Wave One's mission is to actively involve small businesses located in Downtown Palo Alto to lead the way in creating a sustainable future. Wave One will serve as a catalyst for change by targeting barriers to energy efficiency and sustainability for small businesses and to work as an advocate to advance solutions for implementing deep energy and water reduction programs specifically tailored to the needs of small businesses.

Small commercial facilities have been mostly overlooked by the energy efficiency industry up until now, but small businesses’ importance to the economy, local society and their aggregate contribution to energy and water consumption make them an important next step in our country’s move to a clean energy economy. Wave One will work to transform this market by employing a hybrid approach of: a) collecting detailed energy and water end use consumption data across a large sample of small businesses to accurately characterize the market, b) conducting a barrier analysis to pin point where efficiency program efforts should be targeted and c) acting as a business advocate to guide individuals or groups of participants through deep efficiency retrofits. The organization’s work will be specifically focused on Downtown Palo Alto, California’s largest and most vibrant small business community and its results will be applicable to small businesses across the state.