The SEAD Policy Exchange Forum is a new, voluntary, informal government-to-government discussion forum where policymakers and their delegated representatives share and learn from one another about cutting-edge and cost-effective approaches to specific appliance energy efficiency challenges.

“On most topics, at least one SEAD policymaker already has knowledge of, and experience with, appliance energy efficiency best practice,” said Ari Reeves of CLASP. “The SEAD Initiative is the beneficiary of a great deal of collective wisdom, but a key challenge is figuring out how to best leverage this wisdom so that we can all benefit.”

The Policy Exchange Forum is open to both SEAD and non-SEAD government representatives, with discussions taking place via web-based conference calls every two or three months. Participants choose the call topics collaboratively, based on interest and relevance to current policies under development, and both cross-cutting and product-specific issues are eligible for discussion.

The inaugural session of the SEAD Policy Exchange Forum was held on 21 November, bringing together participants from 9 governments to explore different approaches to, and uses for, product certification and registration databases. Representatives from Australia, India, and the United States delivered in-depth presentations on the product databases utilized in their respective countries, while CLASP presented on the China Energy Label Database.