What’s the best way to set goals, provide incentives, and measure energy-efficiency contributions? To think through the answer, I’d like to walk you through a typical scenario. Big National Company wants to get more efficient because it’s good for the bottom line and shows good stewardship of global resources. The company plans to make efficiency happen through some combination of:

• Capital investments to upgrade inefficient equipment
• Staff training on energy best practices
• Financial incentives to keep engineers and building managers focused on the objective over the long haul

First Stop: Goal-Setting Time

Here’s the part where a bunch of smart people get together and collaborate on how to turn the objectives and rough plan into specific goals and incentive levels. Questions of incentive fairness start to build, such as:

• How will we measure the results to ensure value to the company?
• How much incentive will be paid, to whom, for what level of performance?
• How do we make the goals equitable for staff in widely different buildings and climates?
• Can ...