Greg Thomas Named Chair of Efficiency First

Ithaca, NY (July 12, 2010)

Greg Thomas, President and CEO of Performance Systems Development, is the new chair of Efficiency First, a national energy efficiency trade association. Efficiency First represents contractors, building product manufacturers, and related businesses and organizations in public policy discussions at the state and national levels to promote the benefits of home energy efficiency improvements to stave off rising energy costs. Thomas, a founding board member of Efficiency First, was elected vice-chair of the association in April and assumed the board chairmanship following the resignation of the outgoing board chair.

Greg Thomas has been at the forefront of the building performance industry for more than thirty years and envisioned and developed the first Home Performance program in the country. He was a founding board member of Affordable Comfort Inc. and also served as board chair. He is a member of the RESNET board and a member of the National Home Performance Council Forms Committee. He received the Building Performance Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Thomas has served as an advisor to a wide range of national and state entities, including NYSERDA, the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program, the Energy Foundation, and the California Energy Commission.

Addressing his goals as chair, Greg Thomas stated, "Our efforts as an organization need to focus on creating the long-term infrastructure of the energy efficiency industry of tomorrow, while making sure that we continue to help families and keep workers employed today. Our ability to work together as Efficiency First is the key to both of these. I look forward to serving the organization."

Thomas continues to supply visionary guidance to the building performance industry. As chair of Efficiency First, he will continue working with legislators in Washington to craft language for the passage of HOME STAR, the multi-billion-dollar federal home energy jobs stimulus package, and supporting the development of data standards for transferring energy retrofit and energy usage information as part of an effort to enhance the efficiency of the energy efficiency industry.

Performance Systems Development (PSD) is an Ithaca, New York based company that specializes in providing software, training, engineering and consulting to the building energy efficiency industry, with more than thirty years of industry experience. The company offers a whole-systems approach to energy efficiency strategies through the development of energy policy, programs, and software to improve process efficiency. PSD continues to develop TREAT, a leading energy simulation tool, and Green Energy Compass, a residential benchmarking tool. For multifamily and commercial buildings, PSD provides TREAT and Building Performance Compass for a comprehensive energy analysis and tracking. PSD delivers green jobs training, Building Performance Institute certification training, and a curriculum for licensing by building professional training programs in both residential and commercial sectors. PSD has been nationally selected to provide energy modeling training for commercial buildings for the federal government under contract with NREL.