CREJ - Property Management Quarterly - October 2017
Energy is the third-largest expense for most small businesses, trailing only labor and rent, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Energy Initiative. To help customers better understand their utility expenses and encourage energy-efficiency improvements and cost-saving best practices, Fort Collins Utilities is leading the Building Energy Scoring initiative, a free service for commercial and multifamily customers. Through the BES initiative, property managers and building owners can learn the value of energy scoring and benchmarking – the practice of measuring and comparing the performance of a building’s energy use to itself, its peers or established norms, with the goal of informing and motivating performance improvement. They also will know how their building’s energy efficiency compares to others and can use that information to help save money and resources. As energy benchmarking becomes a common practice across the Front Range, owners and managers of commercial and multifamily buildings are seeking to simplify the process of obtaining utility data. Utilities’ commercial customers and multifamily buildings now can receive a free Energy Star score through an Efficiency Works facility assessment (fcgov.com/facility-assessment). Energy Star scores grade building energy use on a 1 to 100 scale against similar properties. As part of the BES program, buildings with a score of 75 or greater also can receive a verified score review and a free Energy Star certification by a licensed professional. • Supporting informed investments. Benchmarking buildings allows owners and facility managers to track energy use to gauge opportunity for reducing energy expenses and saving money, as well as tracking returns on investment. Working in conjunction with benchmarking, Fort Collins Utilities’ incentive programs are designed to help prioritize capital improvements and deploy best practices in energy efficiency. For example, tracking a building’s performance could lead a building owner or facility manager to replace inefficient heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems with cost-saving, energy-efficient units; or a building energy score could motivate a building owner to invest in cost-effective improvements to attract and retain tenants. On the flip side, tenants can use building energy scores to make informed decisions about where to rent.
• Benefiting investors. Benchmarking services will help building owners remain competitive as the real estate sector and community-at-large assign greater economic value to energy efficiency. On average, for a typical 20,000-square-foot commercial building, the Efficiency Works business upgrade projects reduce annual energy expenses by 10 percent. Utilities’ expanded efforts for benchmarking and building energy scores provide a free tool to help prioritize energy-efficiency upgrades that maintain a competitive edge in the rental market, while also providing comfortable, efficient rental units for their occupants. • Utility expense affordability. As median apartment rental costs in Fort Collins near $1,400 per month, utility expenses increasingly are an important financial variable for many residents. This is particularly important in a community where nearly 50 percent of all residents are renters. Potential tenants are interested in reducing their total monthly housing expenses, and lower energy costs are an important component in their rental decision-making process - especially so for low- and moderate- income households. BES initiatives will, over time, improve the energy performance for tenants, allowing LMI households in Fort Collins to reap the benefits of energy efficiency for their families. • Generating clean energy jobs. Efficiency programs at the city of Fort Collins have helped support the broad, market-based shift underway in Colorado and across the United States toward a clean-energy economy. Our energy and climate policies have led to ongoing, established programs and services that support efficiency improvements for homes and businesses. The approach taken by city leadership around climate action has not only helped Fort Collins reduce its carbon footprint by 12 percent since 2005, but also has contributed to the creation of an estimated 2,365 clean energy jobs in Larimer County. In addition, city-supported energy-efficiency and solar programs alone supported an estimated 191 jobs in Fort Collins. As the city progresses toward its climate goals, energy efficiency not only will reduce carbon emissions and save money for residents and businesses, but also will stimulate local innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation. Our investment in automated benchmarking, utility data access and building energy scoring initiatives is a key component of achieving these triple bottom line outcomes. For more information, visit fcgov.com/BES.