The ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform

Appliances, consumer electronics, and other plug loads in the home contribute an estimated 15-20 percent of residential energy use. Energy efficiency programs run by utilities and other organizations have traditionally offered consumer rebates to incentivize the purchase of more energy efficient ENERGY STAR-certified options. With the success of these programs, the per-unit energy savings opportunity has decreased, and utilities struggle to justify rebate amounts sufficient to motivate consumers and attract retailer interest.

The ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform (ESRPP) offers an entirely new approach to bring energy-efficient products to consumers and is designed to capture remaining, hard-to-reach energy savings. In the long term, the ESRPP is expected to offer a gateway for energy efficiency programs to capture energy savings in the growing “miscellaneous/plug load” product categories at a significantly lower cost than current programs incur.

A nationwide collaboration, the ESRPP allows participants to leverage each other’s resources and shared objectives, to avoid duplication of effort and redundancy across neighboring service territories, and to streamline operations. The focus is asking retailers to take a more comprehensive view of energy-efficient products and providing them with incentives from utilities and other energy efficiency program sponsors to change their inventories to sell increasing numbers of ENERGY STAR certified products. Taking a national grassroots approach, the ESRPP has created voluntary working groups dedicated to developing key program pillars, including: evaluation, measurement and verification, data management, product specifications, marketing, field services, and implementation, and outreach.

Who Is Participating In 2016, its first pilot year, eight program sponsors representing 11 states and almost 15 percent of the U.S. are participating in the ESRPP. ENERGY STAR certified models in five product categories are being promoted by program sponsor-labeled signage in almost 700 stores. By the end of 2017, the program is expected to expand to serve approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population through increased program sponsor and retailer participation.

Select Resources

ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform 1-Pager (PDF, 339 KB)

This brief document provides a high-level overview of the ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform and provides a good starting point for those looking to learn more about the program.

ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform Pitch Deck (PDF, 590 KB)

Program Sponsors and others interested in learning more about the ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform can use this document to learn more about the process, structure, and status of key program tasks. This document also provides a brief introduction to the need for change in traditional energy efficiency programs.

ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform Sample Filing Language (PDF, 423 KB)

This document is intended to serve as a resource/template for Program Sponsors wishing to secure approval for pilot/programs. It includes several key pieces of information that can be modified to reflect assumptions that are unique to individual sponsors’ service territories prior to filing.

Additional Resources

Additional resources are available upon request, including:

• Evaluation: Evaluation Approaches Guidance, FAQs, and Data Resources
• Data: Data Management Services Procurement Guidance
• Products: Product Savings Analysis, Product Transition and Introduction Guidance
• Marketing/Field Services: Signage Templates, Field Services Toolkit, Letters of Authorization
• Legal: Participation Agreements