Celebrating KEEA & EEA-NJ's 2025
ENERGY EFFICIENCY CHAMPIONS
KEEA & EEA-NJ are pleased to announce our 2025 Energy Efficiency Champions:
KEEA Member Champion: Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation
EEA-NJ Member Champion: Vanguard Building Solutions
KEEA Public Servant Champion: Louie Krak
EEA-NJ Public Servant Champion: Stacy Ho Richardson
Outstanding Energy Efficiency Individual: Ben Adams
KEEA & EEA-NJ Executive Director Jeaneen Zappa on our 2025 Champions:
“With rising energy prices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, reducing energy usage has never been more important. But it’s also never faced such a complex operating environment: federal support is retracting while technologies are rapidly advancing, and demand on the grid has never been higher.
“In this dynamic time, we are pleased to recognize our five Energy Efficiency Champions for 2025. These individuals and firms exemplify how energy efficiency policy and the energy efficiency industry can march ahead, grow, and thrive, whether it’s by growing our workforce, advancing job-creating grant programs, or slashing bills for small businesses. All five exemplify KEEA and EEA-NJ’s mission: to champion efficiency as the foundation of a clean, just, and resilient energy economy. Thanks to their leadership—and other firms and policymakers like them—I know that our industry’s future is in good hands and energy efficiency remains a bright opportunity for all.”
KEEA's 2025 Member Champion:
Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation
“At Pittsburgh Gateways, we are passionate about ‘connecting the dots’ between people, places and communities. Bringing more attention to Energy Efficiency through workforce development, business incubation and community engagement is an important context for our work. It is uplifting when we are recognized for those efforts!”
– Don Evans, CEO & President, Pittsburgh Gateways
Why Pittsburgh Gateways is our 2025 Champion:
Founded in 1998 to incubate and accelerate businesses throughout throughout western Pennsylvania, PGC has become a Commonwealth leader in growing energy efficiency businesses and their workforce. In 2025, PGC provided vital support to KEEA’s companion educational nonprofit 501(c)3, the Energy Efficiency Alliance (EEA), for initiatives to help grow a statewide PA Contractor Network and launch a series of free contractor heat pump trainings. They have served as valued contributors to KEEA and EEA projects in prior years as well, hosting and participating in workforce development summits and providing expert insight to KEEA/EEA staff.
KEEA's 2025 Public Servant Champion
Louie Krak
RISE PA Implementation Lead, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
“Pennsylvania helped birth industry in the United States, and through RISE PA, we now have an opportunity to lead the industrial decarbonization movement. Thank you to all the hands that helped build this first-of-a-kind program for giving us 396 million reasons to keep fighting for a better future.”
– Louie Krak, RISE PA Implementation Lead, PA Department of Environmental Protection
Why Louie Krak is our 2025 Champion:
RISE PA (Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania) is a $396 million statewide industrial decarbonization program run by the PA DEP Energy Programs Office and funded through the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) under the Inflation Reduction Act. RISE PA provides grants to qualifying manufacturing facilities to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency improvements and other projects. Mr. Krak’s dedicated work at the PA DEP has helped RISE PA forge essential partnerships and successfully launch the RISE PA application, which closed for Medium- and Large-scale awards earlier this month. This milestone makes RISE PA one of the most advanced CPRG projects in the nation and moves PA manufacturers closer to the energy savings and job creation benefits of decarbonization projects.
KEEA & EEA-NJ's Outstanding Individual:
Ben Adams
Vice President, Strategic Development, MaGrann Associates
“It is a true honor to receive this recognition from such a respected organization, one that plays a vital role in advancing energy performance and policy in our region. I’m deeply humbled to know that the work I’ve devoted myself to for almost 40 years has contributed in some way to meaningful progress. While we’ve come a long way, the urgency of today’s challenges—and the opportunities—for advancing energy efficiency, ensuring affordability, and addressing climate impact has never been greater. I’m sincerely grateful to my colleagues at MaGrann and KEEA/EEA-NJ, and especially to the next generation who are already leading this mission forward.”
– Ben Adams, Vice President of Strategic Development, MaGrann Associates
Why Ben Adams is our 2025 Champion:
Mr. Adams played a pivotal early role in the development of New Jersey’s Comfort Partners Program, an initiative that’s since gone on to help tens of thousands of income-eligible households save on energy, as well as the New Jersey Residential New Construction Program over the last 25 years. He has engaged with energy efficiency policy affecting New Jersey and the region across his career, most recently spearheading an initiative to help the state’s businesses and policy-makers successfully navigate current uncertainty around the future of Energy Star. Mr. Adams has also been a key supporter and original advocate in the history of the KEEA & EEA-NJ trade associations, serving as both a highly active Board member and a multi-year leader of the Conference Committee.