&EPA
    www.epa.gov
science   in  ACTION
BUILDING  A  SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION FOR  SOUND ENVIRONMENTAL DECISIONS
THE LUCID DESIGN GROUP: BUILDING DASHBOARD
GROWING AMERICA'S GREEN ECONOMY WITH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
       2005 EPA P3 Award Winner
       How can you motivate people to
       conserve energy and water? In 2005,
       a team of Oberlin College students
       won an EPA People, Prosperity and
       the Planet (P3) Award for developing
       a data monitoring display system that
       does exactly that.  Their P3 study
       validated the theory that information
       can change behavior and enabled the
       team to start a company called The
       Lucid Design Group.

       Lucid markets the Building
       Dashboard, a software product that
       has already been purchased by more
       than 70 schools. Many of these
       schools have run their own energy-
       saving competitions and integrated
       the Dashboard into their educational
       curricula. Many businesses have also
       purchased the Building Dashboard
       for their campuses including Yahoo,
       PSEG, Georgia Power, and others.
       Lucid has also developed a certified
       reseller program.

       As the Oberlin P3 team discovered,
       real-time feedback increases
       awareness and motivates people to
       conserve. For their project, they ran
       a campus-wide "dorm energy
       competition" to assess the system
       using graphs and gauges that were
       easy to interpret through a web site
       and monitors in dorm lobbies. The
       team provided two levels of
       information feedback - with the
       higher level group receiving real-
       time data. The study showed that
       those receiving real-time data
       reduced their energy use by a larger
       percentage.

       The Lucid Design Group has now
       grown to 12 employees.  In the
                            LucidDesignGroup
              Building f7)  Dashboard"
                 Per Student Electricity Consumption
                     i 'it «t«l'CTy e^w"'

              future, Lucid hopes to partner with
              utility companies for residential
              analyses and they are currently
              conducting a 1,000 home-pilot study
              with Energy Australia. A venture
              capital group, Dry Creek Ventures,
              also recently invested in Lucid.
              Lucid's goal is to change the way we
              think by transforming all of us into
              active managers of resource use.  So
              far, they have demonstrated that
              real-time feedback reduces energy
              and water consumption by between
              10% and 56%.
              Total EPA Investment
              $85,000

              Return on EPA Investment
              Lucid Design Group has grown to 12
              employees; eight new positions have
              been added since the P3 Award.
              More than 70 schools have
              purchased the building dashboard
              software. Yale University was
              recently added to that list. Lucid has
              expanded to a reseller program and
              is conducting a 1,000 residential
              home pilot with Energy Australia
  HMOKY
  UNIVERSITY
funded by the city of Sydney.
OTHER AWARDS
Aspen Institute Energy and Environment
Award
California Flex Your Power Award
California Clean Tech Open


OTHER LINKS:
EPA Project reports:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/dashboard
Oberlin monitoring program:
http://www.oberlin.edu/dormenergy/
Lucid Design Group:
http://www.luciddesigngroup.com/
EPAP3site:
http://www.epa.gov/P3
CONTACT: Cynthia Nolt-Helms, EPAP3
Program Manager, (202) 343-9693
nolt-helms.cvnthia(5)epa.gov
       U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
       Office of Research and Development

-------