Sometimes all you need is a little green in the form of new funding. Just this week Scientific Conservation Inc. (SCI), a leading provider of energy efficiency and system optimization today announced The Westly Group has joined Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) as part of a Series A investment totaling $9M. It’s a big move to further help commercial buildings around the globe significantly reduce their carbon footprint and consume far less energy.

Why did the high profile venture capitalist company, which previously invested in Skype, Yahoo, and Hotmail, become interested in SCI? Well, they’re working with companies like Neiman Marcus to oversee the engineering, energy management, sustainability, environmental/regulatory compliance and system-wide maintenance for their retail properties. In doing so Neiman Marcus moved forward in deploying the latest in building automation and control systems at its facilities to capture critical performance data from key mechanical, electrical and HVAC systems in order to operate its properties as efficiently and error-free as possible.

As an avid fashionista, I’m happy to see a company like Neiman Marcus taking the step to operate more efficiently on the back end. Let’s hope DFJ’s pick pays off as SCI helps more companies penetrate the global clean tech industry.