Sidney W. Davidson III
Utilities Conservation Company
Davidson is one of the founders of Utilities Conservation Company (UCC).
UCC is focused on energy efficiency in the built environment and believes that
a) through evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) and constant commissioning
(CCx---the real time monitoring and fine tuning of systems (principally HVAC, lighting, and plug loads))
that the consumer can substantially reduce their energy use and
b) that the data collected through EM&V and CCx can serve as the basis for the underwriting of energy efficiency.
Davidson has worked in the corporate finance department of JP Morgan (where he was based at various times in New York City, St. Paulo, Brazil,
and Santiago, Chile)
creating innovative financing structures for the bank clients.
Sidney has been an active participant in the real estate markets in New York City, Buenos Aires, Argentina, St. Paulo, Brazil, and
Santiago, Chile. In South America he represented Lend Lease (successor entity to Equitable Life) investing in real estate.
Sidney has led a series of entrepreneurial pursuits. He is a graduate of Yale College and speaks both Portuguese and Spanish.
Transforming the Market for Building Energy Efficiency
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.
--Lord Kelvin
Energy efficiency is a largely untapped resource in existing buildings.
One of the major barriers to mining this resource is to ascertain with accuracy the verifiable savings actually derived from
investment in energy efficiency so the financial community can underwrite the improvements.
Unfortunately, heretofore the economic impact of investment in energy efficiency
has been mostly anecdotal as in the main savings have not been accurately measured or verified.
This presentation will outline a multi-institutional, collaborative effort that brings together higher education,
government, NGOs, and private sector companies to address the challenge of investment in energy efficiency in buildings through
the rigorous adherence to
a) evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V): the benchmarking of building performance and
b) constant commissioning (CCx): the monitoring and fine tuning (in real time) of systems (principally, HVAC, lighting, and plug loads)
as first steps to establishing the baseline for systematic improvement in the energy performance of buildings and to form the basis
for the financing of energy efficiency based on verifiable ongoing energy savings.
It is our intent that this work provide a template for the successful financing and continuous evaluation
of the operating performance of buildings both before and after energy efficiency improvements.