Business View Magazine l January 2023

29 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 global organization that brings it together. Our members are out there on a local basis, and we encourage them to go to their ministers of energy, departments of energy, and their local city sustainability groups, to help give them a pathway and a transition. Our challenge is that we all want a clean, sustainable Net Zero future.” Founded in 1977, AEE was the first group to focus on what they coined “energy management,” now also commonly referred to as energy efficiency. “It was really coming on the heels of the oil embargo in the 1970s,” Kent recalls. “A young engineer, a gentleman, Albert Thumann, with nothing more than a vision and a dream, moved his family from New York to Atlanta and started the Association of Energy Engineers. Since then, AEE has focused on helping its members and the commercial and industrial markets conserve energy. “Our vision is to lead the global energy community to meet the challenges of a clean and sustainable future,” Kent explains. “We’re all about working towards a clean and sustainable future.” The membership-based association includes both corporate memberships as well as individual memberships. Individuals must have an engineering, architectural, or business degree, or be a registered professional engineer or architect. Those without those qualifications are able to join as affiliate members. AEE has global outreach, with more than 100 professional chapters worldwide, 50 of which are located in the United States. They also have more than 30 student chapters at universities across the globe and women’s groups, which fall under a division of AEE called the Council on Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership (CWEEL). “We’re working to get more women involved in this traditionally male- dominated industry,” Kent says. The association focuses on commercial and ASSOCIAT ION OF ENERGY ENGINEERS