At Best Buy, we sell technology products and solutions. Utilities provide the energy that powers those products. We're both in a state of transformation as efficiency continues to emerge as the next challenge and opportunity for consumer-facing industries.

This simple truth is the reason Best Buy hosts an annual Energy Efficiency Summit. This week marks our third Summit, a time when we convene utility companies and other industry players for a conversation about ways we can work together to drive more efficient use of power. These meetings consist of partnership-driven conversations: We talk a lot about our customers, we gather additional third-party insight, and we make our best guesses as to what they (the customers) want and need. We then agree to initiatives and pilots designed to target the consumer and motivate their purchase decisions.

We choose to take a different approach. Our current business, through the knowledge of our Blue Shirts and Geek Squad agents, is to help demystify technology for our customers, and help them make the most of that technology in their lives. We also have experience in helping them make more sustainable choices: Last year, for instance, we sold 23 million Energy Star products that saved customers $114 million in energy costs.

And as we seek our future growth opportunities, we pay keen attention to where consumer technology is going next. As we watch utilities rethink and reframe how they do business, utilizing those emerging tools and technologies to help consumers manage their energy use and costs are not unlike the CE products and services we already provide.

And so our approach to the Energy Efficiency Summit is notably different than usual partnership meetings. This week, nearly 200 third-party attendees formed an impressive group, including:

• Approximately 150 utilities from across the U.S.
• Various industry and policy group representatives, including the Alliance to Save Energy
• Device manufacturers, HVAC teams, service providers, and various industrial partners
• And a panel of six people. We usually call them consumers; also referred to as ratepayers. They referred to themselves as homeowners, parents and community members.