Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the multitude of regulations and legislation focused on reducing carbon emissions in buildings? I certainly have. When I first entered the energy market over 15 years ago, I soon developed a deep passion around sustainability and was excited to see more and more state and local governments establish climate commitments aimed at achieving decarbonization goals. Much of the focus to meet these goals has been around reducing energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in buildings, which accounts for more than 40% of the energy consumption and 30% of GHG emissions in the US. Enacting legislation placed the burden to increase energy efficiency in buildings on the owners themselves, and gave me my own fair share of challenges to help my clients navigate the “path to net zero.” But through practice, I’ve discovered some strategies that have provided a blueprint for the way I approach my work.
Step 1: Be Proactive
Instead of waiting for my clients to contact me for help complying with benchmarking and building performance standards, I’m fortunate that my firm actively tracks various legislations and informs our clients through website content and blogs, as well as updates published in our digital quarterly newsletter, Perspective. Often, apart from large publicly traded companies, clients are focused on their core business and perhaps lack the resources and time required to devote to this task, which means meeting deadlines and avoiding hefty fines becomes more difficult. A proactive approach that educates clients and provides straightforward solutions is the most sensible method.
Step 2: Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the easiest way to measure energy performance of a building against its previous performance or against other buildings of similar size, occupancy, and use. Benchmarking is determined by simply taking the building’s total energy use and dividing by the building’s square footage. As certified benchmarkers, we have the credentials and skill sets required to utilize the industry’s gold standard benchmarking tool (ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®) to collect energy and water use data. And because the data is public information, it motivates behavioral change and often has a positive impact on how buildings are operated and encourages investments in energy efficiency. It also informs the owner, tenants, prospective buyers, and the general public about the energy efficiency of a particular building and lays the groundwork for local government to craft building performance standards (BPS), which is the next evolution in driving GHG reductions in buildings. BPS are policies that mandate larger existing buildings to meet performance targets related to reducing electric, natural gas, and water usage aimed at reducing carbon, improving air quality and public health in local communities, and increasing the comfort and productivity for building occupants.
Step 3: Meet Your Clients Where They Are
Each client is unique, and understanding where they are in their sustainability journey is paramount. Larger clients are no strangers to carbon reduction goals, have set clear and measurable sustainability goals to reduce carbon emissions, and have likely benchmarked their buildings for almost a decade. Conversely, smaller clients usually have fewer resources and in-house expertise to drive energy and carbon reduction goals. Our benchmarking team is certified in all markets and possesses the knowledge to walk our clients through the process step-by-step, validate the data, and certify it in Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Even if there are no existing regulations, we encourage our clients to benchmark not only because the adoption of these types of mandates is growing rapidly across the country, but also to gain valuable insight into how their building is performing in the marketplace and to earn Energy Star accreditation for their high-performing buildings.
Key Takeaway
So, what’s the key takeaway from my journey in assisting clients with compliance with the growing federal and local initiatives to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions? It’s simple: sustainability is not a destination but a journey. Benchmarking buildings is the first logical step in giving building owners insight into the energy efficiency of their buildings and helps them target behavioral and operational changes that bring immediate and low-cost reductions in energy and GHG consumption. It helps to set clients on the path to set achievable sustainability goals so we can safeguard the planet for future generations.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Annual Energy Outlook 2020 with Projections to 2050 (Washington, DE: EIA, January 2020), www.eia.gov/aeo; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ((U.S. EPA), Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2018 (Washington, DC: U.S. EPA, 2020), EPA 430-R-20-002), https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks-1990-2018.
About the Author Liz McCormick
Liz McCormick is senior director of energy services at Pennoni with a passion for energy and sustainability. Liz has nearly 30 years of Fortune 500 Major Account Management experience, and she specializes in key account management, overall account strategy, and coordination of resources and solutions to meet each customer’s unique goals and objectives. For more tips on reducing your environmental footprint, visit Pennoni.com.
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