Going Green

The Energy Efficiency Opportunity Study

Summer 2007

Confirmed Member Participants

Representatives:

Companies:

David Dollihite

Carol Priefert

Direct Energy

Whirlpool Corporation

•Within the last 24 months the United States has reached a tipping point around “Green” and “Sustainable” attitudes both in the consumer market and more important in the business sector.

•Corporations currently are trying to drive and understand their role in this emerging green and sustainable value chain.

•In addition Corporations are trying to define internally and externally what green and sustainable means to their products and services.

Opportunity Landscape

•Embedded intelligence and connectivity could play a key enabling role in facilitating consumers and corporations to “Go Green”.

•Systemic inter-operability and connectivity could allow control to be placed in the hands of those individuals who can impact resource conservation the most…consumers.

•Cost benefit needs of the consumer, and business need to be identified and addressed so that a profitable business model can proliferate that supports “Going Green”. In other words develop consumer opportunities that create the least amount of, or no pain at all to “Go Green”…..better yet create incentive to do so.

Opportunity Landscape cont…

The Going Green Study is intended to be a consumer facing research project which seeks to understand consumers willingness to act “Green” both today and in the future. What environmental principles are people willing to act upon, and what will provide them with the motivation to “Go Green”? Misc examples include:

•Do they need to see a financial return to themselves (ROI) orare they willing to invest in new products or technologies just because it is "the right thing to do"?  Are there ways to measure thiscontinuum?

•Do their choices change as the cost of the investment goes up?Are their choices dependant upon their income level and the % of disposable income at stake?

•Cost can have a number of elements: money, inconvenience,time, personal discomfort, etc. How do these elements rank against each other?

Research Purpose

•Are consumers interested in relative improvements (e.g.  Ijust saved $100, used less electricity or reduced my carbon footprint -good for me!) or in an absolute level (I want to be carbon neutral, nomatter how much it hurts)?  How does this attitude effect their choices?

•Who are they looking towards to help them with this process?Are they looking to each of the product manufacturers or would they likesome central entity to bring it all together for them and help themimprove (like a utility co.)?

Research Purpose Continued

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract

•How could connectivity and centralized control enable energy conservation?

•What is the consumer preference for interface and location of the “centralized control” in the home?

•What would consumers being will to pay for such an enablement?

•What could the government do legislatively to incentives consumers to “go green” and become more energy efficient?

•To provide member companies of the IHA-RC with an updated view of the importance of power efficiency to consumers in the home which they can use to chart future direction for their products and their vendors.

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract

•What devices (ex: Plasma TV’s) and infrastructure (ex: HVAC) in the home today consume power even when they are not in use? (The proliferation of such devices and infrastructure is contrary to energy conservation and efficiency trends).

•What is the current level of consumer awareness around these devices?

•What is willingness on the part of the consumer to replace these devices for more energy efficient alternatives (ex: Higher rated energy star Washer/Dryers)?

•What sorts of products and or managed services could be developed around energy efficiency (ex: Green Mortgages)?

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract

•How much of the residential energy bill can be impacted by selecting more efficient household devices and infrastructure compared to status quo?

•Is the need for energy efficiency effected by geography and "green" attitudes?

•Are manufacturers making any efforts to reduce power consumption?

•Would consumers be interested in more energy efficient products and services if there were incentives and in want form?

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract

•What environmental principles are people willing to act upon?

•Do they need to see a financial return to themselves (ROI) orare they willing to invest in new products or technologies just becauseit is "the right thing to do"?  Are there ways to measure thiscontinuum? • Do their choices change as the cost of the investment goes up?

•Are their choices dependant upon their income level and the %of disposable income at stake?

•Cost can have a number of elements: money, inconvenience,time, personal discomfort, etc

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract

•Are consumers interested in relative improvements (e.g.  Ijust saved $100, used less electricity or reduced my carbon footprint -good for me!) or in an absolute level (I want to be carbon neutral, nomatter how much it hurts)?  How does this attitude effect their choices?

•Who are they looking towards to help them with this process?Are they looking to each of the product manufacturers or would they like some central entity to bring it all together for them and help themimprove (like a utility co.)?

Key Learning’s We Want to Extract•Understanding what services and devices that consumers would like to control from the centralized control center.

•What is the preference for that control center or interface location?

•What does the usage model preference look like compared to a physical location (Ex: Phone/Flat Panel VS Kitchen/Bedroom)

•What do consumers do today to be green?

•Is ROI really important in making a green decision to the consumer?

•What is a reasonable payback period to the consumer?

How will the research be executed?

The team comprised of the supporting companies (steering committee) will work with an identified research company to determine the best methodologies to move forward with.

With that said the following methodologies could be employed:

•Focus Groups.

•Geographic Consumer Surveys.

•Industry Surveys.

•One on One Interviews.

•Various other Quantitative and Qualitative methods.

•Ethnographic/Observational Research

Potential Recruits

•SAMSUNG

•AMX Corporation

•Direct Energy

•Bell Canada

•Sprint Nextel Corporation

•BOSCH

•Control 4

•Crestron Electronics Inc.

•Philips Lighting Electronics

•Exceptional Innovations

•Johnson Controls Ltd

•Honeywell International Inc.

•Siemens Buildings Technology, Inc.

•Lutron Electronics Co. Inc.

•Monster

•Panasonic Corporation of North America

•P&G

•Sony Electronics, Inc.

•SAVANT

•Sempra Energy

•Smart Labs Inc.

•Spitfire Controls, Inc.

•Intel Corporation

•Hewlett - Packard Company

•Logitek

•Cisco Systems, Inc.

•Whirlpool Corporation

•Microsoft Corporation

•AMD

•Carrier

•GE Security

•LG

•Sharp Labs

•Sharp Consumer Products

•Nortel

•Ericsson

•Nokia

•Motorola Inc.

•LG

•Texas Instruments

•Tartan Homes

Potential Recruits cont…

Potential Media Partnerships

•Time Magazine

•NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC News.com etc….

Due to the timely nature of the subject matter, and the potential companies involved in the research, a partnership could be formed at the beginning of the project with a large media partner who could guarantee publication of the key data points in the marketplace. The Team would need to rationalize this decision within their own organizations and weight the possible return of good exposure associated with the subject matter. Examples being:

Going Green

The Energy Efficiency Opportunity Study

Summer 2007