Mission

The Eneref Institute

Eneref Institute was founded in the wake of 9/11 to promote energy efficiency as the best solution to assure ecologically sensible and economically viable global progress. And because prior to 9/11 the nation of Kenya was also victim to Al Qaeda’s attack and also because the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) is based in Kenya, Eneref Institute has offices both in Greater Philadelphia, PA and Nairobi, Kenya. Eneref Institute was founded by Eneref’s Executive Director, Seth Warren Rose.

Eneref Institute is a sustainable development research and advocacy organization. The mission of Eneref Institute is to demonstrate and publicize simple specific solutions that increase energy efficiency and foster an earth-friendly economy. Primarily our work takes the form of white papers written as turnkey articles for media to excerpt or repurpose.  Secondly, Eneref hosts application-specific seminars demonstrating the success of individual case studies. And lastly, Eneref hosts several industry initiatives, including the Solar Thermal Advantage Initiative, the Tailored Lighting Initiative and the Independent Hydrocarbon Alternative Incentive Investment Initiative

Research at Eneref Institute is accomplished by exploring the economic benefits of sustainable advances in various market sectors. We gather and evaluate data from individual case studies; interviewing all stakeholders within the sales channel, from manufacturer to end user. While Eneref Institute successfully operates without a large endowment, from time to time we reach out for industry support.

Recent facts about Eneref Institute

•  Eneref Institute is an organization whose mission is to promote the benefits of common sense environmental solutions to the media.
• Our recent white paper on lighting was published in the nation’s leading lighting engineering magazine LD+A, and reprinted in lighting engineering publications in Europe, Asia and Africa.
• Recently we have been asked by several large utilities to help develop media opportunities to foster their solar thermal programs.
• We are currently charged by senior level Pentagon officers to develop a preliminary report on best practices to simplify solar thermal implementation globally.
• Funding for our work comes from a diverse group of manufacturers, associations and municipalities.
• Currently Eneref Institute is working on a white paper in lighting in cooperation with DOE funded laboratories, NREL and PNNL, the University UC Davis, several leading lighting manufacturers.

Major Initiatives

Today we have three initiatives that bring together competing and allied parties to help them collaborate where their interests overlap to promote their mutual pursuits. “Solar Thermal Advantage” was launched in 2006. “Tailored Lighting” which began in 2009 and our recently launched “Independent Hydrocarbon Alternative Incentive Investment Initiative.”

“Solar Thermal Advantage” was launched six years ago and continues today. At that time, we recognized the US solar thermal industry was a group of regional companies lacking the wherewithal to organize a common, positive message. Eneref Institute jumped at this challenge, as our methodology was perfectly suited to bring the industry together as a group, and publicize the benefits of the technology to the media. In 2007, we created and self-funded our “Solar Thermal Advantage” initiative. In 2010 we went a step further, and asked the industry to help increase our annual budget for the initiative, and the positive response we received was industry-wide.

Similar to our “Solar Thermal Advantage” initiative “Tailored Lighting” was launched based on our findings and reported in our 2011 white paper examining the obstacles to energy efficient lighting in commercial retrofits, the goal of the “Tailored Lighting” initiative is to help commercial facility managers understand best practices in commercial lighting, especially once LEDs will become omnipresent. Our “Tailored Lighting” initiative will include collaborations with various media, large lighting manufactures, DOE laboratories, and renowned lighting designers.