-- Students for Sustainable Enterprise (SSE) has developed an energy-planning system that helps small businesses evaluate efficiency improvements and identify relevant grants, incentives, and utility programs. The system combines energy analysis with each business’s operating requirements and financial constraints to determine which projects are practical to pursue.
Co-founded by Monta Vista High School seniors Roshan Saxena and Shreyas Chatterjee, who serve as executive directors, SSE works with businesses in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, and the wider South Bay to assess energy and water use, identify practical sustainability improvements, and access relevant grants and incentives. 
Photo Courtesy of Students for Sustainable Enterprise (SSE)
The organization reports identifying more than $105,000 in potential savings across 17 businesses, approximately 600,000 kilowatt-hours in energy-reduction opportunities, and potential emissions reductions exceeding 120 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Inside SSE’s energy-planning system
SSE’s energy-planning system organizes its assessment across four areas: place, building, operations, and economics. It considers available utility bills or meter data, along with local weather, operating hours, occupancy, production patterns, building characteristics, and major equipment. Its assessment also includes utility rates, maintenance needs, project costs, and relevant funding.
Together, these inputs help the team distinguish between consumption changes driven by weather or business activity and those that may indicate an efficiency opportunity. For example, a higher electricity bill may reflect longer opening hours or increased cooling demand rather than equipment waste.
SSE uses this information to establish a baseline for how much energy a business would normally consume under comparable weather and operating conditions. The system also combines multiple modeling approaches and checks their performance for accuracy, bias, and stability.
Founders Shreyas Chatterjee and Roshan Saxena believe this assessment serves a simple purpose: to give business owners recommendations less likely to be based on misleading patterns or overly optimistic forecasts.
Turning Analysis Into a Funding Path
SSE’s energy-planning system compares how proposed improvements may affect energy consumption, utility costs, carbon emissions, and simple payback. It weighs estimated benefits against project costs and maintenance needs, recognizing that the most energy-efficient option is not always the most practical for a business.
The findings guide SSE’s search for relevant utility incentives, local grants, state tax incentives, county programs, and other public funding sources. The team then helps owners understand eligibility requirements and organize the information needed to apply.
For small businesses without an in-house energy manager or facilities team, this connects technical analysis with a clearer next step. Owners can better understand the trade-offs, determine which improvements are worth pursuing, and assess whether available funding could make an upgrade more affordable.
Saxena mentions, “True value comes only when a business can identify the right project, determine whether it qualifies, gather the necessary information, and complete the process without taking time away from customers and daily operations. This is our goal at SSE.”
Please visit SSE’s website for more information.
About Students for Sustainable Enterprise (SSE)
Students for Sustainable Enterprise (SSE) is a student-led organization helping South Bay small businesses understand their energy and water use, evaluate improvements, choose relevant sustainability-based funding opportunities, and navigate the filing process.
Contact Info:
Name: Shreyas Chatterjee, Roshan Saxena
Email: Send Email
Organization: Students for Sustainable Enterprise (SSE)
Website: https://studentsforsustainableenterprise.org/
Release ID: 89208126
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