After 3 years of working to bring PACE to New Jersey, and close to a real launch, we have scheduled The New Jersey PACE Summit – the first of its kind event for PACE in NJ. We are seeking Founding Sponsorships and Event Sponsorships, a schedule of which you can view at NJPACE-Sponsorship.

From the Sponsors’ perspectives, they’re passionate about being able to award dollars for something they believe in and want to support, while gaining recognition and acknowledgement far beyond what they could get through paid advertising.

Our goal in recognizing our Sponsors is therefore to convey something significant about them, and about their support for us.

Our first Founding Sponsor is an out-of-state company — MSL Group — that’s been doing PACE projects in other states. It’s ironic, perhaps, that no local company or firm would jump into the water as a Founding Sponsor. But it’s an indication of what energy services firms who are operating in states where PACE is thriving, know, that NJ firms don’t yet know: that PACE is actually as good as it sounds, for every stakeholder.

MSL’s President, Mike Licamele, will be speaking on a panel at the 2015 New Jersey PACE Summit on June 12 about his firm’s experience with PACE in other states, and his firm’s interest in setting up shop in states as soon as PACE is available. Mike publishes an Energy Blog that’s worth keeping up with, because he tells it simply and clearly as it is. His latest post, “Solar Nirvana for Commercial Property Owners in Connecticut in 2015,” basically says “Forget what you know about solar, about financing, and about rising electricity costs — you can now get solar for 40% less than two years ago, and financed 100% through C-PACE.

The Fund for New Jersey has contributed as an Event Host to help make The New Jersey PACE Summit a reality. The Fund works to improve the quality of public policy decision-making on the most significant issues facing the people of New Jersey. Their grant-making “advances systemic and sustainable solutions to public problems through the work of policy, advocacy, analysis, and organizing.” All of which, we might add, applies pretty clearly to PACE. We appreciate what The Fund For New Jersey does for NJ, and for NJPACE.

Our second Event Host is Aegis Energy Services, “an innovative Combined Heat and Power (CHP) company based in Holyoke, MA. Founded in 1985, Aegis Energy Services’ modular systems are currently utilized across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic providing sustainable, clean power options for a wide array of customers.” By providing on-site power generation, CHP, also known as Cogeneration, can be up to 85% efficient. This saves money on electricity while also saving on heating costs.

A third Event Host, M&E Engineers, is local — Somerville, NJ, to be precise — and is proud to have been, for over 30 years, “on the cutting edge of mechanical and electrical technology and innovation and has grown to become one of the most sought after mechanical and electrical engineering consulting firms in the Mid Atlantic region.”

So is Sander Mechanical, based in Branchburg, NJ. “Sander Mechanical Service has been providing comprehensive mechanical services since 1966. Commercial Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, Automation Controls, Design/Build, Project Management, Energy Management, Fume Hoods, and Specialized Service customers.”

A special thanks to my colleagues at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Institute for Sustainable Enterprise. Co-founder Jeana Wirtenberg and the Institute’s Director, Professor Joel Harmon, have supported and stimulated many of our ideas over nearly a decade, and this one is no different.

Finally, CapRate Events of Jersey City, has agreed to send our invitation out to its list of 14,000 real estate professionals. CapRate is the fastest-growing digital media firm specializing in business-to-business and commercial real estate events.

Launched in June 2011, more than 8,000 senior-level executives have attended and participated in our conferences and webinars. CRE specializes in property-specific conferences, and is the organizer of The National Data Center Summit Series and The National Multifamily Investment Series. In addition, CRE produces content-heavy regional events for New Jersey and New York commercial real estate executives, as well as those who specialize in healthcare real estate.