Welcome to Research Into Action
Research Into Action, Inc. is a program evaluation and market research firm. We specialize in evaluation research and market assessment design and analysis services in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and natural resource management.
Our name accurately describes what we do. We use a variety of proven theories and field-tested social/behavioral research and evaluation techniques to help our clients convert our research into effective actions.
Our clients include program administrators for utilities, government agencies, and energy-related government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations - suppliers and market innovators who rely on well designed research tools and methods in order to create, implement, analyze, and improve products and services that meet their customers' needs.
We're honored that Oregon Business Magazine named us the second greenest company to work for in Oregon in 2010 and the eighth greenest in 2011, and one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon" in 2011.
And that the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City recognized us as one of the 2012 "Inner City 100" - the fastest-growing firms located in America's inner cities.
Projects of Interest:
Energy Efficiency Program Technical Consultant -- Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
Research Into Action is on a team led by Optimal Energy that serves as the Energy Efficiency Program Technical Consultant to the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council. The team's primary function is the critical job of engaging with the Council, the program administrators, and other stakeholders in every important aspect of all demand side management programs in the state, from initial goal]setting and budgeting through program design, implementation, and evaluation. This is a cyclical and interactive process that incorporates critical feedback from evaluation results back to continued design and implementation planning. Our team also provides input to the Council on relevant local, regional, and national developments that both affect activities in Massachusetts and introduce innovative ideas being tested and implemented in other areas.
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Process Evaluation of the 2011-2012 Production Efficiency Program
In 2012, Research Into Action and our subcontractor, Sergio Dias Consulting, are collaborating on the process evaluation of the Energy Trust of Oregon's 2011-2012 Production Efficiency Program FOR the industrial sector. Our key research objective is to better understand the factors that result in some projects not progressing from the audit or agreement stages to project completion. Our process evaluation is studying the program as a whole, as well as several of its individual tracks: Custom, Retrocommissioning, Boiler Tune-Ups, Corporate Strategic Energy Management, Refrigeration Operator Certification, Small Industrial and Prescriptive, Green Rewind, and Lighting. Our evaluation will address how the program has grown and changed and how new tracks have been incorporated into the program. Our research also includes characterizing the industrial sector through secondary sources and interviews with nonparticipating firms. We also will conduct a market assessment of nonparticipating industrial firms to learn about their awareness of the program and explore some of their energy-use investments and behaviors. In addition, we will ask them about their perceptions of the need for and value of incentives; the effect of codes on their investment decisions; their awareness and understanding of, and interest in, using the Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit; and their awareness and understanding of, and interest in using incentives from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and investor-owned utilities.
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