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Draft plan for creating a voluntary benchmarking for

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to cut costs. Understanding energy consumption is the first place to start when considering any energy efficiency effort. Energy use benchmarking is measuring a buildings energy use over time, and comparing it to other similar buildings. Energy benchmarking helps us understand our energy use, so that we can make changes that will help plan and prioritize limited resources in order to save money and save energy. According to ENERGY STAR® “Energy expenditures average more than $2 per square foot in commercial and government buildings, making energy a cost worth managing.” ENERGY STAR® also notes that buildings that benchmark their energy use on a regular basis tend to reduce their energy consumption by 2.4 percent per year, on average. Benchmarking:

Several other communities in Texas, such as Fort Worth, El Paso, and Houston have already created voluntary programs to encourage building owners and operators to benchmarking their buildings. Therefore, has prepared this plan to create a voluntary benchmarking program for the community. No building owners or operators will be required to participate, and participants will not be required to implement any energy efficiency measures. The goal of this plan is to use the Objectives, Strategies, Tactics, and Success Measures Worksheet.

. To achieve this goal we propose to target CommercialMulti-familyVoluntary single-family residential. We will ask participants to benchmark . In order to achieve our goals, we will work with a number of stakeholders, including government personnel, building owners and operators, and other partners and allies in the community. The estimated budget for this project is:

Personnel $
Salary/fringe/overhead$
Marketing Material Development and Production$
Travel$
Outside Consultants$
Total$

The project will use several different tools to empower participants to benchmark their buildings and use that data to identify savings opportunities. We will also recognize the achievements of participants to help demonstrate the value of benchmarking to the wider community. Our community will see several benefits from this program. Increased energy efficiency reduces air emissions and improves quality of life. Energy efficiency programs can support economic development through reduced operating costs and improved worker productivity, along with supporting job in the energy services sector.

INTRODUCTION

Benchmarking is the process of measuring a building’s energy performance and comparing it with its energy baseline, or comparing the building’s energy performance with the energy performance of similar types of buildings. Benchmarking can provide building owners with valuable data so that they can save money, reduce maintenance requirements, and improve renovation cycle planning.

Voluntary benchmarking programs encourage buildings owners and operators to benchmark their facilities. Even in the absence of a requirement to benchmark, communities can provide tools and information to help building owners and operators in their community measure performance. These programs typically communicate the successes of the participants in the programs to encourage additional building owners and operators to participate.

This plan is designed to help you create a voluntary benchmarking program for your community. It has been built using input form the Texas State Energy Conservation Office Energy Benchmark Tool for Cities and the ENERGY STAR® “Developing a Strategic Communications Plan” guidance document.1

STEP 1 – WORK WITH INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS TO DEFINE SCOPE AND GOALS

Successful benchmarking programs require several stakeholders be actively involved in the process. The internal stakeholders are those community employees that will plan, organize, and implement the program, along with your communications team.

A worksheet has been provided in Appendix A to help you identify your internal stakeholders.

In order to get the internal stakeholders engaged and involved in the project, it is helpful to begin by explaining the benefits of energy benchmarking. When discussing the idea with your internal stakeholders, be sure that they understand why this program being proposed and are willing to be supportive. One resource that might help you build the case for energy benchmarking is the Institute for Market Transformation two-page fact sheet, “Energy Benchmarking and Transparency Benefits”.2

Next, work with the internal stakeholder team to develop the initial scope and project goals. Typical goals for voluntary benchmarking programs include:

Once you have reached consensus on the project goals, work with stakeholders to create the scope for the project. First develop an inventory of buildings that may participate in the program. It is important to learn about the building stock so you can better define the program focus and stakeholders. The best place to get this information is from the tax appraisal district and possibly the permitting department. The primary information you are looking for is:

Other information that is helpful includes:

When considering the scope of your program, it is important to consider the amount of energy savings that can be gained through compliance. Once you have the building inventory, you can use that to help you identify the building types and sectors that may provide the greatest saving opportunities.3 From a review of US Department of Energy Building Performance Database for Texas, institutional settings, such as hospitals, prisons and universities, as well as data centers, grocery stores, and large commercial office space are typically large energy users.

The proposed scope includes:

Also consider:

STEP 2 – WORKING WITH EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

It is important to clearly communicate with potential participants in the voluntary program. It will help if you can clearly explain what benchmarking is and what are the benefits, how building owners and operators can participate, and the value of participating in the program. Potential participants might need training and information on tools and resources available. People implementing the project can reach out to: owners and managers that you would like to participate in the program; trade organizations; relevant non-profits; utilities; and others.

External Stakeholder Groups

Building Owners/ Operators / Property Mangers Industry Associations for Buildings – owners/ operators / realtors Energy Vendors/Engineers/ Architects Industry Associations for Vendors/Engineers/ Architects Public/Non Profit
CBRE BOMA Energy Service Companies - Schneider Electric; Siemens, McKinstry American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE)) SECO
Transwestern IFMA JCI AEE SPEER
Hines IREM Gensler AIA HARC
Brookfield CORENET   National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) IMT
Stream Realty NAIOP     NRDC
Jones Lang LaSalle Hotel and Lodging Association     DOE
Crimson       Public Utility
Boxer Property        
Trammel Crowe        
Lincoln Property Trust        
Pro-Logis        
Colliers        

Begin your external stakeholder engagement with a small set of motivated and engaged organizations that include major building owners and operators along with other supportive organizations. There are typically five to six participants in the initial group of key external stakeholders. This core group will allow you to draft the initial parameters of your program, such as building sectors, types of buildings, size of buildings, reporting requirements, etc. Once complete, you can focus on developing an expanded external stakeholder group that includes building owners and managers, building tenants, real estate brokers, utilities, energy services providers, and others. Work with stakeholders to continue to revise and expand your external stakeholder group. This larger group of external stakeholders can provide helpful feedback on the goals and scope, along with providing insight on how to best reach potential participants, and what sort of tools and training would be helpful. You can use this information to further refine the voluntary program. These external stakeholder can help kick-off the program by being the first to sign-up. As they see the benefits of benchmarking in their own buildings, they can also help spreading the word about the value of participating in the program.

Most programs focus on the commercial building sector because of the energy use and opportunities for improvement. Other sectors that some communities have chosen for voluntary programs include multi-family and single family residential. Residential programs are typically smaller in scope and focus on providing prospective buyers and tenants information on the energy features.

Commercial programs focus on getting the business community involved in benchmarking and building energy efficiency. These voluntary programs are typically based on the participants creating a baseline for benchmarking, and then voluntarily undertaking measures to reduce energy use, and reporting these successes to the community. The City can support these programs in a variety of ways, including:

Multi-family programs typically involve measuring energy use, and then reporting on this information to prospective and current tenants. Prospective tenants can use the energy efficiency of a property as one evaluation criteria when they are choosing a residence. Residents of multifamily properties can be given information on energy performance, and tips on how to save money on their energy bill. The Denver Watts to Water program applies to multi-family buildings.

Voluntary single-family residential programs are typically managed in association with the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), where the listing agent has the opportunity to highlight energy efficiency measures of the listed property. The Oregon Department of Energy has adopted voluntary rules for rating the energy performance of homes.14 California also has a voluntary energy rating program for homes.15

STEP 3 – IDENTIFY OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, TOOLS, AND TACTICS

Once you have determined the scope and overall goal of the voluntary program, set up clearly measurable, achievable, and time-limited objectives so that the team can measure progress. Examples of specific objectives include:

Typically multiple strategies are used to achieve each objective. These should be high-level strategic ideas. Try to include a target audience for each strategy.

Examples of an objective and related strategies include:

Sample objective: Sign-up 20 building owners by the end of the second quarter.

Strategies:

Next, identify tactics to achieve each strategy. How are you going to make these strategies happen, and what sort of tools are you going to use?

There are a wide range of tools that can help support your stakeholder engagement. Examples include:

Keep in mind that different tools are more effective for different audiences. For the larger audience and general education use web sites, mass emails, social media, government press releases, newsletters, etc. The content on these should focus on the general benefits of energy efficiency, information on available resources, as well as general programmatic announcements.

It is helpful to engage with specific industries and associations.32 This can include sector specific workshops, advertising in industry publications, speaking at association lunches and meetings, and face to face meetings. Typically the face to face meetings will target industry association leaders and boards of directors. Some industry associations also have committees that can be a target audience; for example, Building Owners and Managers Association’s (BOMA’s) policy action committee.

Finally, consider how you will measure success for each of your objectives. That way you can adjust your strategies and tactics if the objectives are not being met. It also allows you to easily report on the results.

A summary of the proposed objectives, strategies, tactics, and success measures is included as Appendix

You can use the Benchmarking and Disclosure Toolkit to help you create your proposed objectives, strategies, tactics, and success measures, or you can use the worksheet provided in the Appendix

STEP 4 – BUDGET AND PERSONNEL

The next step is to work with the internal stakeholders to define the budget and resources needed to support the program you have developed. These programs can be government-funded, may be funded through public/private partnerships, or may be utility-funded as a way for the utilities to help meet their energy efficiency goals.

When developing the budget, be sure to consider:

Personnel $
Salary/fringe/overhead$
Marketing Material Development and Production$
Travel$
Outside Consultants$
Total$

The project team consists of:

Position Name Phone Email
Office of Sustainability – Program development and champion      
Head of implementing department – Project management      
Day-to-day project Staff      
Mayor’s Office ‐ Leadership and assist with stakeholder engagement and council member support      
Communications/Public Relations – Promote the project and communicate results      
Permitting Department and/or Tax Assessor – Building data      
City Council Member Staff – Provide information      
Outside Support      

STEP 5 – EVALUATE RESULTS

After the initial program kick off, the team should regularly evaluate

The benchmarking team should compile the information from re-appraisal process, identify opportunities for improvement, and update the plan.

STEP 6 – CELEBRATE SUCCESS AND COMMUNICATE RESULTS

It is important that the project team communicate the results of the benchmarking project. Consider the following tips when communicating the benchmarking results and creating an energy strategy.

Examples of Voluntary Programs in Texas

The City of El Paso: In 2012, the City launched the El Paso Green Business Challenge, encouraging local businesses to conserve energy, reduce waste, save water, and consider alternative means of transportation. Commercial building property managers, property owners and office tenants participating in the challenge will have access to trainings and resources for reducing energy consumption, waste generation and water use. Participants demonstrating achievements in energy efficiency over the course of a year are highlighted in the Challenge’s public outreach campaign and recognized by the Mayor and City Council at a Gala in April. http://www.elpasogbc.org/
The City of Houston: The Houston Green Office Challenge is a friendly competition for commercial property owners, managers and office tenants that celebrates achievements in greening operations through Mayoral and media recognition. This Houston-wide program will bring local, state and national sustainability experts together with businesses and properties to learn and engage in both introductory and high performance green building practices through free workshops and training. The Challenge also helps participants improve their sustainability and work toward third-party green building certifications such as ENERGY STAR®and LEED®. https://houstoncityenergyproject.org/sign-up-for-the-houston-green-office-challenge/
The City of Fort Worth: The City’s Better Buildings Challenge, encourages city businesses and communities to save energy in their buildings. Building a network of partners and allies including local energy and water utilities, the Fort Worth Better Buildings Challenge effectively provides a local education and outreach program promoting energy conservation and efficiency as well as technical support for partners to measure and track their energy use. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, Fort Worth has achieved 8% energy savings across 19 million square feet of public and private sector buildings since 2009. The city is on-track to meet a ten year goal to improve energy use by 20% by 2020. http://betterbuildingssolutioncenter.energy.gov/partners/fort-worth-tx

REFERENCES

END NOTES

1 https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/tools-and-resources/planning-communications-strategy-worksheet
2

Download at: http://www.imt.org/uploads/resources/files/IMTBenefitsofBenchmarking_Online_June2015.pdf

3

Check out CBECs or https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/data/2012/index.cfm?view=consumption or the DOEs Building Performance Database - https://bpd.lbl.gov/#explore

4 http://www.greenpsf.com/go/community/index/houston
5 https://www.columbus.gov/energychallenge/
6 http://www.wattstowater.org/
7 http://la-bbc.com/
8 https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/about-us/how-can-we-help-you/communicate/energy-star-communications-toolkit/motivate-competition-1
9 http://gwcpgh.org/
10 http://neea.org/neea-newsroom/press-releases/2014/05/16/kilowatt-crackdown-competition-winners-announced-in-portland
11 http://www.slcgov.com/node/1930
12 http://stlhighperformbldg.org/
13 http://www.envisioncharlotte.com/
14 http://www.oregon.gov/energy/RESIDENTIAL/docs/HEPSS_Charter_Final.pdf
15 http://www.energy.ca.gov/2009publications/CEC-400-2009-008/CEC-400-2009-008-BR-REV1.pdf
16

For example, see Chicago’s “Tall Buildings We Really Look Up To”: http://siteselector.worldbusinesschicago.com/news/some-of-chicagos-tall-buildings-we-really-look-up-to

17

For example, see the Los Angeles County “Energy Upgrade California Marketing and Communications Plan” http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/01/f6/la_county_communications_plan_v7.pdf

18

For example, see Houston’s Green Office Challenge website: http://www.greenpsf.com/go/community/index/houston or Envision Charlotte’s Website: http://www.envisioncharlotte.com

19

Such as utility-sponsored programs or Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs that could help owners implement energy efficiency programs.

20

For example, Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge Press Release: http://atlantabbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Atlanta-Better-Buildings-Challenge-Press-Release.pdf

21

Such as Seattle’s “Solving Seattle’s Energy Puzzle” http://ecmweb.com/site-files/ecmweb.com/files/uploads/2014/01/seattletrackingpaint.jpg

22

For example the case studies done my Montgomery County Maryland: https://mygreenmontgomery.org/2015/benchmarked-case-study-jbg-companies/

23

Such as the ENERGY STAR “Benchmarking to Save Energy” Brochure: https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/singlesite_uploads/buildings/tools/Benchmarking_to_Save_Energy.pdf

24

For example, Envision Charlotte's http://www.envisioncharlotte.com/news/newsletter/

25

For example, Atlanta’s Better Buildings Challenge http://atlantabbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Atlanta-Better-Buildings-Challenge-Fact-Sheet-11-28.pdf

26

Such as the California Energy Commission “What is Your Home Energy Rating” http://www.energy.ca.gov/2009publications/CEC-400-2009-008/CEC-400-2009-008-BR-REV1.pdf

27

For example: http://resultsmatterradio.businessradiox.com/2012/04/10/atlanta-environmental-sustainability/

28

Such as Broadcast Atlanta's Better Buildings Challenge video : http://atlantabbc.com/media/

29

See IMT’s Benchmarking Help Center Guide: http://www.imt.org/uploads/resources/files/IMT_Benchmarking_HelpCenter_2012_final_0113.pdf

30

For example the St. Louis High Performance Buildings blog: http://stlhighperformbldg.org/blog/

31

For example: Muskegon, Michigan's http://www.greenmichigan.org/events/energy-bench-marking-workshop-muskegon/

32

For example, Chicago and Atlanta do some programming for building owners and other programming for the building engineers. The different parties will have different motivators and find value in different information.

33

For example: Atlanta http://atlantabbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ABBC-2013-Annual-Report.pdf

34

For example, Denver: http://betterbuildingssolutioncenter.energy.gov/sites/default/files/news/attachments/Better%20Buildings%20Challenge%20-%20Denver%20Area%20Press%20Release%20-%20final.pdf

35

For example the case studies done by Montgomery County Maryland: https://mygreenmontgomery.org/2015/benchmarked-a-case-study-from-brookfield-office-properties/ or the St. Louis High Performance Building Initiative Success Stories: http://stlhighperformbldg.org/success-stories/

Internal Stakeholder Identification Worksheet

Mayor’s Office –Leadership

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Program Development

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Department Heads or Delegates

Public Works / Municipal Utilities for bill data

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Property Assessor for property data

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Legal to provide support when legal questions come up about data access and data sharing

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Other department

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

City Council

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:
Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Communications/Public Relations

Help with development of marketing collateral, press releases and social media.

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Head of implementing department

If separate from the developing department. Helpful if, for example, the Office of Sustainability is developing the policy but is not an institutionalized department. If the program in implemented in a department that has been institutionalized, it is more likely to maintain operations regardless of administration.

Name:
Phone Number:
Email:

Goal, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics, and Performance Measure Worksheet

PROJECT GOAL:

Objective 1:

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Objective 2:

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