The Energy Facilities Connections Conference is held annually by the Washington State University Plant Operations Consortium. In order to share lessons learned, innovative ideas, and increase a sense of community, the EFC Innovations Award has been created. The EFC Innovations Award will be awarded to a public, non-profit or tribal organization throughout the region who submits a facility – based case study that outlines how best practices were used to improve performance, efficiency, etc…

Here are more details:

Why EFC Innovations?
We’re all facing tough challenges amidst staff, budget and resource cutbacks and it’s going to be a much harder road to travel if we go it alone. With that in mind, we want to learn about your innovations so we might share them with others and, in turn, share their innovations with you. After all, we’re all in this together. To help stimulate the submission of innovations and best practices, we are creating the EFC Innovations Award. This award will be given out every year at the annual Energy/Facilities Connections Conference

Eligibility:
Public, non-profit and tribal organizations and you do not have to have attended an EFC event to be eligible. Innovations must be facilities-related somehow. The definition of facilities-related is intended to be wide-ranging and includes such fields as maintenance, custodial, new construction and renovation, security, grounds, emergency preparedness, etc. If you are uncertain about whether or not your innovation applies, please contact the EFC Planning team, 360-956-2057 or e-mail plantops@energy.wsu.edu (include “EFC Innovations Award” or something like it in the subject line).

Submission details:
Submissions can be made online at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/PublicFacilitiesSupport/PlantOperations/EFCInnovationsAward.aspx. There is no limit on number of case studies an organization can submit. If your submission doesn’t win one year, it rolls over to the next though you can always send us updates.

Award details:
Winners of the EFC Innovations Award will receive:

• A plaque;
• One free registration for the next Energy/Facilities Connections Conference (the next one being the 2014 conference);
• One sponsored hotel room for the next EFC Conference (the next one being the 2014 conference);
• An article in the Plant Operations Support Consortium’s quarterly newsletter highlighting the organization and innovation.

Submission Deadline:
Submissions accepted all year long but to be eligible for the May 2014 conference the final deadline is Monday, March 3, 2014.