Rick Gerardi
Rick Gerardi has three decades of management experience implementing innovative strategies for improved energy efficiency and building performance in the nation’s residential sector while also pioneering creative strategies to address the special energy needs of low-income households. Those efforts to establish a viable marketplace for energy efficiency in the areas of standards, financing and public awareness continue as personal commitment to the efficacy of the idea. His new endeavor, New Dawn LLC, promotes and implements strategies and public policy for market-based energy efficiency for a variety of public and private sector customers. This is accomplished through Rick’s unique capacity to build a team of the best and brightest stars in the industry to support real-world strategies to accomplish public policy and business goals.
Through the years, Rick won a number of individual honors including:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Affiliations
- From February 2009 through April 2011, Rick was part of a team that built a national home performance capacity under the corporate umbrella of the Masco Corporation, in the Masco Home Services business unit. A new start-up, WellHome created a national capacity to deliver energy efficiency and home performance services to America’s households. This initiative was based upon a belief that a sustainable market for energy efficiency and home performance is inevitable as an inherent value to consumers and a viable business model for professional service delivery.
- His management duties included the management of a professional Business Development team that opened 22 branches across the nation and advocated energy efficiency at the state and federal level including an essential role in crafting the Home Star legislation.
- His duties were expanded to include management of the Environments for Living Program, providing Building Science services to new homebuilders and a guarantee of energy usage to homebuyers. Over 140,000 guarantees have been issued to date.
- Prior to his move to MHS, Rick established and managed the Residential Building Performance Group for Lockheed Martin. There he built a strong team that won several large utility residential implementation contracts.
- From 1998 to 2007, Rick established the Residential Energy Affordability Program (REAP) at NYSERDA , which by 2006 administered over $70 million per year of public and ratepayer funds for residential and consumer energy efficiency efforts which drove over $250 million per year in work and services. This included programs for single-family homes, multi-family buildings, the low income sector, several loan funds, and a multi-media marketing program. In his nine years there, REAP received over 30 national awards for program effectiveness and innovation, including:
- 11 US EPA/DOE Energy Star awards in seven years,
- R&D 100 award for it’s TREAT software,
- Emmy award and a Telly award for its marketing efforts.
- Before NYSERDA, Rick was the director for the State’s low-income Weatherization Assistance Program for 14 years where he managed over a half a billion dollars in efficiency work and instituted a number of innovative practices.
- He has been in the building trade for over 30 years, having built solar, energy-efficient homes and additions under as New Dawn Concepts prior to his tenure with the State.
Through the years, Rick won a number of individual honors including:
- US DOE Rebuild America 2002 Person of the Year award,
- US EPA 2004 Michael Thompson Visionary Leaders award,
- Alliance to Save Energy 2005 Unsung Heroes in Energy Efficiency award, and
- BPI Energy Efficiency Hall of Fame in 2008.
- Star of Energy Efficiency Award, Affordable Comfort, Inc., 2010
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Affiliations
- Board of Directors, Vice President, founding member (2010), Efficiency First
- Board of Directors, first President and founder (1996), Building Performance Institute,
- Founder and first President (1982), New York State Weatherization Director’s