Holly Hutchinson and Herb Dwyer to Speak on March 15
With spring right around the corner (we hope!), it’s time for some fresh solutions to ongoing challenges. At our upcoming quarterly meeting, you’ll have the opportunity to hear about two of them. Holly Hutchinson, coordinator of the Finger Lakes Climate Fund (FLCF), and Herb Dwyer, CEO of EMPEQ, will be sharing their thoughts about how we can move forward on the climate, equity, and energy fronts.
Herb Dwyer and Derek LaClair of EMPEQ worked with software developers to create the Fast Site Survey, which dramatically streamlines building energy audits.
Holly will join us on March 15 to discuss ways businesses can partner with the Finger Lakes Climate Fund to help meet sustainability goals. FLCF was launched by Sustainable Finger Lakes in 2010 as a local and transparent carbon offset program that provides gap funding to low-to-moderate income families in the region for home energy upgrades. Since the Climate Fund’s inception, 82 families have received grants to improve the health, safety, comfort, energy efficiency, and long-term affordability of their homes.
As part of its effort to assure an equitable transition to a clean energy economy, Sustainable Finger Lakes has received two grants to expand its work: a NYSERDA grant to install heat pumps in 100 rental units in the City and Town of Ithaca and a Tompkins Community Recovery Fund grant to upgrade 50 mobile homes in Tompkins County with envelop work and heat pumps. Additional funds from FLCF carbon offset partners will help cover the costs of upgrades for the low-to-moderate income residents these grants serve.
Like FLCF, EMPEQ has carved out its own unique niche in the climate and energy transition world. Herb co-founded EMPEQ with Derek LaClair in 2016 to help facilitate the decarbonization of buildings by focusing on ways to streamline the often cumbersome and time-consuming process of carrying out energy audits. The company developed its Fast Site Survey technology to speed up onsite data collection in existing buildings.
The Fast Site Survey app automates the collection of building equipment site information, providing field auditors and engineers with initial assessments up to 80 percent faster than conventional data collection techniques. Named one of Ithaca’s best tech startups in 2022, EMPEQ has seen significant revenue growth in the past few years and recently secured a contract with the U.S. Air Force to deploy its technology.
Herb will demonstrate at the upcoming meeting how the process works. It starts with snapping a photo of the equipment onsite with a smartphone. Then the app uses AI to incorporate the unit’s technical details into a cloud-based platform that generates a report that keeps the information organized for use on or off site.
Be sure to attend the 2030 District quarterly meeting on March 15 to hear Holly Hutchinson and Herb Dwyer discuss their innovative approaches to addressing critical energy and climate issues.