What Building Electrification Institute (BEI) does

Building Electrification Institute (BEI) is a U.S. nonprofit founded in 2018 by Jenna Tatum and incubated by Innovation Network for Communities, focused on accelerating building decarbonization and electrification at the municipal level. The organization partners with city governments to develop, adopt, and implement building-electrification programs, policies, and strategies; since inception it has spurred more than 100 such deliverables across a cumulative footprint of 25 U.S. cities, including work delivered through the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge. BEI is currently active with 14 cities. Its core products are advisory in nature: applied research, policy and program design, coalition facilitation, and replicable strategy templates that city staff can adapt to local building codes, incentive programs, and decarbonization plans. The organization does not develop or sell proprietary technology, software, or hardware; its intellectual capital is the body of policy frameworks, city relationships, and domain expertise held by a distributed team of 10 professionals across 8 U.S. cities. BEI's business model is nonprofit grant- and partnership-funded, with revenue sourced from philanthropic foundations, programmatic partnerships, and project-based engagements with municipal and allied institutional funders; there is no transactional pricing model or commercial customer base. Customers are exclusively U.S. municipal governments and the philanthropic or institutional partners that fund city-facing climate work. BEI is positioned as a specialized, mission-driven advisor in the U.S. building-electrification ecosystem rather than a technology vendor or consultancy competing on scale.

Name

Building Electrification Institute (BEI)

Legal name

Building Electrification Institute

Website

https://beicities.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Building Electrification Institute is a U.S. nonprofit founded in 2018 that partners with municipal governments to advance building electrification and decarbonization through applied research, policy design, and coalition support.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Building Decarbonization Consulting

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainable Cities, Urban Development & Green Infrastructure (BPADALAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Works & Municipal Infrastructure (Streets, Stormwater, Facilities) (BPAIACAF), Community Development & Neighborhood Revitalization (CDBG, Place-Based Initiatives) (BPAIANAE)

Keywords

• Building decarbonization consulting
• Municipal electrification policy
• Building stock analysis
• Clean energy workforce research
• Nonprofit climate advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

San Diego

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grants and Partnerships: BEI is a nonprofit organization that partners with cities, foundations, and government agencies to fund its work. It was incubated by the Innovation Network for Communities and works with partners including Bloomberg Philanthropies through the American Cities Climate Challenge.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

BEI partners with cities to advance building decarbonization and electrification through technical research, policy and program analysis, and coalition support. Its deliverables include building stock assessments, customer economics studies, funding gap analyses, workforce analyses, and tailored policy and strategy development for municipal partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Building Stock Analyses City-focused analyses of the existing building stock, identifying opportunities and constraints for electrification and decarbonization; intended for municipal sustainability and climate staff.
• Customer Economics Analyses Studies of how electrification affects costs for households and building owners, supporting municipal decisions on program design and customer protections.
• Funding Gap Analyses Assessments of the financial gaps between available funding and the investment needed for city building electrification, used to inform program design and resource mobilization.
• Workforce Analyses Evaluations of the local workforce capacity and training needs required to deliver building electrification at scale, intended for city agencies and partners.
• Policy and Strategy Development Tailored support to cities in designing building electrification policies, programs, and strategic plans, drawing on BEI's technical research and policy experience.
• Coalition Support Ongoing facilitation and coalition-building support for city partners, convening utilities, contractors, advocates, and community stakeholders around building electrification goals.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 100 new programs, policies, and strategies spurred since 2018
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Bloomberg Philanthropies (American Cities Climate Challenge)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBEI worked with cities selected for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge, a program that accelerated climate change efforts including building electrification in 25 leading cities.
• Community Retrofit Collaborative (CRC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBEI and CRC partners defined the Retrofit Navigator approach for streamlining retrofit processes and centering community priorities in building decarbonization.
• Steven Winter AssociatesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on City Playbooks for the Equitable Electrification of Multifamily Buildings project.
• Vermont Community Thermal NetworkscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to advance Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) as an equitable building electrification solution in Vermont, including joint report development.
• Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFunded the City Playbooks for the Equitable Electrification of Multifamily Buildings project.
• Community Climate ShiftcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGroundbreaking initiative focused on community-led policymaking to reduce energy and carbon from buildings while centering community priorities.
• ElevatecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership supporting Memphis with home repair programs and helping identify funding streams for building decarbonization initiatives.
• Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Power Ahead Colorado initiative investing ~$200 million in building electrification across the Denver metropolitan area.
• Innovation Network for CommunitiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBEI was incubated by the Innovation Network for Communities as a project to accelerate equitable building decarbonization.
• U.S. Department of EnergyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Washington, D.C. to develop technical roadmap for electrifying buildings and transportation.
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Inc.minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBEI team member previously served as Deputy Director coordinating implementation of the US's first market-based, multi-state program to decarbonize the electricity sector.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group: C40 is a global network of major cities collaborating on climate action including building decarbonization, with policy guidance and city engagement that parallels BEI's municipal policy-support work, though at international scale.
• Cadmus Group: Cadmus is a consultancy providing energy, climate, and building-decarbonization strategy and policy services to state and local governments, competing with BEI for municipal decarbonization consulting work.
• ICF International: ICF is a large consulting firm with energy efficiency and climate practices that serve municipal and federal clients on building-electrification strategy, program design, and policy support — overlapping BEI's service offering at greater scale.
• Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI): RMI is a larger clean-energy nonprofit working on building electrification, energy transition, and climate policy research and implementation, with published analyses and direct city engagement that overlap with BEI's building-decarbonization policy work.

Direct peers

• Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN): USDN is a peer network of municipal sustainability directors that convenes cities on climate and equity issues and commissions shared research products — closely comparable to BEI's municipal partnership and coalition-building model, and an actual funding partner of BEI's City Playbooks.
• Climate Action Campaign: Climate Action Campaign is a climate-equity advocacy and policy organization where multiple BEI staff previously worked, operating in adjacent climate-policy and building-decarbonization advocacy space with comparable city-level engagement models.
• Energy Futures Initiative: EFI is a clean-energy policy and analysis nonprofit that produces research and strategy for government and industry stakeholders on energy transition, comparable to BEI's research, policy analysis, and strategy support work for municipal governments.
• Elevate: Elevate is a nonprofit that designs and implements energy-efficiency, weatherization, and decarbonization programs for communities and partners with BEI on home-repair programs for cities like Memphis and Pittsburgh.
• New Buildings Institute (NBI): NBI is a nonprofit focused specifically on advancing energy efficiency and decarbonization in existing and new buildings, producing codes, standards, and policy guidance for jurisdictions — directly overlapping with BEI's building-electrification policy and program design work for cities.

Emerging players

• Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA): CNCA is a global alliance of cities committed to deep carbon reduction, providing peer learning and policy frameworks for member municipalities that overlap with BEI's role in supporting U.S. city climate planning.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/beicities

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Building Electrification Institute (BEI)