Energy technology is transforming rapidly, and corporate energy management priorities need to keep up and look ahead. Companies have more options and data available than ever – which also makes the job of an energy manager more complicated than ever. 

This tutorial walks through how to develop a strategic, comprehensive approach to achieve a company’s energy-related financial and environmental objectives. Following the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) guidelines, we’ll cover the six dimensions that make up an integrated energy strategy: 

1. Vision and Goals: How to set a clear vision that is supported by credible targets that make sense of how your company operates in your supply chain
2. Energy Strategy Governance: Clarify accountability on who is leading and who is delivering on each goal
3. Data Collection and Management: Select tools to collect and understand data
4. Mandatory and Voluntary Reporting: How to develop a reporting program that provides action-oriented insight into the status of the integrated energy strategy to internal and external stakeholders. 
5. Internal and External Engagement: Get internal buy-in and engage employees to see maximum benefits 
6. Solutions: How to develop a roadmap of measures that improve energy efficiency, increase the use of low-carbon energy and fuel, and enable natural climate solutions – in your operations and together with your value chain.  

In advance of the tutorial, participants are encouraged to read WBCSD’s guidelines on how to develop an Integrated Energy Strategy: https://wbcsdpublications.org/integrated-energy-strategy/

This session features a regulator, utility and customer from the same service area in Michigan to talk about how they worked together on green tariffs, rate design to integrate more renewables, and electric vehicle infrastructure. Experts will offer insights into how companies can navigate complex dynamics and think through the systems needed to bring more clean energy to the grid. 

Companies, universities and even cities are beginning to embrace the “electrify everything” movement for heating and cooling buildings, as well as for powering on-campus, employee-owned and corporate fleet electric vehicles. This session will explain how these electric building and electric vehicle systems interconnect, how they can be powered cleanly, how EVs can be used as grid services, and the first steps organizations can take to deploy these dual electric programs.

Natural gas is becoming the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. energy sector. This session takes a realistic — but urgent — look at addressing those emissions, and at market-ready solutions for these hard-to-reach emission sources, including renewable thermal energy technologies, where and how to use renewable natural gas, and how to decarbonize industry, including the steel and concrete sectors.

You might be surprised to learn that community solar is the fastest-growing segment of the solar industry today. But the incentives and timing mean that residents are interested and adopting faster than ever before. It’s also presenting a major opportunity for companies to get more involved in the space. Learn more about how leading businesses are benefiting from community solar programs at this roundtable lunch.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join interactive lunch discussions, moderated by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants. All roundtable lunches do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

In this session attendees will learn what it takes to plan, build and operate high demand charging infrastructure that will not only create cleaner, livable cities, but is scalable, sustainable and profitable. Join technology innovators as they discuss how e-mobility models are changing the way we move within cities, and the practical realities of creating a new economy around this effort – built on a foundation of open-standards, powered by renewable energy sources, dynamically optimized and reinforced by the grid – and paving the way for the imminent electric transportation wave.

You can’t get to 100 percent clean energy without including everyone. This session will look at finance opportunities, innovations and markets to ensure that the clean economy will work for residents in all communities. From public-private partnerships to leveraging new financial structures, our experts look at the latest financial innovations that promote inclusivity.

As the first mainstream electric vehicles age, companies are beginning to explore circular systems for moving batteries from EVs to stationary storage systems to recycling. Though it's still early days for these supply chains, big battery and automakers, investors and materials suppliers are investigating the best ways to design and implement these systems.

What technologies are emerging to keep companies and people resilient amid growing storms droughts and other weather events? How can we make sure we're taking everyone along as we prep for more hurricanes, droughts, floods, wildfires and other calamitous events? This session looks at the emerging technologies designed to help communities and organizations be prepared and discusses how cities and companies can work together to identify and implement the tools needed to become more resilient. 

Energy storage has been the “next big thing” for years, but few businesses have deployed it at scale. In the past year, however, utilities have taken on massive energy storage projects and commitments. In this session, utilities that already are investing in storage share where they see value, when it makes sense and what opportunities are available for organizations that want to follow in their footsteps. It also provides an overview of the latest storage technologies and the business case for pairing energy storage and renewables to displace natural gas in grid operations.