Success & Lessons Learned from 3 Years of 50001 Ready Cohort Training Programs

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) started a cohort-based technical assistance program open to any U.S.-based organization seeking to implement the DOE’s 50001 Ready energy management system, based on ISO 50001. 50001 Ready integrates continually improving energy performance into customary business practices. This presentation will highlight how participants and their energy teams adopt new practices and spread them throughout the organization relatively quickly to accelerate energy savings and increase competitiveness. LBNL has been collecting data via five participant surveys over the course of the engagement, including pre- and post-program. By January 2025, this ongoing program had engaged 689 participants from 390 sites and 101 organizations in 34 cohorts, as well as 435 survey respondents. Participants are diverse in terms of geography, size, and sector, including manufacturing, commercial buildings, military, and government agencies. Results from surveys will elucidate pre- and post-cohort energy management practices, motivations, barriers, organizational decision making, and internal communications, and potentially how these correlate with successful Ready recognition. Statistical and qualitative analysis will be used to identify emergent themes in responses to open-ended questions, as well as patterns between these and other variables.