The Power of Information: Rating and Disclosing Building Energy Performance Alexandra Sullivan US EPA, ENERGY STAR December 2, 2009

2 Agenda  ENERGY STAR Ratings  Objective  Characteristics  Technical foundation  Accessibility  Energy Rating and Disclosure  Benefits  Market Interest  Key to Success  Questions and Discussion

3 ENERGY STAR Ratings Objective  Help businesses protect the environment through superior energy efficiency  Motivate organizations to develop a strategic approach to energy management  Convey information about energy performance in a simple metric that can be understood by all levels of the organization

4 ENERGY STAR Ratings Characteristics  Monitor actual as-billed energy data  Create a whole building indicator  Capture the interactions of building systems not individual equipment efficiency  Track energy use accounting for weather and operational changes over time  Provide a peer group comparison  Compare a building’s energy performance to its national peer group  Track how changes at a building level alter the building’s standing relative to its peer group

5 ENERGY STAR Ratings Technical foundation  Analyze national survey data  Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)  Develop regression models to predict energy use for specific space types based on operations  Create scoring lookup table  Ratings are based on the distribution of energy performance across commercial buildings  One point on the ENERGY STAR scale represents one percentile of buildings  Buildings that perform in the 75th percentile or better can earn the ENERGY STAR label

6 ENERGY STAR Ratings Technical foundation  The rating does  Evaluate as billed energy use relative to building operations  Normalize for operational characteristics (e.g., size, number of employees, walk-in refrigeration, climate)  Depend on a statistically representative sample of the US commercial building population  The rating does not  Attempt to sum the energy use of each piece of equipment  Normalize for technology choices or market conditions (e.g., type of lighting, energy price)  Explain how or why a building operates as it does

7 Medical Offices Office Buildings HospitalsWarehousesDormitoriesSupermarketsCourthouses K-12 Schools Bank/Financial Institutions Hotels Wastewater Treatment Plants Retail Stores Eligible Space Types Houses of Worship

8 ENERGY STAR Ratings Accessibility: Portfolio Manager  Free on-line tracking and benchmarking tool  Available for any building  Track energy use  Site EUI  Source EUI  Weather normalized source EUI  National average comparisons  Energy performance ratings (for selected spaces)  Track energy costs  Track carbon emissions using eGRID  Track water consumption  Data sharing functions and automated data import  Apply for ENERGY STAR recognition

9 Statement of Energy Performance

10 Certificate for Display

11 Energy Rating and Disclosure Benefits  Identify inefficiency  There is a great potential for cost-effective energy efficiency across the national building stock  Better information on how much energy buildings use and how buildings compare to one another is critical to fulfilling this potential  Provide a whole building assessment  Energy assessment at the building level reveals information about how technologies interact and influence performance  Improve energy performance  Simple metrics are powerful motivators for change, spurring efficiency improvements within public and private organizations  Metrics that can be easily quantified can be tracked regularly and communicated within and among organizations  Maintain savings  Simple quantifiable measures can be tracked year-to-year to ensure persistence of savings  Almost 40% of ENERGY STAR labels each year are earning a label for the second or third time

12 Energy Rating and Disclosure Growing Interest  Organizations and businesses  Internal energy management tracking  Internal disclosure of scores (store managers, regional and upper management)  Voluntary disclosure of scores on web (school districts, governments)  Real Estate information services  CoStar  Hotel services (Travelocity, AAA, Orbitz)  Mandatory Disclosure Legislation  Time of Sale (California)  Annual public disclosure (D.C. New York City)

13 Learn about governments leveraging ENERGY STAR in legislation and voluntary campaigns. rnment Energy Rating and Disclosure Growing Interest

14 Energy Rating and Disclosure Keys to Success  Measured energy data  The use of actual measured building data is critical to assessing performance  Measured data will account for interactions among building systems, building maintenance, tenant activities, etc  Data verification  Data must be accurate to provide a fair comparison among buildings  Decision makers need to know that information is reviewed and complete  Accessibility  System and metrics should be easy to use and understand  Costs should be kept to a minimum to encourage broad applicability  Consistency  Metrics should be used from design through construction and operation  Standardized metrics provide a reliable platform for organizations

Questions and Discussion