Over the past five years, the Northeast has seen many notable successes arising from its Regional ENERGY STAR~R Lighting and Appliance Initiatives. The region has achieved one of the highest market shares for ENERGY STAR clothes washers. In the residential lighting market, the Lighting Initiative Sponsors have seen significant increases in ENERGY STAR product sales and in the number and type of retailers selling ENERGY STAR qualified lighting products. Several program components have contributed to these successes including retailer recruitment and training, and an integrated consumer education campaign. Nonetheless, the program element that has had the greatest effect on regional Initiative success is the $50 million in consumer rebates that have been spent in the four years from 1998 through 2001. However, as ENERGY STAR product market shares increase, this level of rebate expenditures is ultimately not sustainable, nor is it desirable as our goal is to have industry become the primary champion for ENERGY STAR products. This paper details the results from an on-going effort by the Initiative Sponsors to more formally integrate industry input into the regional planning process and to solicit, and implement, innovative industry-generated ideas that support a common set of objectives to promote ENERGY STAR lighting and appliances. In 2002 the Sponsors undertook separate lighting and appliance industry competitive solicitations. There were few appliance industry proposals and the paper hypothesizes reasons for the poor response rate. The lighting industry responses, however, far exceeded the Sponsors planned 2002 budgets for these program activities. The paper describes the on-going process to select potential lighting industry proposals for implementation.
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