Rachel Yocum

Background

About Rachel Yocum

In my land use planning role, I provide technical expertise to help local governments reach Delaware’s livability goals by way of environmental protection where needed and the wise use of Delaware's natural resources. I coordinate DNREC’s participation in the Preliminary Land Use Service (PLUS), a multi-state agency review of major residential and non-residential development proposals, rezonings, conditional uses, annexations, and local land use plans and ordinances. This includes working with nearly 20 different program sections within DNREC to gather, review, and prepare the appropriate feedback for local jurisdictions and developers. I also provide periodic training to DNREC's Planners Technical Advisory Committee members, and I help local jurisdictions develop sustainability plans. Within these plans, I look at a variety of issues such as climate change risks to housing and infrastructure, greenhouse gas emissions, natural area opportunities, and conservation potential. As an Energy Efficiency Planner, I served as a technical and policy expert while managing a variety of efficiency programs. Example areas of technical expertise included energy efficiency in residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors, as well as building science and codes, evaluation, monitoring and verification of energy efficiency investments, energy-related economic development and business partnerships. In addition, I provided technical review on energy efficiency projects approved under the Energy Efficiency Investment Fund (EEIF). I also led stakeholder meetings with homebuilders, state officials, federal officials and regional partners to review for adoption into Delaware's building code the most recent version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and ASHRAE 90.1. With regard to air quality, I worked to reduce emissions from Delaware's transportation sector by addressing issues such as vehicle miles traveled, the availability and connectivity of safe multimodal transportation options, and land use planning. In my previous energy management role, I managed various aspects of energy use in state government buildings, including conservation and efficiency, measurement and verification, economic sustainability, and environmental/social responsibility. I was a judge in the 2014 Better Buildings Case Competition with the U.S. Department of Energy, and I spoke as a panelist at the 2013 Better Buildings Summit on the topic of benchmarking. I also provided oversight of aggregate retail energy purchases for the State.