The Energy Coordinating Agency (ECA), established by Liz Robinson in 1984 is providing innovative market transformation in residential energy efficiency in the Delaware Valley region as well as the throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Through Robinson’s initiatives the following programs have been established: Home Performance with ENERGY STAR in Pennsylvania which incorporates the programs of the Building Performance Institute (BPI), the ENERGY STAR Program of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy.

In partnership with the Pennsylvania Departments of Environmental Protection, and DOE, ECA has been awarded a grant of $840,000 to accomplish the following: a statewide assessment of the energy efficiency and solar energy resources across all sectors and a comprehensive plan to harvest them; a plan for a statewide public energy education campaign; statewide training for Home Energy Rating System (HERS) raters, auditors, contractors and other building science technicians; and pilot programs for ENERGY STAR Homes and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Liz Robinson started working at the People’s Emergency Center and realized more than 25 years ago that energy costs represented a significant expenditure then for low-income households. Now energy costs represent significant costs for many more sectors of our society. Funding for ECA’s low-income conservation and education programs has grown steadily, enabling ECA to weatherize more homes each year, saving 20% to 50%.

ECA’s staff is steadily growing to meet the rising demand for services. ECA now has 95 full time employees, including HERS raters, engineers, licensed mechanics and electricians, energy auditors, and installers. ECA is also helping to expand the presence of green collar jobs that are a rapidly growing sector in Philadelphia’s workforce to create a new clean energy economy.

In 2004, ECA purchased a building for use as its Conservation Center in North Philadelphia at 106 West Clearfield to support the rapid growth of its energy conservation work. The Conservation Center has 58,000 square feet and will also serve as a training center for green collar jobs. ECA launched a capital campaign to complete the renovation of this center by making it a LEED certified Building Science, Training and Service Center and in December 2008, ECA received a major funding award to facilitate the development of a state of the art training center for home weatherization and energy efficiency training. This award will be formally announced in January 2009.

2009 is the 25th Anniversary of the Energy Coordinating Agency.