Emerging Business Leaders Join Unique Hunt for Energy Savings in Top Companies, Cities and Universities

(Boston, Mass. – May 22, 2012) Today, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) launched its fifth season of EDF Climate Corps, an innovative fellowship that places specially trained MBA and MPA students in companies, cities and universities to identify and assess cost-effective opportunities to save energy and reduce emissions.

This summer, 98 fellows from the nation’s top graduate programs will work in 88 organizations, including companies such as Boeing, Caterpillar, Facebook, Google and Verizon; public institutions including the Boston and Chicago Public Schools, UNICEF, and the cities of Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Newark and San Francisco; and the America’s Cup Event Authority.

“Facebook had tremendous success working with EDF Climate Corps last year, identifying important energy efficiency measures to improve our new Menlo Park campus,” said Marcy Scott Lynn of Facebook’s Sustainability team. “We look forward to working with another EDF Climate Corps fellow this summer to uncover further opportunities for us to continue making energy efficiency a key part of our business operations.”

EDF created Climate Corps to break down the barriers that keep organizations from capturing the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency. Each year, fellows develop customized energy efficiency investment plans that cut costs and emissions.

“We welcome the EDF Climate Corps fellow to our team at Google,” said David Bennett, lead of Green Operations and Innovations for Google’s Real Estate and Workplaces Services team. “We believe this project to optimize plug loads in our offices to meet the needs of our employees while managing energy use will deliver real environmental and economic value for Google.” Since 2008, EDF Climate Corps fellows have identified energy-saving opportunities that could:

• Cut enough energy usage to power nearly 100,000 homes a year;
• Avoid the annual carbon emissions of 200,000 cars; and
• Save more than $1 billion in net operating costs over the project lifetimes.

“Cities and other public institutions can make smart energy investments just like companies,” said Michael Regan, EDF director of energy efficiency. “EDF is building a diverse movement to transform how people think about energy efficiency. Saving energy should be a top priority for everyone who pays a utility bill.”

EDF Climate Corps has grown from seven fellows in 2008 to 98 today, and has placed fellows in 186 different organizations. Projects accounting for 86 percent of the energy savings identified in the program’s first three years are complete or underway.

“Energy efficiency is a huge, and largely untapped, opportunity at a time when organizations everywhere are looking for ways to bolster their bottom line,” said Victoria Mills, managing director with EDF’s Corporate Partnerships Program. “EDF Climate Corps has delivered proven results for organizations committed to cutting costs and greenhouse gas emissions.”

See the list of organizations and fellows participating in EDF Climate Corps. For more information, please visit edfclimatecorps.org.