Questions and Answers Related to the ENERGY STAR® Recommitment Effort Q: Which partners are required to recommit? A: All existing manufacturer/private labeler partners must recommit in order to continue their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to manufacture/label products eligible for ENERGY STAR qualification. This recommitment effort is not required of retailers; utilities and other program sponsors; or cable, satellite, and telecom service providers. Q: What is my organization recommitting to? A: EPA revised the Partner Commitments to include participation in third-party certification requirements for the ENERGY STAR program. By recommitting, your organization is agreeing to abide by these new commitments beginning January 1, 2011. Q: How can my organization recommit? A: To recommit to these revised requirements, the primary or secondary ENERGY STAR contact for your organization must log into My ENERGY STAR Account (MESA) at www.energystar. gov/mesa. Instructions on how to recommit will be provided on the MESA Welcome screen. Your organization should have received a MESA username and password when your Partnership Agreement was first processed. Q: What if I have forgotten my MESA username or password, or have other difficulty logging into the tool? A: If you cannot access the MESA tool, please contact the ENERGY STAR Hotline at 1-888-STAR-YES (1-888- 782-7937) or hotline@energystar.gov. Q: How can I add contacts to my organization's record, or inactivate old contacts? A: If you would like for additional contacts at your organization to have access to MESA, or need to mark a current contact as "inactive," log into the MESA tool, click on "View Contacts," and choose the action you would like to complete. Q: How can I confirm that my organization has fulfilled the recommitment requirement? A: The primary or secondary ENERGY STAR contact for your organization will receive an automated confirmation e-mail once he/she has successfully recommitted in MESA. If you are unsure of whether or not your organization has recommitted to the revised Program Requirements, please contact the ENERGY STAR Hotline at 1-888-STAR- YES (1-888-782-7937) or hotline@energystar.gov. Q: What if MESA does not allow me to recommit to all of the product categories for which my organization is an ENERGY STAR partner? A: MESA will display all product categories with which your organization has an active ENERGY STAR partnership. However, only the primary and secondary ENERGY STAR contacts associated to each product category will be able to recommit in MESA. Q: What is the deadline to recommit? What will happen if my organization misses this deadline? A: Partners must confirm their commitment to continue in the ENERGY STAR program under the new requirements by November 30, 2010 to avoid partnership interruption. Organizations that fail to recommit by November 30, 2010 may notice that their company name is removed from ENERGY STAR's list of partners on the 1 ------- Web, and that their products are removed from ENERGY STAR Qualified Product lists. Organizations will still be able to log into MESA after November 30, 2010 to recommit, but they will experience a month's delay before their products and organization name are restored to the ENERGY STAR website. Partners who miss this deadline may also be asked to re-apply for ENERGY STAR Partnership. Q. What happens if my organization chooses not to recommit? A: Manufacturer partners who elect not to recommit will need to stop use of the ENERGY STAR label on products, product literature, websites, and in all other locations. Partners must also stop referring to themselves as ENERGY STAR partners immediately. Q: I noticed the term "Applicant" in MESA. What is the difference between a "Partner" and an "Applicant"? A: Per the revised Partner Commitments, an organization may not refer to itself as an ENERGY STAR "partner" until they have qualified at least one product that is available on the market. The term "applicant" refers to an organization that has submitted a Partnership Agreement to join the ENERGY STAR program, but has not yet qualified a product that is available on the market. Q: What if my organization does not sell an eligible product within the U.S. or partner country? A: Organizations that do not sell an eligible product within the U.S. or a partner country are not eligible for ENERGY STAR partnership. Q: How does my organization join ENERGY STAR as a new partner? A: Please visit www.energystar.gov/ioin for instructions about applying to be a new ENERGY STAR partner. 2 ------- |