The Joseph M. Brillhart IDEA Innovation Award helps our industry demonstrate how district energy systems deliver benefits to various constituencies including customers, communities, stakeholders, institutions, the environment and society in general.
This prestigious award enables our members to share emerging best practices and collaborative applications. It is intended to create awareness of smaller projects and applications, not of the scale of IDEA System of the Year — processes that can be replicated and more widely used by others.
The Joseph M. Brillhart IDEA Innovation Award showcases real-world examples of technology, engineering and operational innovation within the district energy industry. Presented annually at IDEA's Annual Conference & Trade Show, the award is evaluated in four main categories:
- Ingenuity: the technology has to be a new technical, business, or operating practice that shows ingenuity.
- Measured Success: the technology must be working for a sustained period of time with demonstrated efficiency success that can be measured.
- Replicable: the innovation must be replicable, meaning that this idea can be easily applied elsewhere.
- Economic & Environmental: the innovation must demonstrate economic and environmental benefits.
The deadline to submit for 2024 has passed. Thanks to all who submitted!