When building owners and business people can get passed grumbling and feeling like “Here we go again…another regulation I need to comply with…when is it going to stop,” an opportunity can emerge. This law was passed in several other cities like New York in the last couple of years. I am not a proponent of needless regulations to advance agendas however, I do support legislation that makes good sense and promotes efficiencies in business, and this legislation does just that.
Portfolio Manager is a software tool designed by the Department of Energy and The Environmental Protection Agency to bench mark energy and water use in buildings. This data is entered into a national database and then used as a benchmark to compare similar buildings. An efficiency rating is given to each building based on the data input. Any rating over 75 is considered an energy star approved building. If you are below that rating, it simply means you can improve your energy efficiency.
There are no penalties issued by the city for having an inefficient building. There are penalties for not reporting this information however. In business, what gets measured gets done. Smart businesses look at this as a tool. They can now focus on capital improvements with a strong return on investments that promote efficiency and have a short payback rate.
There are those of you who may think that making energy changes on an older building is not possible. Several years ago, The Empire State Building in New York City decided to improve the energy efficiency of the building. The Rocky Mountain Institute calculated that they would be able to save energy costs by 38% by instituting a series of improvements.
After a year of operation, the building yielded 5 % greater results then originally projected. This is an example of what can be done through a thoughtful, integrated master energy plan. The results speak for themselves. Now The Empire State Building is experiencing lower efficiency costs plus the occupancy rate has improved dramatically because of the improvements. For more information check out this site -http://www.makeyourbuildingswork.com/case-studies/empire-state-building/.
