The U.S. Department of Energy hosted the webinar, Training Opportunities to Support 50001 Ready Customer Implementation and Technical Assistance, in February 2019. This webinar provided an overview of 50001 EnMS Practitioner in Training and the 50001 CP EnMS credentials. Also, representatives in the utility/implementers community who have obtained the certification and used the training described the value of this. View the recording and slides.
This webinar is part of DOE’s 50001 Ready Utility Network Series, a forum for utilities, public benefit administrators (PBA), third party implementers, consultants, and regulators who share an interest in energy management systems (EnMS) including ISO 50001 and DOE’s 50001 Ready program. Through these webinars with presentations and discussion, stakeholders can learn about DOE energy management resources. In addition to the ratepayer community learning from its shared experiences, DOE receives feedback on how to build additional value into the 50001 Ready for program administrators and implementers helping steer updates to existing tools and development of new ones.
Learn more:
- View other 50001 Ready Utility Network Series webinars and register for future events.
- Check out classroom and online training
- Download a one-page summary about energy management skills and the credentials available through the Institute of Energy Management Professionals (IEnMP)
- Receive notifications of ISO 50001 training opportunities from Georgia Tech Professional Education.
Transcription
Peter Therkelsen: Again, good morning and good afternoon, everyone. This is Peter Therkelsen with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and I’m here to welcome you today to our Department of Energy 50001 Ready Network Series. We’re excited to have a number of speakers today, focusing on workforce training and accreditation. Very important topic to ensure confidence in the energy management, you know, world, in terms of customer knowledge, implementer knowledge, as well as confidence for evaluators and regulators to understand the value of energy management.
Today’s presenters include Sandy Glatt, from Department of Energy, Aimee McKane, from Manage Energy, Bill Meffert from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Michael Socks from Efficiency Vermont, and Tim Dantoin from Focus on Energy. Sandy, would you like to give welcome and other introductions?
Sandy Glatt: Sure, I don’t really have additional introductions, but just to lay a little bit of the groundwork, really pleased to hear folks joining in. To some extent, a belated Happy New Year, because I don’t think we have convened since last November, prior to the new year. And I think this is an exciting way to get started. Considering what we’ve been talking about on our prior network series calls, the content of this one is probably more focused on the program and in particular, the implementer and technical assistance providers, to really bring folks up to speed on what we believe are some of the, you know, skills and knowledge opportunities that are available to be garnered, obtained, that really assist when it comes to working with customers and end users in the energy management space. And of course, most specifically, ISO 50001 and 50001 Ready.
And the presenters will cover the topics in a very efficient way to sort of understand what some of those skills are, and then what the training and opportunities that are available for folks to acquire those skills, be it implementing your own programs, or supporting programs, or just, you know, as a skillset to obtain to potentially make yourself marketable – obtaining, whether it’s a service providing contracts, or direct services to end use customers, having the appropriate technical skillset.
It was really important to me to do it this month, because we do have some of the upcoming – some of the training, particularly the online training, beginning in March, and registration is within the next couple – you have to be completed within the next couple of weeks, so I wanted to really make sure we got this covered. If folks are eager to get going, I didn’t want them to lose out on some upcoming opportunities.
So without further ado, I’ll let Peter turn over to the logistics, and we will go ahead and get started.
Peter: Thank you Sandy. As you can read at the bottom half of your screen, you are on mute by default. Please use the chat box for questions at any time – we can – we have our natural pause points in between presenters to ask questions. We’ve tried having kind of an open mic form before, and end up with a lot of dogs barking, and traffic noise in the background. These slides are being recorded, and the transcriptions and the recording will be available at the Better Buildings Solution Center and you can get there very quickly by going to energy.gov/50001Ready, where you’ll find other resources for implementers and utilities as well as seeing the list of recognized 50001 Ready facilities, and other supporting materials.
You should be seeing the slides in full screen, or zoom by default – if you double-click the screen or press escape, you can exit the full screen to get to other applications on your computer. And there should be a control bar, either at the top or bottom to see the participants and make the screen smaller or larger as needed.
As I mentioned, we have a whole host of speakers today, and we’ll want to make sure we get to them all, providing some insights about workforce and ISO 50001 energy management systems. We’ll start with Aimee, move on to training with Bill Meffert, and then have two voices that are – hold accreditations we’re going to be speaking about today with Michael and Tim. So with that, Aimee, I guess we already went over the agenda – we’ll just click forward and get rolling. Aimee – off to you.
Aimee McKane: Okay, thank you Peter. So, what I’m going to be talking about is building skills to increase energy management program impact. Can you go to the next slide? And it should say that I’m doing this presentation with my chair of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Energy Management Professionals hat on. So that’s my identity for this call.
And I thought it might be useful – I’m not sure of the experience range of the – of some of the folks from the call. I did want to kind of set up the standard vocabulary so I did put a slide that says what’s in the name. And this is sort of, you know, kind of laying down the groundwork for these different program headings. Strategic energy management, which is the broad concept, taking a holistic approach to managing energy use in order to continuously improve energy performance by achieving persistent energy and cost savings over the long term.
I’ve approached that as an umbrella term, then we have ISO 50001 2018, which of course is an international standard with requirements. We have ISO 50001 certification, which is third-party audit confirming that all of the ISO 50001 requirements have been met. 50001 Ready, which I presume most of you are familiar with, which the DOE recognition program for ISO 50001 implementation, and reporting using the 50001 Ready Navigator tool.
And then, superior energy performance, or SEP, which is essentially ISO 50001 certification plus third-party verification of energy performance improvements. So I just wanted to pause there a second, and let you absorb that, and then let’s move on to the main topic here.
So, I also thought it might be useful – and this is not, this is sort of Aimee’s eight steps, based on spending a lot of time with 50001 and EnMS. A framework for organizations and companies to engage their entire enterprise in continual improvement of energy performance, which is not an easy matter. Determine how energy is used in their organization and for what purpose. Use energy data to identify opportunities for improvement in energy use and efficiency. Prioritize and resource actions to improve energy performance. Establish control processes to ensure that any improvements are maintained. Integrate energy performance into business practices such as procurement, design, risk assessment, and strategic planning. At regular intervals, evaluate and report to management on progress and opportunities for improvement in the EnMS and in energy performance. And then finally, act on the results of these evaluations to continually improve both their EnMS and energy performance.
This is kind of a sketch of when we talk about EnMS, what we’re trying to accomplish, in the most basic language. Let’s go to the next, please. So, implementing an EnMS may challenge an organization’s existing management approach, business processes, operational methods, labor practices, procurement practices, subcontracted services, and important relationships with vendors, suppliers, and other organizations. Can you hit that again?
It involves people and practices, not just technologies and things, and that’s what makes it so challenging. Go to the next, please. Implementing an effective EnMS, depending on the organization, the initial implementation typically requires some mix of these sorts of things – cohort training, web-based support, tools, coaching, and on-site technical assistance. For those of you who are in the midst of this, you are very aware of this. The goal is sustained organizational change so that the energy performance improvements continue. And accomplishing this goal does require specialized and targeted skills. Go to the next, please.
So why do these EnMS skills matter? An effective 50001 energy management system requires skills from two different communities – management system auditors and energy efficiency experts. And they bring different things to the table – an expertise in management system business processes, and an expertise in energy performance. If you don’t have both skills, the risk to an effective EnMS includes, for the auditors, lack of measurable energy performance improvements, due to their inability to assess it. And on the energy side, lack of top management support, due to a focus on technical processes to the exclusion of the business process.
The value of a certified professional is professional recognition. It contributes to top management support, because they can see that this person has a credential, it demonstrates competence across a broad range of skills, it can engage and motivate staff, it does carry an organization-wide perspective which includes policy development, communication, and business practices. It also includes technical skills - collecting, understanding, and using energy data. A lot of organizations have energy data – they may have a great deal of energy data – but using it effectively is often not the case. So, this is something that a certified professional can bring to bear.
Identifying potential improvement opportunities. Establishing metrics, which is extremely important to figure out how well you’re doing. And prioritizing actions, so that not everything carries equal weight in the decision-making process. And then finally, continual improvement – and this is really an area where lack of proper skills can really cause issues. This is operational control, training, internal audits, and management review. This is the sustaining part, where you’re trying to build on your gains rather than losing ground over time. Go to the next, please.
So, early on in the development of 50001, DOE recognized a skills gap, and they determined that professional certifications were needed to demonstrate competence, provide the market differentiation, ensure international relevance by adhering to ISO IEC 17024 standards – and you’ll hear me making reference to that standard several times, when talking about the credentials. That’s a conformity assessment standard - general requirements for bodies operating certification of persons. So that’s an international set of standards for these sorts of professional certifications.
They wanted to avoid repeating the lessons learned from the initial uptake of other management systems. Now what do I mean by that? When 90001 was first launched into the market, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to the skillset. Lots of problems with implementation of that standard. So this is the sort of thing we’re trying to avoid. And in doing so, DOE established the Institute for Energy Management Professionals, or the IEnMP, which I’m speaking about today. Go to the next one, please.
So, the professional credentials from the IEnMP focus on three skills: EnMS implementation, ISO 50001 certification auditing, and SEP energy performance improvement verification. We’re really going to spend most of the time today on the first bullet – implementation. Competence is determined by a combination of education, experience, and computer-based exams. The exams themselves are based on a job task analysis, which is developed by a committee of peers. It’s given at local test centers at the candidate’s convenience. If you prefer to give an event-based – what we call an event-based examination, immediately following the training – that is the sponsor’s preference, that can be accommodated.
Re-certification happens every three years, and per ISO IEC 17024 requirement, DOE training is offered separately through Georgia Tech, and Bill Meffert is going to be speaking to that in a few minutes. Go to the next.
So, I wanted to talk about the first credential that we have for implementation, which is 50001 CP EnMS, or the Certified Practitioner in Energy Management Systems. The purpose of this credential is to define a market standard for professionals with specialized EnMS implementation skills. So, what it is – it demonstrates competence in the implementation of 50001 2018. It’s ISO IEC 17024 accredited, so that means it’s internationally accepted, and it’s based on this combination of education, experience, and examination.
The target audience is really professionals from all sectors, and that includes energy efficiency professionals, consulting engineers, large end users, and management system auditors. So do you remember the slide I had where we were trying to bring two sides of the communities together? Management system auditors are also going through and getting this credential so that they can be more effective. There are 114 certified professionals today. Can you go to the next, please?
And I thought it would be useful to just present the exam topics. The way the exams are created, they’re around a series of domains, and these are titles of those domains. The first cluster really has to do with the management system and the business processes associated with it, and you can see that these are not the sort of topics that the average energy engineer possesses. This is new stuff and testing to this, it does – you know, to prepare for this exam, you really do need to understand it.
The second cluster’s a little more in the wheelhouse of the average energy professional – energy fundamentals, understanding energy sources, demand characteristics, problem solving, and so forth. But it also does focus on things like fundamentals of energy project management, for developing action plans. And action plans are what move the 50001 EnMS forward.
There’s a big emphasis also on data collection and use, models and statistics, and instrumentation and controls. So, we can go to the next, please. We’re very excited to offer this new credential into the market, which is the 50001 EnMS Practitioner and Training. This credential is the certificate. It’s not a ISO IEC 17024 certification – it’s a preparation for that. It provides an early career recognition for expertise in ISO 50001 energy management systems. This grew out of the fact that you can’t get experience until you have experience. This was a way for early career professionals to be able to start working with 50001, to have some grounding and to build that experience that they needed in order to qualify to be a 50001 CP EnMS.
So, the eligibility – the benefit is that if you get this, it does reduce by one year the qualifying work experience required for the certification. The eligibility’s open to any candidate with a four-year degree or higher in energy management, engineering, architecture, science, or math. It is based on successful completion of the training course, with knowledge checks, and you can do that either online or classroom, and Bill will talk about that in a minute.
And you do have four years – this particular practitioner and training certificate is good for four years, so once you’ve taken the training, you’ve got four years to finish your experience requirement, and pass the 50001 CP EnMS exam.
We have recently had a number of changes in the Institute’s offerings, in response to several events. First off, we wanted to broaden the appeal of our certifications – we were originally focused on industry, and now it’s much broader. The new standard, ISO 50001 standard, just came out this year – 50001 2018 – and there was a launch of the 50001 Ready Program, and there’s soon going to be a launch of SEP 50001 2019 program, so in response to all of those changes, we’ve been evolving our certification. Can you go to the next, please?
This is a little scary – I just wanted to point out a couple of things on this, and this’ll be provided for your reference. The first two rows I’ve already covered – I want to skip to the fourth one, which is the EPI ISO 50001 lead auditor, and point out that we do have this credential. It was developed in cooperation with Energy Professionals International. It is an accredited certification, representing international best practice, and that is available currently, and we are updating it for the new standard, and that will be available in April.
We also continue to offer the SEP performance verifier, and that is, as it states, for verifying energy performance. And it’s a very specialized skill – it’s really targeted toward the measurement and verification community, or energy experts who want to add this into their professional suite.
We have a new credential that we’re also launching later this year, which is Industry Specialist. That is because we used to have industry – the CP EnMS used to be associated just with industry. We peeled that away, and we’ve created a standalone exam for those are going to be interested in that. And that’ll be available later this year. Next.
And then for more information, you can contact Frank Faulk, who’s on this call, and the certification director. Or you can send – drop me an email. So, I’d like to ask if there’s any particular questions that we want to talk about here, regarding the certifications, before we move on to the training.
Peter: And please feel free to either unmute yourself and ask a question, or send a question through the chat box.
Aimee: Or if you’d prefer to wait, we do have two certified individuals who can deal with Q&A after Bill’s presentation. So that’s – that’s another option.
Sandy: I guess I’m going to pipe in, can you guys hear me? It’s Sandy.
Peter: Yes.
Sandy: I can’t tell if I’m muted or unmuted. I just – just for the folks on the phone, again, I think the – you know, I don’t want the – any sort of confusion between the 50001 Ready, which is not – it’s a recognition as opposed to a certification program, and of course when you talk about – I mean Aimee did a good job of – you know, you’ve got ISO 50001, which is the international energy management standard, and then there’s also certification to that standard. I think I – the emphasis – the technical skillset of putting the energy management system in place, along with the energy skills that most of the folks who are in this space inherently have, is useful, helpful, if not – you know, almost necessary, even in the 50001 Ready space, even though it’s not dependant that the end users are going toward certification. But just getting all those pieces in place, having this skillset is incredibly important. So I think I wanted to just make sure that folks, you know, understood that it wasn’t everybody who had to go to certification.
Aimee: Right.
Sandy: Even within the 50001 Ready construct, this is a set of skills and some skillsets and certifications that are very, very helpful to have in order for smoother implementation, whatever your kind of program offering is.
Aimee: I think that’s a very good point, Sandy, thank you very much for bringing that up.
Peter: We have a question through the chat box, Aimee – this is Ken Holders of International Certified ISO 50001 Lead Auditors – transition to the IEnMP certification via taking the exam?
Aimee: Yeah, you mean for the EPI Lead Auditor? Yes, they can do that. What we’re finding is that, not in all cases, but in some cases, people who already are ISO 50001 Lead Auditors may not have had the rigor – rigorous training and testing on the energy side, that is represented by this credential. So, you would be encouraged to consider, you know – I don’t know your personal situation, but you might need to take some additional training, and that’s sort of a segue into what Bill has to offer.
Peter: Great, any other questions at this immediate point for Aimee, or this part of the presentation? As Aimee mentioned, we’ve got three more presentations to have, and maybe there’ll be a kind of combination of questions at the end, so this is not your only opportunity. So, Bill, if you’re unmuted, why don’t we move forward?
Bill Meffert: I am, can you hear me, Peter?
Peter: Yes I can, great. Go ahead.
Bill: Good, thank you. Thank you. Let’s go to the next slide. There are three different trainings that I want to bring before you today, and the first one is the 50001 Certified Practitioner in Energy Management Systems. And as Aimee mentioned, this training is really for those people who want to demonstrate the ability to help implement ISO 50001 within different organizations. And so we offered this in two different ways – traditionally, in a classroom setting, and then in an online course.
We’ve taught the classroom course, which is four days, here at Georgia Tech in an open enrollment setting, for many years – and it’s been a very popular approach. And we have one offering this year, which is in August, however, we’ve recently gone to an online approach, which is becoming more popular. Instead of taking four days out of your, you know, busy schedules, we offer a ten-week online class, which has weekly webinars and homework assignments. And it is more driven by, you know, your ability to work around your schedule, and to, you know, take the class that way.
We have one online course that starts this spring, on March 25, and the registration is open till March 11. We will have another offering in the fall that’ll start in September, and that exact day is not quite available yet. I do have a link on this slide, and I’m assuming that these slides will be made available to folks, where you could actually register for this. I will say that all of these classes that I’m going to talk to you about are offered on-site as well. So if you wanted – if you had a group of people who wanted to take this training, we can actually come to you and offer it as well. Most recently we did that out at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
This training focuses on the energy management system part of the knowledge and performance that’s required by the CP EnMS. We feel like that is where the training needs to focus – we cannot train energy efficiency engineers in four days. So, we really think it’s more important to understand ISO 50001 and how to best implement that, and the kind of organizations you’re going to see.
DOE has some excellent tools that they’ve developed for this, and we incorporate those into this training. So the 50001 Navigator, which is an online guidance for implementing ISO 50001, is available, and that is a great reference and something that we pull into the training. We also use the energy footprint tool, which helps organizations to manage their data. And then we also use the Energy Performance Indicator Lite tool, which is an online performance metrics tool that I think does a very good job of allowing organizations to normalize their energy consumption, so that they really can compare performance over time. Let’s go to the next slide.
The next training I want to talk to you about is the ISO 50001 Energy Lead Auditor. So this is for people who want to audit organizations to ISO 50001. We have people within companies who take that, as well as people who want to do third-party auditing. This is a four-day classroom training. We offer it three times a year, and you can see the dates there as well. I do have the registration link as well. Once again, we will – we can offer it on-site, if you want to do that.
This is different from that previous training I just talked about, so auditors are people who learn to go into an organization, ask questions, explore the management system, and really look at how effective it is, and whether you’re meeting the requirements of the ISO 50001 management system. And I will say that all of these classes are very activity- or exercise-driven, so it’s not just us lecturing, but there is requirements to actually learn in the classroom the skills needed to – needed for these certifications. Let’s go to the next slide.
The third training is the Superior Energy Performance, performance verifier training. This is a three-day classroom training. We offer it one time, in May each year. We have found that doing this on-site typically seems to be more popular, so we’ve had – we’ve offered this several times on-site, and traveled to different locations to do this.
This is a very intensive course – it’s designed to help performance verifiers understand how you actually verify the performance numbers that organizations say that they’ve done. So, as you can imagine, everybody needs a laptop in there, because we go through, you know, how organizations model their energy consumption and their performance indicators, and develop their baselines, and actually calculate their performance improvement and the adjustments they have to make, so it’s very intense. But it’s about auditing the SEP measurement and verification document. All right, next slide.
So, that brings me to the end of the three classes that we offer. And I’m certainly willing to take questions at this time.
Sandy: So Bill, I’m going to jump in again real quick, again, it’s Sandy. Is there – can we add a link when we post this on the webpage? I know that I get an email from you guys that talks about upcoming classes. Is that something that we can post, and people can get on the list serve if they want to be informed of when all the upcoming classes are?
Bill: Yeah, great question, Sandy. So yes, I certainly can do that. Yep.
Sandy: Ok, so we’ll get that, and we’ll get it posted when we post all these materials from the webinar.
Bill: Right. Right. Thanks for asking.
Aimee: Bill, this is Aimee – I just wanted to – getting back to the gentleman that was asking about the EPI Lead Auditor, and who was already an ISO 50001 Lead Auditor, can you speak to, like, the most efficient way that someone in his situation might be able to get the energy pieces that they would need, to become an EPI Lead Auditor?
Bill: Yeah, that’s a good question, Aimee. And it actually brings up a point that I should have mentioned about that training – the ISO 50001 Lead Auditor. One of the big emphasis in there is, how do you audit performance? And that’s really a critical part of that course. It’s not just about the processes and procedures, but it’s about the performance as well.
So, you know, how would somebody with a different auditor credential come in and maybe fill those gaps? I think that’s a – that’s a good question. And I’m not sure I have the best answer for that, Aimee. We do have some online update trainings for folks, where they can actually, you know, look at the SEP program and how to, you know, get updates on that and how to, you know, look at performance verification that way, but I’m not sure that’s the best approach to do that.
So, you know, we have offered customized one- or two-day auditing courses for some certification bodies who want to focus on performance. So that has been something that we’ve done before as well. So does that answer your question, Aimee, or?
Aimee: Yes, thank you.
Bill: Yeah.
Sandy: And I guess I’ll add one more thing quickly. Particularly in the certified practitioner – which is what we’re focusing most strongly on here, so I think that’s what most of the folks on the call would be most imminently interested in – one thing I can say, is that in particular, the online course – if we … this classroom, but people should not be intimidated by the thought of an exam, because while it would – it certainly would make sense, and there’s an absolute value as was discussed in these slides of getting to the point of certification. The knowledge base of implementing the energy management system and then also what you need to know on the energy professional side, is covered in the course.
So it’s, you know, it’s worth – there’s some value in taking the course, and getting the knowledge set, and getting the information. Whether you’re ready or interested in taking the exam, and getting to certification or not – it’s not required. So you can take the course, you can get the material, you can get the knowledge base, and then decide at whatever point if you want to go further, but you don’t – don’t feel compelled, or don’t feel either intimidated by the fact that you have to pass an exam, or not interested or compelled to have to get to that level.
Aimee: Excellent point, thank you.
Peter: As Bill – this is Peter from Berkeley Labs – as Bill mentioned, just recently, he and his colleagues came to Berkeley and provided a four-day CP EnMS training to about 20 or more LBNL staff, and even for those of us who work on developing 50001, and research and study this on a daily basis, found the materials extremely valuable. There’s an open-ended question of how many of the LBNL staff will seek the certification / accreditation, but to Sandy’s point – it’s – it was, you know, people came away having learned something each day from the training, and having gained a lot from the experience, even getting together as a group of people who work together, and discussing through energy management systems, provided value back and forth between the instructors and the classroom. So it was a very engaged group, and it was a very engaged class to participate in.
Bill: Yeah, thanks Peter – I just want to mention one other thing. So all of the instructors for these classes actually hold these certifications, so that’s one of the requirements that we have here at Georgia Tech. And not only do they hold the certifications, but they have a lot of experience actually in those fields, so it’s good to hear that folks got – they learned some things and got some different insights.
Peter: Other questions from the participant side? You can go through the chat box, or feel free to unmute yourself and ask away.
Aimee: Can we move to – Michael and Tim are available to answer people’s questions. Maybe we can just review their background briefly?
Peter: Yeah, why don’t we move forward, and Michael, if you’d like to go ahead and introduce yourself, and give your experience with the accreditations, and how you’re finding value in them in your work?
Michael Socks: Sure, this is Michael, can you hear me?
Peter: Yes, we can.
Michael: Thanks. Yeah, my name’s Michael Socks – I work with VEIC – maybe we’re better known for one of our major programs, which is Efficiency Vermont. But we also do consulting work outside the state of Vermont. I’ve been involved in energy efficiency industry for about 18 years now. I kind of got my start in industry – worked for a few years, and ended up going to graduate school, and came through the Industrial Assessment Center program – attended UMass Amherst, and always like to put in a plug for that program, because it’s been a really beneficial thing for me, you know, education wise and professionally.
As far as certifications, I kind of have a progression of where I started – I attained my CEM kind of when I first started out in the energy efficiency industry, became a professional engineer in the state of Vermont, and then added the Certified Practitioner in 2012. I went through the training course – I believe – it was at Georgia Tech, and I think it was part of a pilot where you had just started to roll out the training materials for the training itself, so I think that was probably pretty early days in terms of the formal CP training.
As far as what I’ve done with that training – since I, you know, since I’ve been working in this field for so long, I’d say in the last few years, my work has kind of gone for more of the you know, custom project, energy efficiency analysis, incentive determination, kind of utility-based programs, measurement and verification. More to something like 80% of my time is now more holistic energy management, and helping customers, end users, adopt, you know, more fundamental practices than just completing efficiency projects. So my career has kind of definitely moved in that direction, and it’s been a big benefit to me to have those certifications, and have that knowledge behind me.
We’ve worked through a cohort approach, working with a – you know, a diverse group of industrial, commercial institutional customers, inside Vermont and outside Vermont in New York State. I was part of a pulp-and-paper pilot that was done, where one site in Vermont was start-to-finish, going through ISO 50001 and SEP, and they’re coming pretty close at this point to full certification, but it’s been a multi-year process from start to finish, where they had no management systems in place.
And as far as what my role has been in these various programs and efforts, you know, I’ve been the technical lead, I’ve been a workshop presenter, performed on-site facilitation for energy treasure hunts or Kaizens, I’ve done energy modeling, I was part of the internal actual management system auditor team for that pulp-and-paper customer. And generally speaking, just, you know, cheerleader – keeping things on track, tracking how people are doing, and keeping them on the path to implementing a formal energy management system. So that’s kind of where I’m coming from.
Peter: Thank you Michael, and why don’t we have – Tim, why don’t we have you give your background as well, and then we can open it up to questions from the audience for both of you, as well as Aimee and Bill. So, Tim – there you are, you’re now unmuted.
Tim: There we are. Very good. Good morning, or good afternoon, depending on where you’re at. My trajectory in this field mirrors very much what Michael related to as his, starting out as a – primarily an engineer doing project calculations, and incentive development, to the point now where it’s mostly working with customers on continuous improvement, long-term planning for energy management. Currently, with the Focus on Energy program, we have a strong emphasis on getting customers – end-use customers – into a continuous improvement mindset, whether that’s for the generic SEM capabilities, or the very much more specific ISO 50001. The – we’ve found the 50001 Ready Program very useful, and customers and very interested in that.
For some it’ll be their final stop along the pathway; others it’ll be a plateau before they launch into 50001 certified. The CP EnMS credential, in my opinion, is very worthwhile – it’s, for those of you with substantial experience in the field helping customers implement these type of programs, it’s a validation credential that validates what you’ve been doing. For others, it will challenge you to pull together your various experiences, whether you’re coming at it from the engineering side, or perhaps the business management / continuous improvement side, or even as an auditor. It requires all those skills, and will challenge you.
The exam is certainly not a pushover, but it is very, very doable, particularly when it’s followed right with training. So that’s, you know, all I can impart and answer any questions if need be.
Peter: Great, thank you Michael and Tim, and maybe to kick off questions to both of you, I’d like – curious to know the major benefit of becoming a CP EnMS to your organization, and yourself personally, but also to your customers – do they, either directly or indirectly, realize a benefit for you holding these credentials?
Tim: Well, I guess I could say individually for myself, the benefits – certainly the credential carries some recognition and that I’ve got plenty of gray hair and experience working with customers in this field. For my organization, Focus on Energy, and the consultant from Leidos that I work for, I think it imparts a lot of credibility with folks that are looking to get help doing this. For the end-use customer, you know, they certainly may not recognize the credential, but they recognize the credibility. When you’re working with customers, or engineers – they’re business people, they’re senior management, and as a CP EnMS credentialed professional, you have to recognize the components and value that all of those folks within an organization bring to the energy management effort.
Michael: Yeah, this is Michael – you know, personally I think the skills gained, you know, in the process of being certified has been very important, you know that – like I say, that the training that I received for the Certified Practitioner was valuable, but since then I’ve also completed the Lead Auditor training, not Certified Auditor, but did do the training. Done a couple skills update trainings since then. So just having those skills, you know, personally, gives you more tools in your toolbox when you’re working with a customer to evaluate where they are and what would help them get to the next step.
So I think – as far as the end user, I think that’s – that’s what’s helpful, is that we have that perspective, we have that experience. And that we know, you know, which tool’s applicable, and, you know, what’s out there to help them overcome whatever barrier / hurdle that they’re facing at that moment. So I’d say that’s – that’s the benefit of having a, you know, a certified practitioner available to kind of coach them through the process.
Peter: Great, thank you both. Questions from our participants on the call today? Feel free to unmute yourselves and ask, or send a text through the chat box and I’ll make sure to relay it to our presenters today. Michael, staying with you – the question, you listed that you hold a CEM. What additional value do you find in the CP EnMS credential that complements or is different than the CEM?
Michael: I think it comes back to something earlier in the slides, where we were talking about kind of the management system aspects versus kind of the technical / engineering skills – I think the CEM is more heavy on the engineering skills piece of this. So, to someone’s question where they’re thinking, how can I get those skills coming from the auditor standpoint, you know, perhaps pursuing that line would help them get those technical skills. But I think those two together give you kind of the best of both worlds, and that you have energy management, you know, practice skills, the math, the technology-specific experience or education. But the Certified Practitioner is all about applying those skills for continuous improvement on a customer’s behalf. And so I’d say, you know, it’s kind of a nice mix to have both, and that’s why I decided to pursue those two.
Peter: Maybe you could speak both to, within your organizations - Leidos and VEIC – the value you’re finding when these credentials organizationally and if this is something that your organizations are looking to pursue for other staff that are participating in energy management type activities.
Tim: I can say – this is Tim – for the company I work for, I think I was the first to get the CP EnMS and since then I believe we have five or six additional people on our team that have that credential, and I certainly don’t want to speak for them, but I think it’s – it’s certainly tied together for them, the traditional engineering approach with the need for continuous improvement / best management practices, in which you integrate the energy and engineering into organizational or business management practices. So, it’s definitely something our company encourages among our team.
Michael: Yeah, and this is Michael – for VEIC, we have one additional person who’s been through, actually, the online version of the CP training, and is getting ready to take the exam, so that would add a second certified practitioner for us. Between the two certified folks, we would be, or actually are, working with people internally to kind of transition those skills with the intention of having those people obtain credential as well. They’re doing the work, but we want them to have the credential, you know, to finish the process and become certified.
Peter: And Bill, a question coming in about the trainings, and the kind of – there was mention of the development and iteration of both the credentials and the trainings that complement them. And a question about – is feedback from, you know, early days of certified individuals incorporated into the trainings, and what has changed in the trainings to make the credentials and trainings more valuable for practitioners?
Bill: Yeah, no – that’s a great question. So, I would say that there have been a couple major changes to the Certified Practitioner training over the years. Currently the biggest one is updating it for the new standard – the 2018 standard, and that is an ongoing process that we’re doing right now. The other part of it is, we have been learning through many of the implementation cohorts that we’ve worked on with the U.S. Department of Energy, and every time we have gone through one of those and helped the company implement ISO 50001, we’ve taken that experience and we’ve, you know, updated the materials, and we’ve updated the activities that we actually do in the CP course.
So, it has not been stagnant – it has been part of a continual improvement process here to make the training even more valuable over time. So, we have taken lessons learned and used it to improve the training.
Sandy: So, just – relevant to that, is the upcoming March class going to contain the 2018 updates?
Bill: Yes, it will.
Sandy: Thanks.
Bill: Sandy, we – the training that we did at Berkeley had the 2018 updates in it, and it’s – the course is in a little bit of a transition right now. Just – we’re integrating the 2018 updates, and we want to continue to improve it even as the Navigator continues to be updated as well.
Sandy: Okay, thanks.
Aimee: And on the certification front, you know, we have gone through – I mentioned that we used to have the Certified Practitioner in Energy Management Systems Industrial, and we have somebody on the call, you know, that Frank Faulk could speak to and be able to give you details in terms of what’s changed in the, you know, the actual credential exam. But we did split away the industrial piece – it used to be an all – pretty much an all-day affair to get the CP EnMS Industrial exam completed, and now, because we had a lot of requests from the commercial sector, we have split that off, so that what you’re being tested on is the ability to implement an EnMS regardless of the type of facility it’s in, and there’s less emphasis on industrial knowledge. That’s really been sort of carved off, and is now into the Industry Specialist credential.
Bill: Yeah, thanks Aimee, that’s a good point.
Aimee: So I don’t know if Frank, if you have anything to add to that, but I just –
Frank Faulk: No, I think you covered it fine.
Tim: This is Tim – one quick point – when working with end-use customers on implementing an SEM or an ISO program, whether you’re getting them certified to 50001, or perhaps 50001 Ready. The audit skill is very important, because, particularly for an internal audit, many companies might have internal auditors from a quality or environmental standpoint, but they need someone who’s going to understand the energy component of internal auditing. So, from – the CP EnMS credential gets into that, makes you aware of what’s required from an auditing standpoint, but being a 50001 auditor is a nice add-on to that CP EnMS credential, for helping customers.
Peter: Another question coming in, for both of you to speak to – are you finding, since the web – since the series is focused on 50001 Ready, are – what value are you finding in the Navigator and DOE recognition for your energy management programs?
Tim: Well, this is Tim – I – we’re finding a lot of interest and a lot of value in it. In our pilot program for SEM leaders, we had roughly 27 companies in there, and over half of them are getting either 50001 Certified, or 50001 Ready. And a lot of customers are viewing 50001 Ready as a nice intermediary – intermediate point. Many of them already have 9000 certified, or 14000 certified, and aren’t necessarily all that eager to get one more ISO certification, so the 50001 Ready is a nice – a nice middle ground for them, so, yeah, we’re seeing a lot of interest in it. The Navigator is a great way to help guide them through the process.
Michael: Yeah, this is Michael –
Peter: Go ahead, Michael.
Michael: For the groups that we’ve put – thanks. For the groups that we’ve put through in kind of the cohort model, we’ve incorporated talking about, you know, formal certification for 50001 into our workshop materials. Near the end of our, kind of, workshop engagements, we’re talking up 50001 Ready as a good, you know, next step. We’d really like to kind of move that back upstream a little bit more, so that perhaps using Navigator becomes a more integral part of their participation in the SEM offering that we have.
And we’re also looking at kind of a – outside of a cohort approach, can we do a one-on-one, you know, talking people through 50001 Ready and Navigator as a, kind of, an engagement model where we have one person, one coach, working with a customer wherever they are, to become certified. So they can kind of work through it at their own pace, and not at the pace of a structured cohort program, and maybe get some more uptake with it there.
Bill: Yeah, Peter – this is Bill. I just wanted to add – in the Southeast, we’re starting a cohort that’s kicking off in April, and we’re – we’re finding sort of an evenly split between the companies that want to do 50001 Ready, and those that want to get certified. So, a lot of times, it’s really based on the internal drivers of the organization, but, you know, those that want to get 50001 Ready – I think as Tim said, a lot of them have 14001 certification at this point, and they’ve been managing energy, but they really want to go to the next step. And I think they see 50001 Ready as that next step for helping them improve how they do that.
Peter: Great, thank you both. And there’s a question that came in real quickly after the other one to kind of – I think, Michael maybe onto your comments of, do you encourage facility staff you work with to pursue the trainings or credentials presented today, and if so, do you see a value in the energy management systems for those companies with staff that are credentialed?
Michael: So, yeah, I mean – for our part, we talk about the skills that they need to, you know, move their own organization to that process, and we certainly encourage them to, you know, take the training, get that experience, obtain those tools for themselves. And a lot of the utility-based work that we do, you know, we’re only interacting with that customer for a period of time, you know – one to two year timeframe, so, you know, making sure that the gains persist after the program ends, I think it’s good to have those skills in-house, and we definitely encourage people to consider that as part of their, kind of, persistent strategy – is have trained professionals on staff.
Tim: Completely concur with what Michael said, and if you recognize that, yeah, that professional development effort with Company A today, when that individual moves over to Company B, and is going to take that skill with them and save us the time and effort of getting Company B up to speed.
Peter: Great. Please keep the questions coming through the chat box – we’re approaching the top of the hour. Another one that just came in – have you had any interest from any companies who would tie continuous improvements for energy to a quality program – Baldridge Awards, for example – or to meet a social responsibility / sustainability goal?
Tim: I haven’t seen it specifically, but I know it’s in their deliberations. One company I’m working with right now, they’re getting 50001 Ready, and they’re – they’ve got certification on the back burner, and they’re having conversations with their marketing and contracts folks, to see if that’s something that would benefit them from a market positioning standpoint. So, it’s definitely something on the radar, but I have not seen a specific tie-in.
Michael: Yeah, and my experience has been similar – where, you know, a particular motivation for a given company could be all kinds of reasons, but, you know, in some cases it’s any certification they can get that shows that they’re doing things the right way, and good stewards – I think they’re going to try it, and do it. And so we have – we have encountered some companies that, you know – they’re going to be certified. If it’s available to them, they’re going to do it. Others, it’s more dollars and cents oriented, and it really is, you know, does this program benefit them from a dollars and cents standpoint? So there’s kind of a spectrum of companies, and, you know – regardless of where they’re coming from, you know, you can work with them to meet them where they are and get them through the process with a formal system, an energy management system in place.
Peter: One other question came in – do you – do you find when you’re pitching programs to a utility or program administrator, a discernible competitive advantage for holding credentials, or is it still an education of those program administrators as to the value of credentials?
Tim: It’s probably both, depending on the specific person and end-user you’re dealing with. I don’t know that the credential label has filtered as far down decision-makers on a contract award, but certainly the experience standing behind those credentials jumps out.
Michael: Yeah, for us I’d say, it’s the work that you’ve done in the past is probably the heavier, you know – the more heavily weighted factor, but having people – people on our staff who have those credentials are certainly included in any kind of proposals or work that we’re seeking, to let them know that we take that seriously – that we have those skills. And I think it is a, you know, a badge that helps you obtain work, for sure.
Peter: Great. We just crossed the top of the hour, and I want to be respectful of everyone’s time, so first to say thank you to all of our presenters today, and turn it back over to you, Sandy, for some closing remarks.
Sandy: Yeah, absolutely thank you everyone, thank you for joining. We’ll give a – you know, our normal follow-up email that’ll have the – the, you know, link to the website, and look for the, both the slides… you know a week or little more, and then it takes us about 30-60 days because of transcribing to get the audio recording up there, but both of those will be up there, and we can help tie you into any of these individuals if you have further questions or comments. And, again, since we’re at the top of the hour, thank you everyone, and we look forward to talking to the webinar group again in a couple months. Take care.
Aimee: Sandy, just one other thing – there is a one-pager that we can make available immediately after this, that I will –
Sandy: Yeah, I can – I’ll include that, yeah – we’ll include that in the – in a follow-up email.
Aimee: Okay, great. Thank you.
Sandy: All right, thanks to everyone very much. Take care.
Peter: Thank you all. Bye now.