CBEI is driving business development in building energy efficiency.

Introduction

CBEI and its members are supporting the growth of companies focused on energy efficiency technologies and services as part of CBEI’s larger effort to invigorate the market for energy efficient retrofits. A team of four economic development EEB Hub members leads this initiative: Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP), the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC), the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the University City Science Center. Through these members, each of which spearheads a separate facet of this initiative, CBEI provides resources for both budding entrepreneurs and established businesses, from counseling and consulting to flex space for companies entering the Greater Philadelphia market.

Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners

Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP), a technology-based economic development organization, leads the new business development and support facility at The Navy Yard known as the Commercialization Center (CC). The CC, which is supported by the other economic development CBEI members taking part in the initiative through complementary programs and services, is geared towards businesses that produce whole-building energy saving solutions.

The CC offers onsite and virtual services designed to accelerate the introduction of building energy efficiency technologies to the local market, with the goal of simultaneously reducing costs and creating jobs. The CC will give businesses opportunities to use CBEI Advanced Energy Retrofit (AER) demonstration projects as test beds for their technologies and/or services. The CC will also provide access to a network of prototyping and fabrication labs to help bring innovative ideas to market; offer business and product development services; and enable easier access to financing. Information and guidance will be delivered via mentors and webinars to help CC businesses identify and address market challenges in order to rapidly grow their businesses and expand the commercialization of new technologies. Additionally, the CC will offer part-time or full-time office space for up to seven companies in The Navy Yard’s Building 101 for a nominal fee. The CC can also provide mail forwarding, data hosting, and more extensive services, such as naming, branding, and logo development for the U.S. market, personnel recruitment, and grant proposal support, among other offerings.

The CC also offers a virtual services program known as the Ben Franklin Navigator, made possible by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Agency. The services offered by the Ben Franklin Navigator program include many of those offered on site, such as reviews of market entry plans, presentations, and business plans, and access to webinars and mentoring. However, the Ben Franklin Navigator primarily aims to provide a “soft landing” for non-local companies entering the Greater Philadelphia region. To help facilitate this soft landing, the Ben Franklin Navigator program also includes access to desk and conference rooms, telephone services such as call forwarding, and teleconferencing capabilities.

The CC seeks to engage with at least twenty-five firms – including at least two minority- or women-owned businesses – within its first year. It anticipates that the average residency for participating companies will be about two years.

University City Science Center’s Satellite Quorum

Another component of CBEI’s initiative to support entrepreneurs is Satellite Quorum at The Navy Yard, run by The University City Science Center, the country’s oldest and largest urban research park. Satellite Quorum delivers networking events designed to educate, support, and encourage partnerships among early- and late-stage AER startups and established companies in the energy efficient buildings field. The Satellite Quorum initiative at the Navy Yard (a spin-off of the Quorum program launched at the Science Center campus in University City in 2011) began in 2012 with four pilot programs and launched fully in early 2013. Its first program outside of its pilot phase was Get to Know Satellite Quorum, a program designed to introduce and inform the AER community about the offerings of Satellite Quorum and its partners BFTP, DVIRC and Wharton SBDC. The next Satellite Quorum held was “Coffee & Counsel”, which matched a small group of entrepreneurs with an industry expert for an informal Q & A session. Satellite Quorum will also offer additional programs including Smart Talk: Energy Matters, Office Hours, and Business 201 Boot Camp. Smart Talk: Energy Matters offer presentations by entrepreneurs and experts in the energy efficiency building technology sector. During Office Hours, advisors meet one-on-one with entrepreneurs to answer their questions and offer targeted advice. Business 201 Boot Camp will cover the basics of business planning, marketing, sales, finance, HR compliance and other topics necessary to success in growing a business. Other future programming will be developed based on needs. All Satellite Quorum programs have a networking component built in to encourage attendees to make connections and build their networks – ultimately, developing a community of emerging companies and resources in the AER sector.

The Science Center has also developed a Strategic Partner Alliance to help co-promote the efforts of Satellite Quorum along with activities in the wider energy efficiency community in Greater Philadelphia. With the development of the Satellite Quorum Strategic Partnership, the Science Center is able to expand its reach to a wider community and generate interest and buzz around the AER entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center

DVIRC, a private, not-for-profit economic development consulting firm with twenty-five years of experience in Greater Philadelphia, leads CBEI’s efforts to utilize a  Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool to identify opportunities for private building owners to accelerate adoption of AERs. The VSM will visually manage the process of integrating information and decision-making to bring an AER from concept to completion. Through the VSM process, DVIRC hopes to excite small to mid-size manufacturers, distributors, and service providers to engage in the AER marketplace, and to grow regional private sector expertise in energy efficiency related products and services to spur regional economic growth.

DVIRC also brings to the effort an extensive professional network throughout the region’s manufacturing industry which it can draw on to connect growing retrofit businesses and entrepreneurs with manufacturers, and partners. Its extensive network also enables it to involve suppliers in the Integrated Solutions Showcases; bring many of these same suppliers into its VSM efforts; expand regional participants in the CBEI Suppliers Platform; and provide product development and prototyping companies to support the Hub Commercialization Center. In addition to leveraging its network, DVIRC will also offer to facilitate engineering advice and support from its manufacturers.

Wharton Small Business Development Center

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business – one of eighteen SBDCs in Pennsylvania – assists small businesses in the Greater Philadelphia region in becoming competitive in the energy efficiency building sector. The SBDC identifies, cultivates, and engages the region’s innovative small and minority-owned firms in the AER sector through both one-on-one and group consulting services.

The SBDC is a vital resource for existing and emerging small firms because of the relationships it has with municipal and private entities throughout the region, including chambers of commerce, the Philadelphia Office of Equal Opportunity, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and the Urban League of Philadelphia, among others. The SBDC holds monthly Business Outreach Sessions that guide businesses in how to better align with the building energy efficiency marketplace. Participants also learn about opportunities to engage with CBEI. (Seventy-four companies participated in the first four months of 2013). The SBDC supports a range of clients, from pre-venture individuals with just an idea, to established, high-growth clients with a notable presence in the market. The SBDC supports entrepreneurs in their efforts to raise capital, to understand their market and develop their value proposition, to secure strategic alliances, and to manage the many dynamics of an evolving business.

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For more information about these programs, please contact the following EEB Hub members.

• Hub Commercialization Center: Omar Mencin.
• Satellite Quorum: Kristen Fitch.
• The Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center: Sharon Ross.
• Wharton Small Business Development Center: Jacqueline M. Jenkins.