The Visionary Leader Spearheading One of the Federal Government’s Most Successful Partnership Programs

Her superpower is collaboration.

And next month it will be on display once again as she hosts the Department of Energy’s annual Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit.

Over the last 15 years, Maria T. Vargas, the director of the Better Buildings Initiative, has led what many consider to be the department’s most successful partnership program. It’s not only an incredible story of public-private collaboration, but also a government effort that is responsible for a staggering amount of energy savings, making it one of the greatest energy efficiency partnerships in government history.

In the late aughts, advocates were hard at work urging policymakers to pay more attention to energy-saving opportunities in buildings, including a well-known advocate, former President Bill Clinton, as well as several nonprofit, trade association and industry leaders who banded together to issue a series of policy recommendations identifying opportunities where the Administration could take action.

Real progress began when the officials in the Obama White House and a small group of senior leaders at DOE began to shape these ideas into a bold plan to sharpen DOE’s programmatic focus on buildings, which account for nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy use. While developing a comprehensive program, they coalesced around an anchoring concept: the profound idea of issuing a challenge to market leaders to reduce energy use across their entire building portfolio by 20% over 10 years and further demonstrate leadership by sharing successful strategies.

Indeed, before it even had a name, Maria was constructing the program and conducting outreach to industry leaders who would become some of its very first partners. In 2011 in Chicago, DOE launched what was ultimately dubbed the Better Buildings Challenge with 14 partners and more than 250 million square feet of real estate committed. Fourteen partners. Fourteen.

Today, because of Maria’s leadership, oversight and guidance, the Better Buildings Challenge (as well as the Better Plants Challenge, focused on industrial organizations) has grown to nearly 350 partnering organizations spanning more than 13 billion square feet of space. Manufacturers, cities, states, universities, and school districts have now saved an astounding 950 trillion Btus in energy, equivalent to more than $12 billion in cost savings.

But the collaborative ethos of the Better Buildings Initiative doesn’t end with the Challenge. As a testament to Maria’s superpower, BBI has grown to be much more than that, with an extensive ecosystem that includes Better Plants, Better Buildings Accelerators, the Better Buildings Alliance, Better Buildings Financial Allies, and the newest addition, the Better Climate Challenge. All told, BBI now represents over 900 partners, which collectively have reduced carbon emissions by 189 million metric tons and saved $18.5 billion, 3.1 quadrillion Btu in energy, and 16.2 billion gallons of water. In addition, BBI, through its Financial Allies, has extended $32 billion in energy efficiency funding.

Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with Maria and hear more about her role in forging what’s become an historic and groundbreaking partnership.

Q: Maria, the Better Buildings Initiative has seen exponential growth under your leadership. Can you share some insights into the strategies you employed to engage such a diverse roster of partners?

The Better Buildings Initiative is based on the fact that as a Nation, we spend more than $800 billion each year to power buildings, plants, and homes. On average, 20-30% of that energy is wasted. By improving building operations, design, materials and equipment, we can cost- effectively improve energy efficiency and accelerate decarbonization. Becoming more energy efficient – and then using efficiency as a cornerstone for other decarbonization work – is simply good business and sound management.

Therefore, the work we do across the Better Buildings Initiative is designed to accelerate action by driving the adoption of proven energy efficiency and other decarbonization approaches throughout the commercial, public, industrial, and residential sectors in the next decade. Our partners set ambitious goals and further demonstrate leadership by sharing what they are doing with others. DOE supports partners to meet their goals and we highlight their work to inspire others to follow suit.

Organizations join for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by cost savings; others are motivated to understand their energy use and reduce waste while others are prompted by the urgency of climate change. Many partners also tell us that hiring and maintaining the best talent is part of their work to demonstrate their commitment to being a leading organization and demonstrating action. Partners know that it takes money, time, and expertise to reach the goals they set, and DOE is available to support them with technical assistance for overcoming challenges, helping identify opportunities and showcasing their successes.

We prioritize learning from our partners. Their willingness to share their real-world experiences in pursuing greater efficiency and decarbonization are integral to refining our strategies and enhancing the impact of our initiatives across the U.S. economy.

We work with offices across DOE and other agencies, like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Collaborative efforts with various stakeholders help strengthen our collective impact and broaden our reach.

Q: While not mentioned above, there is a requirement for performance data among Better Buildings partners. How has that been instrumental in not just monitoring progress, but also in how you’ve been able to develop and design the Solutions Center to house effective solutions and best practices that are then made accessible to all stakeholders?

Data is critical to the Better Building Initiative. We ask partners to report data annually on all of the goals they’ve set in energy, emissions, waste, water, and/or finance. We use this data not only to keep a pulse on progress, but to ensure our solutions are valid and transparent for anyone who might be looking to replicate them at their own organization.

This is the cornerstone of our work, serving to de-risk climate action and demonstrate its effectiveness from a business perspective. We focus on solutions that address specific barriers, making them replicable and scalable. Understanding what partners have overcome provides valuable insights into overcoming similar challenges elsewhere. Partners benefit from practical insights and strategies derived from real world examples from their peers, so we’re proud to serve as the trusted institution vetting the data.

Partners have contributed to more than 3,000 solutions now available on the Better Buildings Solutions Center. This searchable resource has both real-world strategies shared by partners along with resources and tools from experts to jumpstart efficiency and decarbonization projects. It is the backbone for how we share information.

We are excited to announce that the Solution Center just went through an upgrade. Its new features include updated main menu navigation; a powerful enhanced search platform to discover relevant solutions, technologies, and strategies; and updates to partner profiles to prominently display their performance data and program goals.

Q: The Better Buildings Initiative has saved an astounding amount of energy and costs for its partners. Can you recall any standout success story that epitomizes the impact of the program?

We are excited to see savings and leadership coming from across the US economy and from both public and private organizations.

There are more than 650 showcase projects and Implementation Models published on the Solution Center. Each is a success story of a real-world project done by one of our partners. It is hard to choose just one!

Each of the more than 100 organizations that have met their portfolio wide energy reduction goal were successful. I would encourage you to go to the Better Buildings Solution Center to see these goal achievers and read their story. You will find school districts, Fortune 100 companies, hospitals, hotels and retailers—just to name a few—demonstrating that success is possible no matter what kind of organization you are or where you are located.

Another way to learn what partners are doing is by checking out our latest video series, the Better Climate Challenge Road Show. In a few short episodes we highlight and SHOW the remarkable efforts of our Better Climate Challenge partners in decarbonizing their facilities. In Season One our energy experts visited Nashville to showcase Nissan North America, The Chemours Company, and Whirlpool Corporation’s emission reductions innovations. Season Two took us to Cleveland, where we went behind the scenes with Cleveland-Cliffs, City of Cleveland, and Cleveland Clinic to see how they are reducing emissions across diverse facilities.

Q: Tell us more about the newest effort, the Better Climate Challenge, and how it’s growing and helping partners focus more on climate leadership?

The climate is changing and our nation needs viable pathways and solutions for organizations to meet the challenges ahead.

The organizations that are working with us in the Better Climate Challenge (BCC) have not only set ambitious goals but are acting NOW to share portfolio wide approaches to decarbonization. Partners in the Better Climate Challenge pledge to reduce their scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions across their portfolio by at least 50% within 10 years and to share their data and pathways along the journey to help others learn from their experiences. DOE works closely with partners to help them with planning, technical assistance and focusing on the barriers they are facing.

There are almost 200 partners now working with DOE in the BCC. Partners in the program have reduced their GHG emissions by an average of 21% since their base year.

The increasing participation underscores the widespread commitment to addressing climate change and the value of collaborative efforts. With this program, we provide direct technical assistance and working groups focused on topics such as emissions reduction planning, electrification, onsite renewable energy, industrial thermal loads, and emissions audits and assessments. As partners progress, they are going to be sharing strategies and pathways to help move the entire U.S. building stock forward.

Q: As you look forward, what are your future aspirations for the Better Buildings Initiative, and how do you plan to address the evolving challenges and opportunities in the building sector?

Successfully decarbonizing the US economy is going to take hard work. We are committed to learning from partners and helping them solve their problems.

As a partnership program designed to accelerate greater efficiency and decarbonization, partner input, feedback and participation is key. We keep in close contact with our partners, which helps DOE gather a variety of perspectives on challenges and opportunities while allowing us to provide the level of support our partners need. This feedback informs the way DOE prioritizes its research, development, and deployment resources by focusing our attention on the specific needs and gaps experienced by partners. We are always looking for new ways to learn about the challenges our partners are facing.

We also want to ensure that we keep connecting partners to the latest technology and approaches for them to use to help them on their decarbonization journey. For example, we’ve learned from the first few years of the Better Climate Challenge program that many organizations don’t have an emissions reduction plan and struggle with how to get started on one. So, we’ve worked with our technical experts to create a workbook to show different decarbonization scenarios. We are also launching new working groups and peer exchange opportunities at the annual Better Buildings Summit in April.

Through the Better Buildings Initiative, we work with organizations of all sizes across all sectors of the economy, so if your organization hasn’t partnered yet with DOE, we encourage you to learn more about signing up at join page of the Better Buildings Solution Center.