{"id":489671,"date":"2010-03-30T13:10:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T17:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2010\/03\/30\/qa-andrea-fabbri-coo-of-ecoalign-focuses-on-energy-star\/"},"modified":"2010-03-30T13:10:35","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T17:10:35","slug":"qa-andrea-fabbri-coo-of-ecoalign-focuses-on-energy-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/489671","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Andrea Fabbri, COO of EcoAlign, Focuses on Energy Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On March 19th the EPA and DOE announced new steps to strengthen the Energy Star program<\/a>. A few days later the GAO issued a report<\/a> showing that the Energy Star Program certification process is (nicely put) “vulnerable to fraud and abuse<\/a>.” The day after the GAO report was issued I sat down with Andrea Fabbri, COO of EcoAlign, the authors of a new EcoPinion report<\/a> on consumer perceptions of the Energy Star brand, to talk about Energy Star, green consumers, eco-branding and what we need to do to reduce energy consumption.<\/h3>\n

JK: <\/strong>Hi Andrea. This new EcoPinion report about the Energy Star brand couldn’t have come at a more relevant time. Why all the focus on Energy Star?<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>Given the stalemate of discussions around climate change, Energy Star is the only brand in US that has the power to help reduce energy consumption and, as a result GHG emissions. The problem is that the brand and its value have to evolve. We point that out clearly in our recent EcoPinion report and, once again, it’s about understanding and listening to customers. The EPA has announced changes to the Energy Star, but at EcoAlign we don’t believe the changes address the fundamental issues.<\/p>\n

Energy Star is a \u201cpassive\u201d brand, meaning that the economic advantages are not visible nor measurable to the consumer once a product begins its useful life, although consumers trust that there are benefits. Moreover, the Energy Star brand cannot control consumer behavior associated with the purchase of a new, efficient appliance. We live in an always-on world and it is intrinsic to human nature to use more \u2013 use the new TV more, keep the new light on, change the temperature setting, etc. If prices increase, Energy Star products will surely allow for more savings, but those savings will not visible to the consumer and all the consumer will see will be a greater expense, hence possibly making the Energy Star brand irrelevant and not useful in the eyes of people.<\/p>\n

Energy Star is also suffering to some extent from its own success. The same light blue label today can be found on most home appliances and electronics. Given the fact that the Energy Star value stems off a comparison a consumer makes between an endorsed vs. not endorsed product, what will the value be in a world where everything is endorsed? If one adds the pervasiveness of the brand with the low, perceived economic value delivered to consumers, one can easily see that the Energy Star brand, with electricity bills increasing, will run the risk over time of losing its relevance \u2013 becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.<\/p>\n


\n (more…)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 19th the EPA and DOE announced new steps to strengthen the Energy Star program. A few days later the GAO issued a report showing that the Energy Star Program certification process is (nicely put) “vulnerable to fraud and abuse.” The day after the GAO report was issued I sat down with Andrea Fabbri, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5905,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}