CarbonStop.org® Saving the Planet One Home at a Time
BUILDING A NEW INDUSTRY TO ADDRESS OUR CLIMATE OBJECTIVES
CarbonStop.org® is a new 501c3 non-profit economic development organization that uses current and developing energy and carbon reduction technologies to help reach our country’s climate change objectives while growing new and innovative carbon reduction technologies.
CONCEPT STATEMENT
This document presents a general plan for developing and structuring a new non-profit organization (CarbonStop.org) to be headquartered in the United States (city and state yet to be determined), whose primary purpose is to help single family homeowners through the complex sets of technology and lifestyle decisions and their associated costs in order to transform their home into a low-carbon or zero carbon home.
This document is offered for funding consideration to individuals, corporations, organizations and governments to support their deliberations of what options are available to support their contributions to reaching our climate change goals.
The following pages describe the CarbonStop.org concept for helping to achieve these goals.
CarbonStop.org: Saving the Planet One Home at a Time.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Mission Statement
The CarbonStop.org Concept
The Problem
CarbonStop.org is a Part of the Solution
CarbonStop.org Net-Zero Carbon Footprint Audit (audit)
Technology Identification and Selection and Cost Effectiveness Tests
CarbonStop.org Partners
CarbonStop.org Technologies
New Technologies to be Incorporated Into CarbonStop.org’s Services
CarbonStop.org Trade Alley Installation Partners
Financing CarbonStop.org Measure Installs
Management, Operations and Start-up
CarbonStop.org Operational Theory Diagram
Commitment of Nick Hall, CEO and Founder
Introduction
CarbonStop.org® is a newly forming IRS-Certified (pending) 501C3 non-profit economic development organization that will help individual households identify and install reliable, proven energy and carbon reduction technologies to help reach their individual energy and carbon reduction objectives, while also progressing toward our country’s objectives.
In this process, currently or newly available and market-proven carbon reduction technologies will be assessed, recommended, contracted, procured and installed in residential homes within the CarbonStop.org operational procedures. When customer technology-operations-training is required, CarbonStop.org will arrange for or provide that training to the customer.
CarbonStop.org will focus their efforts on a set of reliable residential technologies that are proved to reduce energy use, lower or eliminate carbon emissions, and provide for carbon sequestration for the remaining (if any) carbon emissions associated with their home, including transportation fuel use. Through this process CarbonStop.org will also identify new technologies that need to be developed, tested and deployed to the residential market. CarbonStop.org will not serve as an emerging technology development organization, but will work with emerging technology partners to help identify and develop these technologies.
Mission Statement
To slow or help eliminate climate changing carbon dioxide emissions from residential single-family homes by up-dating those homes and their associated modes of vehicular travel, to low-carbon or net-zero carbon technologies and strategies, including carbon sequestration.
The CarbonStop.org Concept
This CarbonStop.org concept is dynamic by design. The strategies for each home will be different and tailored to the needs of the individual home. In addition, the technologies and strategies offered by CarbonStop.org will be changed and updated as appropriate. As new low-carbon or net-zero carbon approaches and technologies are proven to be reliable they will be assessed by the CarbonStop.org engineering team for their potential, their cost, their cost effectiveness, and their effective useful life and presented to the Board of Directors for potential inclusion into the CarbonStop.org set of tools. The CarbonStop.org tool box will consist of all technologies and approach strategies that will be presented to the customers via the CarbonStop.org Carbon Audit Tool. Changes to the set of approved technologies and strategies will be updated to the audit tool only after approved by the organization’s Board of Directors.
The Problem
Our energy and carbon valuing system is broken; a new approach is needed. While we are generally heading the right direction, the slow pace of progress toward a low-carbon future is just too slow to rapidly impact our net carbon reduction needs. CarbonStop offers an additional approach.
Homes:
The vast majority of residential homes and their associated technologies (heating/cooling/cooking/lighting/refrigeration/transportation) operating in the United States function off of carbon-based energy supplies. Homes are still primarily heated and cooled by utility-supplied natural gas or fossil fueled electricity and our vehicles use gasoline or diesel fuel. Even in homes with electric vehicles, the vast majority of the energy to charge the car’s batteries depend on coal or natural gas-fired electrical generation, essentially relocating their carbon emissions from the tail pipe to the utility smoke stake. While homes are becoming more energy efficient, they continue to grow in size, significantly off-setting the reductions in energy efficiency with gains in square feet of conditioned space. While new building codes increase the energy efficiency of our homes, they continue to be based on the least-cost, discounted, net present value of an energy supply with zero long-term future value because of the code change discounting approach. These approaches typically peg the value of the code change to the future value of the discounted wholesale energy supply cost, rather than on the value to the home owner or the future of our country. This same condition applies to the vast majority of energy efficiency programs now operating in the United States, limiting their carbon saving ability.
In these approaches the price of energy to the homeowner is typically not valued at the retail cost to the customer, but is instead valued at the utility’s regulated wholesale supply cost, a cost many times lower than the customer’s actual costs. Then, that wholesale cost of energy is further reduced in its calculated value because of the discounting approach approved by most regulatory agencies for residential energy technologies. These discounting approaches values future energy savings at a level of worth far below its value to the homeowner. Therefore, when compared to other, more sustainable, energy efficiency solutions (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.), they are falsely perceived as less economically efficient and are not approved for inclusion in these programs. We actually discount the value of our future carbon reductions to be essentially worthless in future years because of our discounting approach, thereby providing no impact on an energy efficiency or carbon reduction discounted-based economic decision.
Vehicles:
While our residential vehicle fleet continues to become more fuel efficient, buyers continue to move to larger less efficient SUVs and trucks. The largest single types of vehicles sold today in the United States of America are pick-up trucks and SUVs, both with high gas consumption levels. Likewise, recent roll-backs to our country’s mileage improvements have left us farther buried in our carbon-debt.
Technologies:
Although possible for each family to independently assess their carbon-based lifestyle and research and identify a series of technology and associated behavioral changes that will lead to a low-carbon or net-zero carbon lifestyle, this process is overly complex for the typical family. They need technical help. The technologies that will work well for each household are different and often technically difficult, not to mention expensive and potentially disruptive. Help determining which of the current and developing technologies would greatly help these families understand the scope and cost of each alternative. Sequencing that process is just as difficult:
- Which technologies are available in their area?
- Which technologies provide the greatest return for their goals and their budget?
- Which should be taken first, second and third?
- Which will their utility company allow them to use without code changes or utility approvals and connections?
- Which require what level of on-going maintenance?
- What will that maintenance cost?
Understanding these complexities to the degree that a family can systematically and independently take action is a difficult task despite their objective of lowering their carbon footprint successfully. CarbonStop can offer appropriate technical help.
Financial Needs:
Moving to a low-carbon or net-zero carbon lifestyle is not just technically difficult; it is often financially impossible for the typical family. They need financial help. Converting to a low-carbon or net-zero carbon lifestyle typically can cost between $50,000 and $150,000 per home or more. This level of financial burden can increase their cost of living by 20% to 100% over the short term (under 7 years). While long-term costs of ownership and operation will likely decrease, families are not able to get over the financial hump to transition into the lower cost period (~7 to 15 years away). Independently contracting with energy efficiency and renewable energy technology providers does not always serve the customer’s best interests. Sellers of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies typically are not often focused on the short- or long-term economic interests of the family. The primary objective of most all sellers of energy efficient or renewable energy technologies is profit for their firm while minimizing customer contact and call-backs. This can add unnecessary costs to their budgets, especially if the technologies selected by the customer are not their best options financially. CarbonStop can facilitate acquiring financial help.
CarbonStop.org is a Part of the Solution
CarbonStop.org is not a solution for everyone and everything. It needs to be “a part of” a comprehensive national plan that addresses our country’s carbon future.
CarbonStop.org’s initial goal is to focus on one part of the carbon consuming market – the single-family home. This goal can be expanded to other market sectors as the future permits. The objective of CarbonStop.org is to make the conversion to low-carbon or net zero carbon lifestyles as easy as possible for the homeowner. CarbonStop will provide families with a “one-stop shopping” experience that assesses their current home and transportation technology needs, and addresses those needs in a low-carbon or net-zero carbon way. This objective is achieved by over-coming the market barriers that block the adoption and use of technologies that stand in the way of the country’s transformation to low or no carbon lifestyles.
The development of the CarbonStop.org approach is difficult, but doable. It requires the commitment and coordination of many stakeholders committed to moving the market toward a low-carbon way of functioning. A trusted neutral party, CarbonStop.org will serve as a non-profit educational and retrofit coordinating organization to systematically address the needs of the decision makers within the single-family housing market. This neutral party approach requires expert knowledge of the low-carbon, net-zero carbon technologies and the ability to incorporate changes into a systematic financially attractive approach. It also requires the establishment of a trade ally network of dedicated contractors working toward the same objective through the well-managed gates of a CarbonStotp.org or a CarbonStop.org-like approach.
Mr. Hall, the provider of this proposed concept, has the experience and the knowledge to accomplish this objective. Mr. Hall has 30+ years of evaluating the success of similar carbon-related systematic approaches to market interventions, and is also the single most published person in the world in this field. Mr. Hall has spent 30+ years working with manufactures and trade allies of energy efficient technologies and has assessed the operations of more energy efficiency programs than any other individual.
CarbonStop.org Net-Zero Carbon Footprint Audit (audit)
CarbonStop.org will develop and use a single-family home net-zero carbon audit tool that focuses on the identification of all technology options appropriate for each home and home conditions. Prior to the audit, CarbonStop.org will review building codes and neighborhood building covenants if any. These two steps are required to determine if there are codes or covenant restrictions that might impede the ability to convert to a net-zero or low carbon condition. As these conditions are identified they will be brought to the attention of local code officials or neighbor organizations with suggestions to address the limitation issue. If there are non-blocking code or covenant associated limitations associated with the client’s home the audit will proceed.
The audit will first interview the decision makers within the family to identify technology or behavior limitations that might limit the degree of carbon reduction achievements for that home.
Next the audit will examine the home and all energy related technologies currently used in the home including transportation associated technologies. Next, the audit will inventory and assess each energy consuming technology used within and by the family associated with that home’s space conditioning, water heating, refrigeration, and transportation.
Within each home audited, these technologies will be carbon baselined using the CarbonStop audit tool. They will be compared with the more efficient or zero-carbon CarbonStop.org recommended technologies available for cost effective conversion. From this assessment, the CarbonStop.org home audit tool will generate two technology-focused priority lists for converting the home to a low-carbon or net-zero carbon home:
- The Carbon Impact Order List, and
- The Conversion Cost Order List
The Carbon Impact Order List will prioritize the technologies offering the greatest carbon reduction potential, along with the estimated costs to convert the home to each of those technologies individually and as a group. The Conversion Cost List will prioritize technologies by their cost, with their carbon reduction potential added to each technology for comparison.
The audit tool will inform a discussion with the household decision makers to build a home-specific implementation plan to include estimated plan costs and an associated timeline for converting the home to a low-carbon or net-zero carbon home.
Technology Identification and Selection and Cost Effectiveness Tests
One of the most important components of the success of this effort is establishing a decision model in the form of a cost effectiveness test, that helps to identify and select each set of appropriate technologies for each home being converted to a low-carbon net-zero carbon home. Essentially, we need a new customer-focused cost effectiveness test that incorporates the cost and benefits of each technology as it will be applied to each home.
This test has yet to be developed but its parameters and applications are well understood, well tested and have a long history of application. Developing a CarbonStop.org cost effectiveness test will be a challenge, but not a large leap in design. Current tests for these types of decisions are already in operation in every state in the United States today. They can be googled and examined and there is no need to duplicate them here in this proposal for a new way of attacking single family home carbon emissions. These tests are called the Societal Test, and the Participant Test. There are other tests as well (e.g., The Utility Test) however these other tests do not work for CarbonStop.org operations that focus on the client and the need to reduce carbon from each participating home. The two key tests that CarbonStop.org will need to modify for a carbon focus (rather than energy efficiency focus) are briefly discussed below. Mr. Hall has authored several peer reviewed research papers and publications on these tests and has used them extensively in evaluating state and federal energy initiatives.
The Societal Test: The Societal Test is a test that weighs the costs associated with the installation and use of any given low-carbon or net-zero carbon technology against the benefits to society in addition to the client and the family making the conversions in their home. While the costs of conversion are to the client, there are substantial benefits to the society that constitute the very need for a low-carbon or net-zero carbon future. The benefits are many, including the mitigation of trillions upon trillions of dollars in climate change associated damages to the country and to the world, the saving of our country’s low-lands that contain many of the most populated cities in the country, and the avoidance of an earth that has major areas that may become essentially uninhabitable to the human species. The value of these societal benefits is weighed against the costs of the conversion associated with that home’s individual contributions.
The Participant Test: The participant test is a test that weighs the shorter-term financial costs of conversion of each home against the longer-term financial benefits to that individual home in the form of reduced utility bills as a result of unused energy. It is an economic test of the value of the dollars being spent to convert against the dollars saved by becoming low-carbon or net-zero carbon home.
These two tests comprise the backbone of the CarbonStop.org technology identification and selection process and limits the technologies that are first offered by CarbonStop.org to the client. Of course, many clients will want to do more than what are just economically justified decisions for them and for the country. CarbonStop.org must be willing to go beyond what is cost effective for each home, and include options for each customer to do more than they would, if cost recovery or taking cost effective reduction efforts were their only objective. CarbonStop.org realizes that most people do not make only cost-effective decisions, but allocate their personal resources to meet their personal and often intrinsic objectives as well. For the millions of single-family homeowners who want to do more, CarbonStop.org will help them accomplish their personal or intrinsic goals as well. The two above-described tests will provide the single-family home decision makers with an additional set of information on costs and benefits of each technology for them to make their own decisions on what actions to take.
The above-described tests are not detailed to their component metric values in this document because those tests have yet to be developed and because their values can be points of focus that detract from the overall CarbonStop.org objective. With that said, the fine-tuning of these steps in regards to other carbon reduction approaches is something that Mr. Hall and others have accomplished with every research project they have undertaken over the last 30 years, and will likewise be formulated in the early weeks of a CarbonStop.org launch process. As always, the views and opinions of the CarbonStop.org sponsors will be given weight in the development process.
CarbonStop.org Partners
For CarbonStop.org to be successful it must work via trade allies that are populated not only across the country, but across each low-carbon net-zero carbon technology appropriate for single family homes. This will require establishing partnerships with manufactures, builders, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors, renewable energy experts and installers, sequestration planters, land acquisition agents and transportation dealers to name a few. With these types of efforts, commitments from the first 50 allies will be the most difficult and time consuming. The next 50 will become somewhat easier, as networking begins to work to interest more allies. Following the partnering of the first 50, allies will begin to seek CarbonStop out to potentially become allies.
CarbonStop.org Technologies
The following tables present the technology categories which make up the CarbonStop.org single family home assessment technologies of focus. Each home will be audited for the potential use of cost-effective carbon reduction strategies within each of the following categories. The CarbonStop.org Net-Zero Carbon Footprint Audit, will identify a set of specific cost-effective[1] technologies within each category that the homeowner can take to reduce or eliminate their carbon footprint.
Building Envelope
| Air and moisture infiltration exfiltration | Band joist insulation |
| Ceiling/attic insulation | Foundation insulation |
| Heat recovery | Reflective roofs |
| Wall insulation | Window awnings and window management |
| Windows and doors |
Heating/Cooling & HVAC
| Air conditioning | Moisture and humidity control |
| Natural gas and electric furnaces | Programmable thermostats |
Lighting
| Daylighting systems | Lighting controls |
| Solar light tubes | LED conversions of all lighting |
Domestic Water Heating
| Heat recovery drains | Hot water heater storage heating |
| Instantaneous water heating | Insulated water pipes |
| Water heater timers |
Transportation
| Electric scooters and bikes | Electric vehicles |
| Neighborhood ride/vehicle sharing | Solar and wind charging equipment |
Renewable Energy[2]
| Energy conversions and storage systems | Solar condition / convention / passive |
| Solar PV panels and roofs | Solar water heating and pre-heating |
| Wind energy generation and storage | Wind to electric docking systems |
| Window awnings / shades / window management |
Carbon Sequestration
| Hard wood forest trust-land plantings |
Potential new and emerging technologies
| R-60+ hanging and integrated siding retrofit | Super-insulated interior wall panels |
Not all homes will receive all the technologies listed above. Each home will be audited for those technologies that best help that home reach its carbon objectives considering the home location, design, function, the building codes limiting technology use, the behaviors and lifestyles of the family and the financial abilities of the family, linked to CarbonStop.org financing options if needed.
New Technologies to be Incorporated Into CarbonStop.org’s Services
One of the key aspects of the CarbonStop.org approach is to foster new and emerging technologies that offer the potential for additional carbon reductions within the single-family home market. Mr. Hall (and others) have directed, conducted and supervised several peer reviewed studies of emerging markets and new and innovative technologies for both the United States Department of Energy and for several key states, including California and New York, from which have expanded the development of many of these emerging technologies via their emerging energy efficiency initiatives. In time CarbonStop.org will identify the need for additional new and potential technologies that can help support the client’s objectives as well as those of our country and for the operations of CarbonStop.org itself. This has already started to occur as Mr. Hall and others have worked with the USDOE, California and New York in this capacity in the past. Technologies identified that have yet to be commercialized include attached supplemental exterior facades that provide an additional, up to R-60, zero-infiltration insulation to homes. Another is the development of interior wall panels that are R20-R30 that contain prewired electrical conduits for home wiring while increasing the efficiency of the walls when exterior facades are not appropriate.
CarbonStop.org Trade Alley Installation Partners
CarbonStop.org will not install the technological upgrades to the homes contracted for conversion to low-carbon or net-zero carbon. CarbonStop.org does not plan to be in competition with any technology provider. This is essential to the success of the CarbonStop.org operations. Rather, CarbonStop.org will start-up and remain as an IRS certified 501c3 educational service organization.
CarbonStop.org will develop trade ally relationship with the providers of the technologies recommended from the CarbonStop.org Net-Zero Carbon Footprint Audit. In addition, CarbonStop.org and its trade allies will enter into partnership contracts to provide a legal platform from which CarbonStop.org services can be provided via each ally. The contract will cover the technologies to be provided by each ally and the parameters associated with the specification, acquisition and installation of those technologies. In addition, pricing conditions will be negotiated with each ally such that a commitment is obtained from each ally to focus their efforts on the installation of only high-quality reliable technologies at fair market prices. While CarbonStop.org will not set or fix pricing for its trade allies, it will continually monitor geographically weighted technology pricing for those relevant technologies to maintain a focus on cost-effective price maintenance for contracted homes. Trade ally pricing will be monitored by CarbonStop.org and pricing issues will be addressed as they are identified. CarbonStop.org will not abandon its clients with respects to trade ally pricing or service quality.
CarbonStop.org will develop customer-focused service conditions that each trade ally will be required to follow. This will include general professional working conditions, installation standards, quality control procedures, clean-up requirements, payment conditions and follow-up service requirements. CabonStop.org will inspect all jobs and job sites during and after each installation timeline to assure ethical and high-quality operations by its allies.
As CarbonStop.org, in conjunction withs its customers, identifies the set of technologies appropriate for each home conversion, CarbonStop.org will work with the decision makers within each home to establish a contract for services and the payment conditions. That contract will be finalized after the technologies are identified and the prices for the installations are acquired by CarbonStop.org from the trade allies.
Once CarbonStop.org start-up financing has been arranged and operations are launched, technology payments to the trade allies will be made by CarbonStop.org under payment contract conditions established between the clients being served and CarbonStop.org. The payments and payment conditions for, or financing of the conversion efforts will be established between the client being served and CarbonStop.org via a financial contract. CarbonStop.org will receive partial payment from the customers being served prior to the installation of any technologies, such that the client and CarbonStop.org are not in an overly burdensome debt condition with any conversion project. Progress of the conversion process will only proceed to match the ability of the client to pre-pay or successfully arrange for pre-payment for the conversions on their home prior to job sign-off. CarbonStop.org will establish a conversion timeline that is consistent with the client’s financial abilities.
These requirements will.
- Meet the client’s financial needs and timelines.
- Establish a mutually beneficial market force relationships (with the trade allies) associated with the installation potentials that are much stronger than single job contracts, setting up a valued ally relationship that serves the client, the trade ally and CarbonStop.org.
- Establish a competitive trade ally environment in which CarbonStop.org trade allies are not guaranteed any job, but are placed in a competitive position relative to each conversion contract. The ally technology, services and pricing must be matched to the value placed upon them by the client and by CarbonStop.org.
Financing CarbonStop.org Measure Installs
During the initial development phase of CarbonStop.org’s approach, the process will rely on customer-provided capital or financing to achieve their low-carbon or net-zero objectives (unless significant operational start-up funding is acquired) to support the launch efforts. In this process the customer will contract services from CarbonStop.org to assess, recommend, contract, acquire and arrange for the installation of the set of technologies appropriate for each home. Because the typical customer does not have ready access to low-cost capital at the level required to convert to net-zero carbon homes and lifestyles, this barrier will necessarily restrain the market launch of the CarbonStop.org process to target only homes with access to the level of capital required. This means that the initial launch of CarbonStop.org will focus on less than 2-5% of the residential market with enough access to capital to successfully become a carbon-free home.
The financial market limitation described above is inconsistent with the CarbonStop.org objectives to help many families achieve their low-carbon or net-zero carbon objectives. However, as a startup organization, lack of capital is an organizational development limitation that we are unable to overcome without financial assistance. As part of the CarbonStop.org launch activities we will attempt to acquire access to the capital needed to launch both the organization itself, and acquire enough capital to seed the conversion of homes to net-zero carbon homes. We fully understand that this effort will require several millions of dollars to successfully launch. A million dollars may only be able to convert 10 to 15 homes, depending on the level of assistance required. Because our objective is sound, and because reaching the objective is of paramount importance to our country, we believe that our objective to obtain financing partners is obtainable. We will search-out grants from private individuals, organizations, and enterprises, regulated and unregulated utility companies, as well as local, state and federal government partnerships. With startup grants to CarbonStop.org we can structure the seed funding and the payments from customers to go into a financial recycling bucket with new customers being served via access to the assets of payments being received from current customers who are financed via the seed grants or other funds to CarbonStop.org. This will set up a self-sustaining revolving fund by which greater market penetration can be achieved, expanding the customer base from the 2%-5% self-funding market, to up to 20% of the single-family housing market, over time. It is anticipated that multi-family markets can be added to the objectives once CarbonStop.org is set up and successfully running over a 5–10-year period.
Management, Operations and Start-up
CarbonStop.org will be organized and launched by Mr. Hall and operationally overseen by a Board of Directors (to be formed) and guided by a set of industry professions with the operational and organization skill sets to help guarantee success. These people have yet to be identified or acquired, but will constitute the initial phase of the start-up operations. While the start-up location is yet to be identified, that process will be launched directly up-on the acquisition of start-up funds. There are several areas of the country that can serve as the start-up location but in general the start-up location can be described as:
- Mid-sized to larger cities with a strong economy, having an
- Educated and informed pro-climate change population, with a
- Substantial number of single-family homes valued at $300,000 and higher, that are
- Occupied by families with disposable income, in a community with a
- Pro-active history of energy efficiency innovation.
Cities like Madison Wisconsin, Austin Texas, urban areas of the Pacific Northwest, and New York are potential start-up locations, among many others. Preliminary start-up financial analysis estimates indicate that the CarbonStop.org start-up concept can be successfully launched in a location where the customer market represents less than 1 percent of the single-family homes in the target area (<1 out of 100 homes). General levels of interest in this concept are estimated to be well above that level based on residential surveys and interviews with residential property owners conducted my Mr. Hall’s research energy efficiency evaluation research firm, over the last several years.
Once the start-up location is established, the hiring of the management team will be launched, followed by the development of the operational procedures, trade ally contracts and decision test development and testing. Once the operational procedures are developed and tested and the trade ally contracts are in place, hiring of a professional staff can be launched.
The Board of Directors and Oversight
CarbonStop.org will be directed by a voluntary Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is not formed at this time. However, this objective will be the first activity of the start-up effort once start-up funding is acquired. Mr. Hall has already discussed board membership with key top professionals in the energy and climate change field, including a national known expert energy efficiency engineer, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his climate change work working with Dr. Al Gore, a corporate executive that has built and successfully launched multiple corporations within the energy efficiency field, and others. These individuals will be confirmed and the Board will be expanded to include others that add significant benefit to the effort. Of course, CarbonStop.org will be receptive to other members being placed on the Board as recommended by the start-up funding sources.
CarbonStop.org is very receptive to oversight and reporting requirements as needed by the funding source(s), including financial oversight and un-announced financial or management audits. Mr. Hall has conducted several of these oversight and audit services for state and federal government agencies and for non-profit energy efficiency organizations. Mr. Hall understands the importance of oversight on any organizational effort and its role in continual improvement management.
Start-up and Funding
CarbonStop.org is a complex endeavor and if successful can greatly speed the carbon and greenhouse gas reduction efforts of the United States. It is a complex start-up effort, and is no small task. Like other tasks of this magnitude and complexity it will require significant start-up funding until the organization’s cost recovery approach (see below) can be placed in full operations. The amount of funding required will depend upon the funding sources abilities and levels of commitment and the speed and comprehensiveness of the start-up operations. For a small localized start up in a single city a start-up seeding of about $5,000,000 will be needed, plus an additional similar level of funding to maintain operations over the first couple of years. A larger or more rapid start up, will of course require matching start-up funds. These are estimates only based on the evaluation of other similar start-ups within the energy efficiency field, but which must be supported with a detailed start-up budget and budget management plan should CarbonStop.org secure start-up funding commitments from one or more sources.
Cost Recovery Approach
To be successful CarbonStop.org must become independently financially stable once start-up operations are substantially complete. That is, CarbonStop.org must have a financial business plan that can bring revenue into the organization that at least off-sets its operational cost to maintain both its on-going operations and a successful non-profit status. There is only one consistent income source for any operation that is self-supporting, and that is funding by its clients or its customers if other financial resources are not available on an on-going basis. Thus, the cost to operate CarbonStop.org must be added to each of the single-family home conversion contracts negotiated with its clients. Organizational operations based on add-on costs are nothing new to any business. They are a part of every product or service acquired in the market today. If the product is valued by the customer and the costs are reasonable, they are typically supported by the customer. While we fully expect to acquire discounts from trade allies in exchange for direct allocation of jobs, saving the ally marketing and outreach costs, these saving are not sufficiently large enough to off-set organizational operational costs even when the full non-discounted costs are covered by the clients. Thus, the costs to operated CarbonStop.org must be made up by continued support from funding sources or by adding its operations costs to the client’s conversion contracts. It is anticipated that this will require a 10-15% add on to the conversion contracts. This amount is consistent with the cost to operate other similar contracted services for energy efficiency measures within the private and utility-funding markets for which for over 30 years Mr. Hall has personally evaluated similar organizational structures for utility companies, state governments and the for the United States via the United States Department of Energy. These costs are typically recovered via discounting contracts with the trade allies.
CarbonStop.org Operational Theory Diagram
The following diagram provides a general overview of the operations of CarbonStop.org as provided in this document. It is a high-level diagram that places the primary tasks associated with converting single family homes to low-carbon or net-zero carbon homes.
CarbonStop.org Operational Theory Diagram
A general outline of the operations of the CarbonStop.org Operational Procedure
Commitment of Nick Hall, CEO and Founder
As the most published person in the world regarding the evaluation of and performance of energy efficiency behaviors, technologies, programs and initiatives, I have directed, conducted, or supervised hundreds of research projects focusing on energy efficient technologies and behaviors covering over $10 billion dollars in efforts between 1990 and 2020. I was formally the founder, owner, CEO and lead research professional for TecMarket Works Research, previously located in Oregon, Wisconsin that I sold when I retired after my wife died from cancer. I have served as the lead researcher, or the lead research oversight director for all energy saving initiatives implemented in California and New York for over 10 years. Additionally, I have conducted, led or supervised research in 10 other states and for the United States Department of Energy over the course of 30 years. I have researched behavior change and technology initiatives at the individual level, the city level, the state level and at the national level. I am the sole founder of the IRS certified 501c3, International Energy Program Evaluation Conference located in the United States, with offices in Europe and China. I understand the potential of technologies and behavior change actions on our carbon emissions, and understand the changes needed to become and sustain a low-carbon economy.
I am committed to designing and launching the CarbonStop.org initiative and will do so as a volunteer for up to two years to make sure the organization is formed, designed and successfully launched. After the two year period, I must hand it over to those that are young enough, talented enough, and committed enough to carry it forward. But I can’t do it alone.
To me, this document constitutes not only a description of an initiative that is desperately needed in the United States, but is also a description of my commitment to this effort. However, I am 72 years old, and while in excellent health, I will not be here in some 20 years. I fully understand this effort needs my (or others like me) help and guidance to be successful. I also understand that I must design this effort to be handed over to its operating Board of Directors and to the staff obtained to launch the effort after its start-up 2-year period. Thus, this document describes a short term, two-year plan of action by me and others who will be joining the team as they are identified and hired to build CarbonStop.org if financing of the effort is secured.
I am not a wealthy man. While I have the income to live with a degree of comfort as a result of owning two successful companies, I do not have the financial resources CarbonStop.org needs to be organized and launched. Therefore, the success of this effort hinges on the ability to find start-up and short term operational funding. Mr. Hall does not need ownership or control of this organization, or of this start-up effort. Rather, Mr. Hall understands that reaching our country’s carbon goals is going to take a real effort at a national level across many people, actions, activities, programs and initiatives. This document represents the start of one such programmatic effort that is possible with the necessary financial resources.
I am open and receptive to all funding ideas and offers to join me in this effort.
Nick Hall
Founding Official, CarbonStop.org
Nick@CarbonStop.org
(608) 345-8856,
716 Prairie Lake Drive
Sherman, Illinois
62684
[1] Cost effectiveness for the customer’s climate change objectives. See cost effective test section of this document.
[2] To include electric utility provided renewable energy generation and distribution services to single family homes, such as the ones offered by several regulated and unregulated electric utilities located across the United States, with more coming each year.