opportunity for new debt products that improve customers' economic conditions while contributing to sustainability and green finance targets required by investors, regulatory authorities, and governments.
Banks and financial institutions will be increasingly important in mobilizing capital to mitigate and decarbonize the economy. As this role extends to energy efficiency financing, savings need formal validation with effective measurement and verification (M&V) analytical framework accompanied by structured monitoring strategies.
As stated in the white paper, determining a loan operation's energy savings or avoided energy consumption is uncertain because savings represent the absence of energy use and thus cannot be directly measured. Instead, savings are determined and quantified by comparing measured consumption before and after the implementation of a project. The same logic applies to avoided emissions.
M&V is the key to transforming energy savings and avoided emissions into tradable assets. M&V is thus a powerful management tool that increases confidence in reported energy savings by reducing uncertainty and safeguarding against potential misrepresentation and greenwashing.
The quality of these assets depends fundamentally on the quality of the M&V process.
One of the goals in creating the IPMVP was to make it a living document that includes methodologies and procedures that enable the protocol to evolve and adapt to changing market conditions and new technologies.
In its earlier days, the IPMVP was maintained by the United States Department of Energy. After a few years, it was decided that the mandate of preserving and improving the IPMVP over time would best be guaranteed under the auspices of a not-for-profit organization: IPMVP Inc. was created in 2001, and the organization was renamed Efficiency Valuation Organization (EVO) in 2003.
EVO is thriving as the world's only organization solely dedicated to a mission of providing tools to quantify energy efficiency business transactions. EVO is a global think-tank where experts meet to discuss and debate new ideas and consensually agree on new M&V solutions to fit the changing market needs. The IPMVP is the result of a remarkable collaborative effort among the industry. And this tradition of excellence continues to this day through the work of EVO's IPMVP Committee.
Today, EVO shines around the world as the M&V leader. EVO's products and services cover a broad spectrum of energy efficiency and measurement and verification related activities, including protocol development, training, and industry professionals certification.
EVO is present on all continents. The IPMVP and related application guides are available in different languages. Its flagship training program, M&V Fundamentals and IPMVP, reaches out to hundreds of participants annually thanks to a global network of training partners.
EVO is a non-profit organization whose products and services help people engineer and invest in energy efficiency projects worldwide.
EVO´s Vision is to create a world that has confidence in energy efficiency as a reliable and sustainable energy resource.
EVO´s Mission is to ensure that the savings and impact of energy efficiency and sustainability projects are accurately measured and verified.
The MAVCON 2017 conference took place in Birmingham (UK) on November 16. Denis Tanguay, Executive Director of EVO made the opening presentation discussing his impression of the M&V industry after 18 months in post and also presented current EVO’s priorities. On the picture, we recognize Richard Hipkiss, chairman of the conference and chairman of the Energy Services and Technology Association (ETSA), Denis Tanguay, and Vilnis Verma the conference organiser. MAVCON 2018 will take place on November 15, 2018.
ESTA is a representative trade body for businesses providing energy-saving products, advice, services and training, and acts as the UK Training Partner for EVO.