Accreditation Process

Companies seeking NAESCO-Accredited status must apply to a committee of industry experts who are unaffiliated with any particular ESCO or any other company under consideration for accreditation, and undergo a rigorous examination of their core competencies and business practices. The committee carefully reviews the detailed documentation submitted and consults with selected customer references.

The Accreditation Committee consists of independent industry experts not affiliated with any ESCO:

• ESPC experts from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
• An engineer with 20+ years of experience as an owner’s representative on ESPC projects
• Lawyers with extensive experience representing state energy offices, utilities, and the types of organizations that are typical ESCO customers

The committee looks at criteria including the following: the precise nature of the applicant's business; the range of measures and services offered to customers; the availability of a performance-based project approach; ethical business practice commitment; project engineering and design, financing, project management, operations, and maintenance capabilities; and the capability of verifying and monitoring energy cost savings.

NAESCO's voluntary Accreditation program is open to NAESCO members. Accreditation is offered twice annually. The Spring Accreditation process begins in January and the Fall Accreditation begins in July.

For companies participating in the full accreditation or re-accreditation process, the participation fee has been set at $6,700. Payment of the participation fee does not in any way ensure accreditation will be granted; the fee is being imposed to cover the costs of the accreditation process, including the data review and reference checking by independent reviewers.