The goal of the Energy for Sustainability program is to support fundamental engineering research that will enable innovative processes for the sustainable production of electricity and fuels. Processes for sustainable energy production must be environmentally benign, reduce greenhouse gas production, and utilize renewable resources.

The ARPA-E Single-pane Highly Insulating Efficient Lucid Designs (SHIELD) program seeks to reduce this consumption by funding the development of energy-efficient and cost-effective retrofits for the substantial remaining stock of single-pane windows in the U.S.

The MME program supports fundamental research that enables the development of new and/or improved manufacturing machines and equipment, and optimization of their use, with a particular focus on equipment appropriate for the manufacture of mechanical and electromechanical devices, products, and systems featuring scales from microns to meters (proposals relating to nanomanufacturing should be submitted to the CMMI NanoManufacturing program, and those relating to the manufacture of electronic devices such as IC products should be submitted to the ECCS Division).