2019
Public Sector
Debbie Scharf headshot
Clean50 Award Logo

Debbie Scharf

Director, Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada

In 2017, Canadian Energy Ministers released a market transformation strategy for energy equipment in support of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change which represented a significant innovation in Canada’s approach to developing energy efficiency standards for equipment to reduce GHGs and promote adoption of clean technology in buildings. As architect of that strategy, Debbie led an intergovernmental working group over 2 years to reach consensus performance goals for key technologies, and worked with labs to develop targets to drive early investments in promising technologies. Then she engaged 75+ stakeholders to create a road map to overcome market barriers. Continued adoption of the strategy is expected to lead to a 35% reduction in energy use in Canadian buildings.