The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National League of Cities have announced the launch of the Better Buildings Zero Energy Districts Accelerator to move the building market toward adopting sustainable practices to help achieve zero energy use in buildings.

Schneider Electric announced that it has been named a leader in the Navigant Research Leaderboard Report on Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS). For the second year in a row, Schneider Electric has received the highest overall score for strategy and execution.

Mayors from 10 additional U.S. cities announced that they are joining the City Energy Project, a united effort to address their largest source of energy use and climate pollution: buildings.

Current, powered by GE, has introduced a new digital energy management solution for commercial and industrial facilities. The new tool, which is built on Predix, GE’s operating system for the industrial Internet, is already being used by national customers including McDonald’s and Simon Property Group.

Encycle has announced its new SwarmStat™ service and its collaboration with Honeywell as a Total Connect Comfort partner. Encycle is Honeywell’s first smart thermostat partner to focus exclusively on solutions for commercial and industrial customers.

Powerhouse Dynamics, creator of the SiteSage® enterprise asset and energy management system, and HVAC equipment and water heater manufacturer, Rheem®, have announced a new partnership.

Earth Networks has announced the launch of its Connected Savings^SM platform to provide consumers with energy savings and comfort by delivering energy intelligence through the integration of Internet of Things (IoT)-connected smart home devices, weather data, and algorithms.

BuildingIQ has announced the general availability of a measurement and verification (M&V) service that allows building owner/operators to automatically measure and verify the effectiveness and impact of energy saving measures in order to qualify for utility or organizational savings incentives and mandates.

Smart thermostat company, ecobee, has launched “Donate Your Data,” a new program that allows customers to voluntarily contribute their home data to help advance energy efficiency research.

 The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published a white paper that discusses new requirements that help reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings.