Become an investment grade energy auditor skilled in delivering trusted audits that guide corporate and investor decisions for lasting sustainability.
An individual certified as an Investment Grade Energy Auditor (IGEA) has gone through a comprehensive and rigorous training and assessment process, far more comprehensive than common energy management and energy auditing short courses.
Around the world energy audits have poor implementation rates. A key reason for this is the poor quality of many audits. Attending a 1 to 5 day course, and then passing a multiple choice exam – provides knowledge, but this is insufficient to translate into skill and competency.
This is why we’ve spent over 2 years building the comprehensive Investment Grade Energy Auditor training program and certification. A program built to raise competence, not just hand out certificates. A program built to help energy efficiency realize the Gigatonne Opportunity.
Energy audits undertaken by an IGEA can be trusted by facility owners and financial institutions to provide a sound business case for investments in energy efficiency upgrades.
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You can also download a description of the IGEA certification HERE.
Listen to one of our successful students:
Peter Teoh, Senior Project Engineer, Thermal Energy Solutions, recommending IGEA to all professionals looking for energy upgrades opportunities and how IGEA “just TOPS ALL that content in the UNIVERSITY.”
An energy audit is an assessment of a facility to identify how much energy it uses, where energy is used, and to present a business case for undertaking upgrades that reduce energy use. Typically, the whole site is assessed, with multiple savings opportunities identified across all areas of energy usage.
An Investment Grade (Energy) Audit (IGA) is one in which the business case in the audit is sufficiently comprehensive and robust that it can be trusted when making an investment decision. An IGA may also be known as Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS).
An IGA is central to an Energy Performance Contract (EPC). In an EPC, an Energy Services Contractor (ESCO) delivers guaranteed energy savings in return for a fixed investment. The ESCO will undertake an IGA or DFS, and use this as the basis of their guarantee, and to determine the investment requirement.
Being certified as an IGEA positions you as an expert, leading to a higher salary and contributing to a meaningful career.
Become an authority in your field, boosting your resume and unlocking new paths that lead to better pay and positions in both private and government.
Enjoy a significantly higher salary or be able to conduct freelance energy audits with high pay, ensuring financial stability while making businesses more eco-friendly.
Be a core part of the sustainability movement to reduce the global carbon footprint while upholding the three pillars: economy, society, and the environment.
An IGA performed of a commercial or industrial facility, and following a proven process, can be used to reduce investment risk.
A bank or finance corporation, looking to finance energy efficiency upgrades, would expect any energy audit undertaken to be of an investment grade standard.
Anyone wanting reasonable assurance that an energy audit provides a trustworthy business case that de-risks investments to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions can benefit from an investment grade energy audit undertaken by a proficient auditor.
An Investment Grade Energy Auditor (IGEA) goes through comprehensive and rigorous training and assessment. A IGEA is certified as having demonstrated the ability to deliver an energy audit that can be trusted by facility owners and financial institutions to deliver the expected financial savings and greenhouse gas abatement. This reduces risk, providing greater certainty of the outcome of energy efficiency upgrades. And ultimately this leads to increased investment in energy efficiency, which in turn leads to increased financial and carbon savings.
Benefits are provided through comprehensive training and a robust assessment process that evaluate knowledge across multiple areas of competency.
Jon Bruce, Team Lead, DETA Consulting, his feedback on how Investment Grade Auditor Certification helped their team and looking forward to sending more engineers in the program
Chun Hui Goh, General Manager, Energy Smart Water, sharing how he was able to build stronger trust and confidence with their client helping them form decision that align to sustainability and business objective
“The information covered in the Investment Grade Energy Auditor course has been extremely beneficial to myself and my team while conducting energy audits on 180 hospitals and aged care facilities. We have been able to identify significant energy savings based on the learnings from the HVAC and DHW modules covered in the course. I would strongly encourage any new members of my team to complete this training before leading energy audits.” – Kris Lawry, Senior Engineer, DETA Consulting
The key competencies of an Investment Grade Energy Auditor are:
In pursuit of their certification and to be able to develop the necessary competencies a student aspiring to achieve IGEA certification completes two sets of training modules.
The first set of training modules is focussed on undertaking an energy audit. There are four modules in this set.
The second set of training modules is focussed on a technical understanding of common energy using technologies and systems. There are also four modules in this set.
Across the total of eight training modules there are a total of 177 lessons, which vary in duration from a couple of minutes up to fifteen minutes. The training is not passive, each student is required to respond to a minimum of 214 questions in order to be able to progress through the training.
This is a series of four, online, on-demand modules and assessments, covering:
Primarily aimed at energy users, but every energy auditor should also undertake this course to be able to see the audit from the other side of the fence, and thus improve their ability to effectively engage with energy users.
This course introduces energy auditors to tools, both essential and nice-to-have, for undertaking energy audits.
Presents a process, that when followed, results in successful audits being delivered. This process can be applied to deliver an Investment Grade Audit (IGA) / Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) in which the energy user can have confidence in the estimates of costs and benefits.
In this course, students learn the key concepts from physics and engineering that energy auditors must know.
This is a series of four, online, on-demand modules and assessments, covering:
This course covers both domestic hot water and water use more broadly.
Covers electric motors, compressed air, refrigeration, steam and this course provides an introduction to these technologies and energy efficiency opportunities.
Knowing how to minimize HVAC energy use is core knowledge every energy manager, energy auditor, HVAC contractor or consultant needs.
In this course, students learn the key concepts from physics and engineering that energy auditors must know.
Bruce Rowse has been experienced in energy efficiency (EE) since 2002, he learned invaluable lessons from both successes and failures. His journey has shaped his expertise in optimizing energy use and delivering impactful results.
Key highlights of experience include:
This experience enables him to drive energy efficiency solutions that are practical, cost-effective, and high-impact.
The three steps to full certification are:
The eight individual training modules that need to be completed before undertaking and submitting the IGA have questions throughout them, which students must answer in order to progress, and with feedback provided immediately to students. The testing throughout the eight individual modules is not, however, limited to just multiple-choice questions. There are a variety of other question types, including free text entry for numerical questions. In this case there is no element of chance, you either enter the correct number or not.
In fact, there are many more assessment questions across these eight modules than there are in other energy efficiency certifications based on a high-pressure exam environment after an intense training program.
The interview can be attended after successfully passing all modules in the IGEA training and providing certificates of competency for each module.
In the interview, conducted live (virtually), the candidate needs to be able to demonstrate the ability to be able to quickly recall areas of knowledge associated with each of the key competencies.
Candidates are provided written feedback after the interview. Anyone who passes the interview is certified as an Investment Grade Energy Auditor – Provisional.
The assessment interview is available for one year from when you enrol. To be clear, if you sign up to the 8 IGEA courses plus provisional assessment, that’s 1 year from the date you enrolled in the bundle.
After successfully completing the Provisional IGEA (completing and passing all modules, then passing the interview), the final step to full IGEA certification is to undertake an energy audit and submit it for final assessment. Note that the cost of the this final assessment is additional.
The assessment of the energy audit submitted by the student, and accompanying referee check, are used to assess that the auditor has the ability to be able to undertake an energy audit and engage with the energy user. It also assesses that the audit satisfactorily identifies and quantifies all energy sources and where energy is used, in addition to identifying a comprehensive set of savings opportunities that have costs and benefits estimated to an investment grade level of accuracy.
Written feedback is provided to the candidate. Students have one year after completing their IGEA Provisional to submit their energy audit.
Candidates need to provide proof of identification, and the investment grade audit when submitted needs to be submitted with evidence that the audit is the work of the candidate.
It takes around 4 to 12 months to become an IGEA, as tabled below.
| Component | Time required (if the IGEA certification is your full time focus) | Suggested duration for a student taking the course whilst also working full time |
| Four online, on demand training modules and assessments: undertaking an Energy Audit | 1.5 weeks | 8 weeks |
| Half day live session on Undertaking an Energy Audit* | 4 hours | 4 hours |
| Four online, on demand training modules and asessments: Energy Using Technologies | 2 weeks | 10 weeks |
| Half day live session on Energy Using Technologies* | 4 hours | 4 hours |
| Interview | 1 hour | 1 hour |
| Section 3 – Prepare and submit an investment grade Energy Audit | 4-8 weeks + 3 to 4 weeks for the audit to be assessed and undertake a referee check | 4 months + 3 to 4 weeks for the audit to be assessed and undertake a referee check |
| Overall time required to become an IGEA | 4 – 6 months | 8 – 12 months |
*As may be optionally provided by a Sustainability Education Academy training partner.
The world is crying out for more people with energy efficiency expertise. Yet it is not easy to get this expertise, and much of the certification associated with improving the energy efficiency of existing facilities is based on a weak assessment process that does not thoroughly establish competency. A key benefit is the robust assessment – you can’t pass until you’ve proven you can deliver an Investment Grade Energy Audit.
Other benefits of IGEA training and assessment include:
Some candidates may already have considerable experience and knowledge. Whilst all eight training modules do need to be satisfactorily completed prior to submission of the IGA, modules can be satisfactorily completed by passing the assessments, without needing to complete all the lessons.
If a candidate jumps straight into an assessment without completing the proceeding lesson, and fails the assessment, the candidate can then review the lesson before retaking the assessment.
The Sustainability Education Academy certification can be completed as you have time available, at your own pace, with it’s on-line on-demand modules available 24/7.
Alternate “cram plus exam” certifications require students to set aside up to a week of their time to take the course and sit the exam. For many people, finding this time is not easy.
Students going through the IGEA training and assessment aren’t assessed in a high pressure, limited time exam setting.
In a high pressure limited time exam setting you aren’t only being tested for your knowledge. You are also being tested on your “exam craft” skills, and ability to manage time in an exam setting. This is not a skill energy auditors should be assessed against!
Many energy efficiency certifications delivered in a “cram plus exam” environment are expensive, and the results are final. Fail to pass the exam, and you’ve lost a lot of money – not to mention time away from work.
Across the eight training modules that comprise the IGEA certification, failure is not final. Fail an assessment, and:
Questions are randomly drawn from a large pool of questions so as to not ask the same set of questions again. And providing feedback immediately will enhance learning and knowledge retention.
If you still don’t get the answers right you won’t pass, but will get additional feedback. By providing fast feedback and a “safe” learning environment, students can learn from their mistakes, and provided they do so, will be able to eventually pass a module.
Learning from our mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. With over 200 questions in the IGEA assessment you are sure to make some mistakes – but you’ll get expert feedback straight away – and thus learn.
Additionally you get notes from your assessor on the interview you attend and the investment grade energy audit you submit – notes which will help you recognize what you are good at, and where you can approve.
If you fail the interview or audit submission, you can pay the applicable fee and reapply for the interview and audit submission at any time. The feedback provided can be used to help ensure you don’t repeat your earlier mistakes.
The certificate issued to a candidate has a QR code linking to a database on the Sustainability Education Site, proving its validity.
Want to bounce around ideas, ask questions, or engage with other IGEA students? Your instructor runs regular webinars exclusively for students enrolled in the full IGEA program.
These sessions compliment the on-demand lessons, bringing to students the best of both on-demand self-paced training and live interaction with other students and the instructor.
IGEA stands apart through its practical assessment requiring actual investment-grade audit submission. This ensures certified professionals can deliver real-world results, not just pass exams.
Absolutely. Many organizations find training existing staff more effective than hiring, as it builds on institutional knowledge while adding specialized expertise.
All IGEA certificates include QR codes linking to our verification database, allowing instant confirmation of certification status.
While a technical background is (very) helpful, our comprehensive curriculum builds competency from the ground up. A basic understanding of energy systems, reasonable maths skills, and preferably some training in engineering are the main prerequisites.
The IGEA certification is distinguished by its rigorous, practical assessment process that requires demonstrated competency through an actual investment-grade audit.
The IGEA certification’s timeframe is precisely why it carries such weight with employers and clients. Creating truly investment-grade audits requires mastery that simply cannot be rushed. However, unlike “boot camp” programs that force you to abandon work for weeks, our flexible format lets you maintain your current position while studying. Many professionals complete certification while working full-time, applying new skills to current projects immediately. The depth of training is what makes IGEA-certified professionals trusted by financial institutions making multi-million dollar decisions.
The fundamental difference is validation of real-world capability. Short certification programs test theoretical knowledge in exam settings, while IGEA requires you to actually perform an investment-grade audit that passes rigorous evaluation. Financial institutions and corporate clients understand this difference, which is why IGEA-certified professionals command higher fees and access projects closed to others. Ask yourself: would you trust a surgeon who only passed written exams, or one who demonstrated successful surgeries? Investment-grade energy decisions require proven competence, not just theoretical understanding.
You can take the program, however having an engineering background is advantageous and encouraged.
The IGEA certification is applicable across virtually all commercial and industrial sectors because it focuses on universal principles of energy systems and investment-grade analysis.
Our blended learning approach combines the best of both worlds. The interactive nature of our online modules—requiring active participation through over 214 assessment questions—ensures engagement levels often exceeding traditional classrooms. Additionally, the interview component and practical audit submission provide real-world application that classroom-only programs simply cannot match.
You’ll never face challenges alone during your IGEA certification journey. Our comprehensive support system includes feedback on all assessments, and instructors are available to answer technical questions. Before your interview and audit submission, you’ll receive clear guidelines. Should you struggle with specific concepts, the flexible format allows you to revisit materials until mastery is achieved. Unlike “one-and-done” exam programs, our approach ensures you build genuine competency with support at every step.
The IGEA certification focuses on fundamental methodologies and analysis approaches that remain relevant regardless of technological evolution. While some certifications focus narrowly on current technologies, the IGEA builds the analytical framework and investment-grade methodology that allows you to evaluate any energy system—current or future—with confidence and credibility.
Original price was: 1,614.89 $.613.81 $Current price is: 613.81 $.
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