The California Local Energy Efficiency Program (CALeep) is designed to help California’s local governments plan and implement highly effective energy efficiency initiatives in their communities. The beneficial economic and environmental impacts of energy efficiency initiatives naturally support many other public purpose goals, such as greenhouse gas reduction, job creation, water conservation and green buildings.
CALeep’s overall objective was to produce an energy efficiency decision-making tool that can be used by local governments to stimulate energy-efficiency activity in their jurisdictions. To accomplish this, key representatives from utilities, private sector energy groups, energy service companies, and all levels of government contributed to the development of a “best practices” prototype process, the "Leep" process, for use by all local communities.
The “Leep” process consists of five basic steps:
- Initiate
- Plan
- Organize
- Implement
- Assess
The “Leep” process was designed to help energy efficiency champions apply a five step methodology to help focus their efforts while identifying helpful resources to combat the inevitable barriers they would encounter at every step of the design, development and implementation phase. The process can be used by any type of energy efficiency stakeholder – internal or external, public or private, large or small.
Based on the Pilot Project results, the CALeep team rolled out the Workbook to local governmental jurisdictions throughout California. That outreach was performed in conjunction with industry associations and state and federal energy agencies.
Key outreach tools include workshops, an interactive website, webcasts, and other “marketing” avenues to reach governments of local communities throughout the state.
