NEEP’s Jim O’Reilly wrote a response to the Boston Globe’s article, Boston Energy, Water Use Law Approved, to set the record straight on Boston’s Building Energy Disclosure Ordinance.

Boston Globe,

You would have done your readers a much greater service when in writing the piece that appears in today’s Globe regarding the city of Boston’s new building energy reporting and disclosure ordinance you didn’t simply accept as fact the claims of the Harvard professor regarding the costs of an energy audit.

You’ve played right into his hands and that of his financial backers, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, by accepting without countering comment or information his figure of $35,000 to perform an energy audit on a commercial building.

If you had bothered to check with organizations like ours – which has been working on similar building energy laws and regulations for the past five years – we would have pointed  you to reliable and industry-accepted information that shows that energy audits as they have been implemented in cities like New York result in a far, far lower cost. The professor’s figures are drawn from analysis that was performed 13 years ago for a very different set of regulatory circumstances in California which showed costs of anywhere between $.12 and $.50 per square foot, depending upon size and complexity of the commercial structure being audited. That same study also showed that the audit costs for larger buildings (greater than 250,000 SF) was only $0.12 per SF, and even less for larger buildings. More salient to Boston’s case is the much more recent experience seen via New York City which shows that the cost of audits – applied in the same way the Boston ordinance would be applied – are closer to $.15 per square foot, for an average cost of approximately $7,500 for a 50,000 square foot building. The New York case is much more of an apples-to-apples comparison to Boston’s ordinance, and we would have explained that to you if you had bothered to ask for another perspective rather than simply accepting the claims of GBREB’s well-funded opposition campaign.

Further, we could have told you that the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources has been for the last 18 months working on a pilot project to test new methods for conducting energy audits at a much, much lower cost that that cited by the professor. The point of the DOER’s research was to make affordable commercial building energy asset ratings WHEN REQUIRED. The other fact your story fails to point out is that no audit is required of any building unless, after five years of using the FREE benchmarking tool to report energy and water use that building owner shows no pattern of improvement whatsoever. Other circumstances under which the audits are avoided are if the building attains an ENERGY STAR level that places the building in the 75th percentile of like buildings via Portfolio Manager; a LEED designation (with no specification as to which LEED level); establishment of an energy management plan; or “patterns of significant and consistent improvements in energy and water efficiency.” In other words, as long as the building owner is showing that he/she is doing something to improve energy performance, and energy use is shown to improve via the FREE Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool, then an audit is NOT required.

And, as has been well-documented, the EPA itself has a lot of data showing immediate and significant energy savings measures being undertaken in buildings that benchmark their energy and water use via the free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool, meaning energy savings are almost always instantly identified and can be acted upon at little or no cost. Further, according to BOMA’s 2012 Experience Exchange Report (BOMA, of course, being a member of the GBREB and a leading trade association for the commercial real estate sector) showed that the average operating expenses for commercial properties is $18.16 per SF per year.  At $.15 per SF, the annualized cost of an energy audit would  $0.03, or less than 0.2 percent of the average annual operating costs of a commercial building. Moreover,  the annual savings from audits and retrofits will be 8 to 16 times the cost of the audit itself. And that is only applicable to instances where the audits are actually required (see above).

A little more digging would have resulted in a much more accurate story. I hope you’re planning a follow-up to your initial coverage to give Globe readers a much better picture of the new ordinance.

Sincerely,

Jim O’Reilly

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NEEP believes strongly that the new benchmarking ordinance can unlock tremendous energy and carbon savings in Boston’s commercial and industrial building sector, which is responsible for almost half of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.  As we have noted on our blog, evidence from existing programs suggests that benchmarking will drive significant energy savings in Boston’s building stock. And, according to First Fuel Software, almost half of savings in commercial buildings are achievable through low-cost operational improvements. It’s no wonder that such a broad array of groups backed the measure, including Boston Properties, Beacon Capital Partners, Jones Lang Lasalle, Winn Companies, as well as Saunders Hotel Group, the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, A Better City, Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission, and the Boston Society of Architects (BSA).

NEEP is especially proud of the nine councilors who supported this common-sense policy in the face of a desperate campaign to mischaracterize it by a small minority led by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. Working together, the councilors addressed the concerns raised by residents and tenants and revised the ordinance where necessary. Contrary to opponents’ claims, property values will not be harmed and rents for residents will not rise. In fact, we are confident that the majority of building tenants and operators will achieve cost savings through energy efficiency.

We thank the Mayor for his leadership on energy and environmental policy. With building energy benchmarking enacted, Mayor Menino will leave office not only with a strong record but also an important tool for his predecessor to build upon.

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Last week, the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) team attended the biggest lighting event of the year: LIGHTFAIR International (LFI). The DLC is a program that promotes quality, performance and energy efficient commercial sector solid state lighting (SSL) solutions through collaboration among its federal, regional, state, utility, and energy efficiency program members; luminaire manufacturers; lighting designers and other industry stakeholders and is thus becoming a major player in the lighting market. As the newest member of the DLC team, attending LFI for the first time, I had my hands full taking educational courses, meeting with vendors, and viewing innovative products on the show floor.

The tradeshow that draws thousands of excited attendees and exhibitors every year not only offers the biggest and most innovative display of lighting technologies but also workshops on “hot topics” such as lighting controls and LED retrofits , lighting design, and introductory level courses on the basics of lighting. Furthermore, the convention allows for business conversations and brainstorming with colleagues in provided meeting spaces.

Needless to say, for NEEP it is the perfect venue to explore the vast light-scape and learn about the leading edge developments in lighting technology aggregated from around the world. It was also an opportunity to assess and spread the visibility and awareness of the DLC program, which administers the Qualified Products List (QPL), a leading resource that distinguishes quality, high efficiency LED products for the commercial sector. As energy efficient LEDs are becoming more and more influential in the lighting market, so is the need for ensuring quality and performance of products. Walking the floor alone, I noticed the DLC logo was prevalent in many booths indicating just how necessary it has become for players in the SSL industry to list their commercial LED products on the DLC QPL to gain a market advantage. Furthermore, the DLC team was frequently recognized by vendors who were eager to talk shop and to be more engaged with the program. “Where is the DLC booth?” was one of the most asked questions, confirming the industry’s interest in NEEP’s DLC program and in raising the bar  for efficiency in the lighting market to achieve all potential energy savings.

Besides cutting-edge OLEDs (Organic LEDs) and Graphene technologies  that popped up on the show floor, LIGHTFAIR was dominated by displays of energy efficient solid state lighting (SSL) and LED technology. Many booths displayed LED tube lights that are being used as fluorescent replacements as well as edge-light luminaires that are soon to be market-ready. However, the shining stars of the convention were controls and integrated systems which allow manufacturers to take advantage of SSL’s inherent benefits in communications and controllability. Some of the most progressive LED luminaires now come control-ready or even with built-in controls that now allow customers to easily switch, dim, as well as change the color of an LED light fixture, often by the touch of a button on their cell phone app or another wireless control. In a sense, you can now change the brightness and color of your lighting without getting up similarly to changing the channel or volume on your TV with a remote control. Impressively, this applies for residential and commercial appliances, where there may be several different kinds of lighting that can all be manipulated through one wireless device.

Evidently, this year’s LIGHTFAIR may have been the largest yet, with hundreds of manufacturers, displaying their newest innovations in lighting on a show floor covered with intricate booths and lighting installations. Some displays may have seemed rather futuristic – although the lighting market is often deemed unpredictable – it was clear that products that can be seen at LIGHTFAIR are an indication of where the lighting market may be headed, at least in the near future.

To DLC’s excitement, our members – who are federal, regional, state, utility, and energy efficiency program administrators – attended the convention in high numbers to see the newest trends in energy efficient lighting. As a break from the buzzing show floor, NEEP arranged a DLC member dinner where all were able to reflect on and share impressions from what was displayed at the convention. At the end of the day, all could agree that the lighting industry is headed in an exciting and ever evolving direction that may surprise us at any given time with a new innovation, and for that reason LIGHTFAIR International is an event not to be missed in years to come!

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With LEDs gaining incredible traction, it begs the question—where is lighting heading next?  At LFI 2013,  Mark Lien of OSRAM Sylvania led a workshop titled “Illuminating the Future of Lighting”. He reiterated the commonly held belief that predicting the future of lighting is an almost impossible task.  That being said, he highlighted several technologies that may, or may not, become mainstream in the years to come.  Some of my favorites included OLEDs, or “Organic Light Emitting Diodes.”  These are LEDs that integrate an organic compound and can be flexible, interactive, as well as incredibly efficient (think of a light source that turns into a mirror as it senses your face approaching).   Another favorite was Graphene, experiments with which prompted the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.  This is a substance only 1 atom thick, incredibly durable, and can be a source of light.  While challenging to make, the potential of something so incredibly thin and malleable as a new light source is very intriguing (imagine superman in a 1-atom thick, stronger than steel, light emitting suit).  While these technologies are currently hard to find, they provide some interesting insight into where we might be going.  For now, I recommend keeping your eyes and ears open, and NEEP will help you stay on top of the trends as we transcend into the future!

For more information on the current status of residential lighting, join NEEP’s Residential Lighting Strategy Update webinar on May 14^th, 11am.  Email Claire at cmiziolek@neep.org for call-in information.

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The Northeast Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency recognition program highlights the accomplishments of organizations that are participating in energy efficiency programs across the region. This year’s honorees, made up of manufacturers, retailers, research institutions, and other regional and global businesses, were selected for recognition based on their success to:

• Achieve energy savings through investment in cost efficient measures;
• Address comprehensive changes in major energy systems such as lighting, HVAC, building envelope, office equipment and industrial processes, with a focus on improvements in multiple fuel categories;
• Continue improvements in energy performance through management level support and operational practices; and
• Demonstrate leadership to advance energy efficiency and to promote its benefits within their communities.

For these businesses, energy efficiency is about more than just saving money,  it’s about a company’s commitment to advancing energy efficiency while simultaneously improving its bottom line, embracing technological advancements, and supporting a cleaner environment.

2013 proves to be another year of amazing case studies how businesses are investing in  energy efficiency as a business strategy in advancing in their market.  Stay tuned as we bring you more about these amazing stories in the weeks to come.

This year’s Northeast Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency are:

Massachusetts

Boston College, Nominated by NSTAR
Atlas Box & Crating, Nominated by National Grid
Baystate Health, Nominated by Western Mass Electric Co.
Cape Cod Commercial Linen Services, Nominated by Cape Light Compact

Connecticut

Covidien, Nominated by United Illuminating
Boehringer Ingelheim, Nominated by CT Light & Power
ESPN, Nominated by Yankee Gas

New Hampshire

Woodstock Inn & Brewery, Nominated by New Hampshire Electric Co-op
Anheuser Bush, Nominated by Public Services of New Hampshire

Vermont

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Nominated by Efficiency Vermont

New York

Anheuser Bush, Nominated by NYSERDA

Washington, D.C.

American University, Nominated by DC Sustainable Energy Utility

All 12 Northeast Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency will be recognized at the 2013 Northeast Energy Efficiency Summit. The event is open to the public and members of the media are invited to attend at no charge. For more information about the Summit and Business Leaders Recognition program, please visit http://www.neep.org.

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Anticipation for this conference has been high since the inaugural DLC Stakeholder Meeting was held in Atlanta, GA last year. This year, the DLC team has been working hard to make the experience as, if not more, beneficial and interesting to solid state lighting (SSL) players. “Forward-looking” and “cutting edge” have been a theme throughout this year’s planning process for the event and the team is confident that attendees will not be disappointed.

The DLC team at last year’s stakeholder meeting in Atlanta.

The event – featuring one half day of introductory workshops and CEU courses, two full meeting day of panel discussions, break-out sessions, and structured networking, and one day of DLC member only meetings – has been designed to allow for open dialog between DLC members and SSL Stakeholders. Agenda topics including specification and category development, outdoor lighting, safety, ambient lighting design approaches, and SSL market development have been chosen to further discussion about common issues within the SSL industry and to identify where the SSL technology might be headed.

The DLC is especially looking forward to its members attending this year’s Stakeholder Meeting in high numbers. DLC members are regional, state, utility, and energy efficiency programs throughout the U.S. and Canada and are an integral part to the program. The DLC Stakeh​older Meeting will thus be the perfe​ct ve​nue to share and gather information and experiences among stakeholders from all sectors of the SSL industry.

To register for the 2013 DLC Stakeholder Meeting, click here.

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Last week I submitted written testimony and on Thursday had the opportunity – one entire minute – to stand before Chairman Matt O’Malley of the Council’s Government Operations Committee to tell him why the proposed Building Energy Reporting Ordinance would be an energy, economic and environmental policy win for the city of Boston.  

In my minute I quickly tried to counter some of the opposing arguments that were voiced earlier that afternoon, particularly from the city’s real estate trade groups and from Harvard Professor Robert Stavins, who claimed that there were no benefits resulting from requiring building owners to report and disclose their energy use. What Prof. Stavins conveniently fails to mention are the many commercial real estate studies that have been done, including analysis from Co-Star, the commercial real estate information research service, Jones Lang LaSalle and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, among others, that illustrate the positive market impact on energy performance of building labeling and disclosure. A sampling of these includes:

• A 2012 analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of 35,000 benchmarked buildings found that energy consumption in those buildings decreased by an average of 7 percent from 2008 to 2011.
• A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2011 policy brief that cites five different studies indicating a higher sale values for residential and commercial properties with energy efficiency or “green” labels.
• A recent report commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission found that benchmarking was highly correlated with building energy improvements and management actions, and was a strong catalyst for customer participation in utility rebate and incentive programs.
• EPA data that shows that $1 in energy efficiency can add up to $3 in asset value for a commercial building.

If I had another minute I would have highlighted some of the experiences from other jurisdictions that have implemented similar policies and which are captured in a new NEEP report Building Energy Rating and Disclosure Policies:  Update and Lessons from the Field.

• Results from early adopters such as Austin, TX and New York City reveal that property owners are reaping higher rents and resale values for energy efficient buildings.
• Energy efficiency investments create real jobs. A study by the Center for Progress showed that $1 million invested in energy efficiency created 16.7 local jobs.
• A recent study of building owners by ACEEE revealed that more than half of the property owners used or expect to use benchmarking activities to market their buildings and that tenants are increasingly seeking to lease only rated buildings.

In other words, building energy reporting and disclosure is prompting exactly the kinds of actions that many of us have always known it would, providing markets with clear signals and allowing those markets to attach value to properties based on energy use. Many of these same real estate trade groups are often promoting this kind of market clarity.

You may be thinking I’m just some energy efficiency advocate, and yes, in fact, I am passionate about energy efficiency. However, I come to my role by way of a background in commercial building management. Having managed a wide variety of building stock, including the Boston Design Center, I’ve had to track utility bills and manage capital improvement projects, all while trying to reduce operating expenses and keep tenants happy. I know firsthand the value and opportunity building energy reporting and disclosure can be for building owners, as well as their tenants, and their communities at large.  Policies such as the proposed Boston ordinance are beneficial across the board!

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Presentations by Peter Ludwig and Rick Samson depicted the full-circle status of the U.S. multifamily market that uncovered connections between market characteristics, market barriers and market outlook. Rick and Peter both view multifamily efficiency from different viewpoints but face similar barriers and have the same goal at the end of their tunnels: multifamily energy efficiency market transformation.  Ed Londergan, NEEP’s Multifamily Project Manager, moderated the session and provided his extensive multifamily experiences and leadership to the foundation of the conversation.

The ACEEE Symposium Multifamily Workshop, By the Numbers:

Peter Ludwig, Director of Energy Efficiency Buildings at CNT Energy, based in Chicago, presented on their Energy Savers program, a one-stop energy shop for multifamily building owners. Since 2008, the program saved 22,000 households 16% on energy bills, or $10 million to date. The program also provided audits to 805 buildings containing over 32,000 units and retrofitted over 300 buildings with more than 11,000 units in the affordable housing market. The retrofits account for energy savings of 30% or over $3 million a year. The program also created more than 400 local jobs.

The program’s goal is to save 100,000 households 16% on energy bills, a projected savings of $9 million per year, create 900 local jobs, and coordinate energy efficiency services to deliver up to $250 million of investments in programs by 2015.

Rick Samson, president of Stewards for Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) Energy, presented on on-bill repayment, a new way to finance energy efficiency retrofits in low income multifamily rental housing. The program addresses two key challenges faced by this sector; properties need capital to fund retrofits and traditional property secured loans are not generally available. On-bill repayment offers the opportunity to bring new capital to affordable multifamily housing by combining utility funds with private capital. Five entities were involved in a pilot program with the California Housing Partnership Corporation; SAHF and CHPC, utilities, building owner, lenders and contractors, each having a specific role in the process. The pilot demonstrated that significant energy savings can be achieved at a reasonable cost.

This workshop embodied the potential the U.S. Multifamily market holds for massive energy savings, job creation, and more efficient, interconnected relationships between tenants and landlords. The fight for multifamily efficiency is an ongoing effort to overcome the lack of capital, split incentives, lapse of awareness, knowledge, and best practices that are hiding a plethora of societal benefits.

If you missed this workshop and want to learn more about energy efficiency in the multifamily market, don’t fret! The 2013 NEEP Summit is putting on a multifamily workshop to provide an overview of activities in the region and insights into policies and programs that are moving the multifamily market forward.

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Comparison of Energy Consumption in Homes by End Uses between 1993 and 2009

In many ways, the average American household has dramatically improved in efficiency.  Thanks to many years of hard work, some of the largest home energy hogs such as heating or lighting are much more efficient.  But while energy use for many aspects of the home has decreased, the share of energy used by electronics has grown.  According to the EPA, consumer electronics are responsible for 15% of household energy use, with an average household owning 25 consumer electronic products.  While the kilowatt-hour energy implications for each device is relatively low, with 25 devices and growing in each home, the impact of consumer electronics really adds up.

Think of it: in 1978, the average American household had only 1 TV.  By 2009, that number had climbed up 2.5 (while the number of US households had grown by 34.5 million), and by 2012 there was an average of 2.9 TVs in each US household!  Not to mention the internet enabled devices such as tablets, smart phones, or laptops that didn’t exist in 1978.  There has been a trend toward smaller screened electronics (i.e. from TV to laptop to tablet to smartphone) which is beneficial in terms of efficiency as a smaller screen sizes usually translates to less energy used.  However, the number of these devices is growing in leaps and bounds, and if we don’t start paying attention to their efficiency (the ways appliances such as radiators, refrigerators, and water heaters have), this problem will also grow.

Technology evolves incredibly quickly, and many of the tools in the energy efficiency toolbox such as utility incentives and standards struggle to keep up.  To help tackle this problem, NEEP is undertaking a project to create a strategy with recommendations that the Northeast Mid-Atlantic region can use to gain efficiency in consumer electronics.  We will be communicating through regular blog updates, the final strategy (to be released end of summer, 2013) and the Consumer Electronics workshop on June 18^th at the NEEP Summit.  We hope to see you there!

If you’d like to learn more about NEEP’s Business and Consumer Electronics Strategy,  please email Claire Miziolek at cmiziolek@neep.org

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 The Designlights Consortium^® invites you to join us in Chicago as we bring together professionals from across the solid-state lighting industry at this one of its kind meeting!

This year’s meeting will focus on:

• DLC processes and future prospects,
• hot topics affecting the solid-state lighting industry,
• identifying important technical, program, and policy issues
• building working relationships and furthering common understanding among DLC members and stakeholders.

Attending Stakeholders will include:

• utility and energy efficiency program managers and executives,
• utility contractors,
• solid state lighting manufacturers,
• lighting designers,
• lighting specifiers,
• testing laboratory representatives,
• electrical and installation companies,
• and government agencies.

                Why You Should Attend: 

The DesignLights Consortium^® Stakeholder Meeting is a unique opportunity for professionals from all sectors of the lighting industry to come together and delve into issues affecting solid state lighting, a technology that is still constantly evolving, while gaining an understanding of DLC’s scope and influence in the market place.

The DesignLights Consortium® (DLC) is a project of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), a regional non-profit founded in 1996 whose mission is to serve the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to accelerate energy efficiency in the building sector through public policy, program strategies and education. The DLC promotes quality, performance and energy efficient commercial sector lighting solutions through collaboration among its federal, regional, state, utility, and energy efficiency program members;luminaire manufacturers; lighting designers and other industry stakeholders throughout the U.S. and Canada.

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