Although the ENERGY STAR score is a useful metric for communicating a building’s energy performance to others, it's important for facility managers to take this opportunity to raise awareness of their building’s other important metrics, such as energy use intensity or cost savings over time, says Leslie Cook, national program manager for the Energy Star Tools Team at EPA.
Cook recommends that facility managers consider these four steps as a starting point for responding to the new metrics:
1. Replace default values. “We added a number of new required property-use details for several property types, and populated these with conservative default values. Replace them with actual values to improve accuracy, and possibly your score.”
2. Benchmark data center space. “If you have data center space within your building, but it is not metered as required for benchmarking, you have a new option to use ‘estimated’ data to account for the high energy intensity of data center spaces, and possibly increase your score.”
3. Check data for accuracy. “Confirm that all your other benchmarking data is accurate. Small errors can sometimes have a big impact.”
4. Identify potential projects in your building. “Find low-cost opportunities for improvements within your properties using [Energy Star’s] new treasure hunt resources, which many organizations have used to reduce their energy use by up to 15 percent.”
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Proactive Steps to Respond To New Energy Star Metrics
4 Steps to Respond to New Energy Star Metrics
