Energy Management Best Practices

[Daisy Hughlett]

TheENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management provide a proven strategy for creating a comprehensive energy management program. Based on the successful practices of ENERGY STAR partners, these guidelines can help your organization plan and implement an energy management program that delivers deep, sustained energy savings over the long-term.

The ENERGY STAR Guidelines contain a step-by-step road map for continuous improvement, based on best practices from the nation's leaders in energy management. The document is broken out into seven steps:

Through over a decade of observation and analysis, EPA has found that the most successful organizations are the ones that fully implement the practices outlined in the ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management. Comparing your program to the best practices outlined in the guidelines will help you identify strengths and weakness and your next steps to maximize savings.

Read more about the business case for improving efficiency and operating a high-performing portfolio of buildings, or check out the accomplishments of ENERGY STAR Award winners, the top organizations that are raising the bar and leading their industries.

Artificial intelligence (AI) policy: ASHRAE prohibits the entry of content from any ASHRAE publication or related ASHRAE intellectual property (IP) into any AI tool, including but not limited to ChatGPT. Additionally, creating derivative works of ASHRAE IP using AI is also prohibited without express written permission from ASHRAE.

Many jurisdictions such as Washington DC, already imposed penalties for buildings not to comply with building energy benchmarking requirements, which sets the maximum penalty to $10 per square foot of gross floor area, which reduces the maximum penalty amount for most buildings, and caps the maximum penalty at $7,500,000.

This course will provide a gateway to applicable industry guidelines, standards, other ASHRAE ALI courses, and publicly available resources to the end-users and practitioners. It will summarize the available energy management best practices related to sustainability goals and greenhouse gas emission reduction. The course will also overview water efficiency and help establish the links between energy and water use.

All courses and webinars are available for Chapter and In-Company Programs. They may be periodically scheduled for the Winter and/or Annual Conference Education Programs, as well as the Online Courses Series.

Availability: Check the various offerings listed under Professional Development > All Instructor-Led Training to see if this course is being offered at an upcoming event or as a webinar.

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop the following 14 water efficiency best management practices to help agencies increase water efficiency and meet federal requirements.

Each best management practice provides operations and maintenance improvements and retrofit and replacement options. Use these best management practices to glean project ideas for reducing water use and increasing water efficiency at your agency.

Comprised of a variety of energy industry veterans, our Leadership Team steers the ship to continually evolve our offer as well as ensure all teams are aligned in our goal of providing transparent, tailored, and effective energy management solutions that elevate the financial condition of our clients.

Your personal guides throughout the entirety of your energy procurement journey who work closely with you to customize a purchasing strategy to the needs and budget of your business that is insulated from volatility as well as captures all-time lows.

If you heard about us on the phone, it was likely one of our experienced Sales Development Representatives who shout our offering and mission from the mountain tops to give potential clients a peek into the savings opportunities provided by our intelligent energy management solutions.

The backbone and glue of our company, our Ops Team is charged with keeping a watchful eye on the market, getting the best prices available from suppliers, keeping our supplier relationships intact, performing bill analyses, and helping our Energy Advisors capture cost avoidance opportunities for their customers.

Energy efficiency can enhance human health by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving outdoor air quality and decreasing acid rain. The energy needed to run commercial and industrial buildings in the United States produces 19 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, 12 percent of nitrogen oxides, and 25 percent of sulfur dioxide, at a cost of $110 billion a year.

The health care sector is in need of cost-effective solutions to address the rising cost of energy and the health implications of energy use. Once a facility has developed an energy baseline by tracking and measuring its energy use, it can begin to zero in on areas of inefficiency and review potential energy reduction strategies with an eye for what will work given the financial resources of the organization.

"Demand-side management" is a facilities management approach that involves ways to reduce the need for energy. The key to demand-side management is system-wide energy conservation programs. These types of programs identify cost-effective procedures that reduce energy consumption and develop systematic programs of energy system efficiency improvements. Health care facilities examine and analyze energy use to determine where it could be possible to cut back.

There are several key areas a health care facility can target when looking for energy efficiencies. The following areas are the energy use categories laid out by EnergyStar and provide a useful framework for assessing opportunities for energy reduction:

A key element in a comprehensive energy efficiency program involves specifying products and equipment that meet certain energy efficiency standards. While specifying energy-efficient equipment is clearly integrated into the strategies above, health care organizations can also benefit from putting some clear guidance into place for purchasing staff, so that other departments and units ordering supplies and equipment are informed of the preference for energy-efficiency where possible.

Energy Star is a partnership of the EPA, the Department of Energy, and over 8,000 private and public sector organizations that provide extensive technical information and other resources promoting energy efficiency. Its Portfolio Manager tool is also the premier energy and water tracking mechanism for the health care sector. Its resources include:

The Department of Energy through the Better Buildings Alliance partners with leading health care organizations to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of health care systems throughout the country. By leveraging access to advanced technologies emerging from the national laboratories, the Better Buildings Alliance creates a national forum for industry to share evidence-based technology and market solutions proven to drive energy reductions. Through the Better Buildings Alliance, DOE is providing the resources, tools, and strategies to identify clear pathways to cost and energy savings through efficient and renewable energy technology applications. The following fact sheets offer more detailed information.

IFMA Healthcare Council is a membership organization for facility management professionals. The Health Care Council (HCC) consists of 500 hospital administrators, facility managers, design and construction professional, consultants, vendors, and students serving academic medical centers and community hospitals, retirement facilities, and specialty hospitals and clinics. As a council of IFMA, their goal is to holistically enhance the skills of facility management professionals within the health care industry and to further the profession overall.

Practice Greenhealth is the leading sustainable health care organization, delivering environmental solutions to more than 1,500 hospitals and health systems in the United States and Canada. Partnership opportunities include hospitals, health systems, community health organizations, NGOs, nonprofits, government, academic institutions, and the health care value chain.

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) works with its stakeholders to enable federal agencies to meet energy-related goals, identify affordable solutions, facilitate public-private partnerships, and provide energy leadership to the country by identifying and leveraging government best practices.

It is estimated that the average commercial building wastes up to 30 percent of its energy on any given day. Considering the substantial monetary ramifications of excess energy consumption, this statistic illustrates the essential role that energy management must play in achieving acceptable ROI for commercial building owners.

Facility managers looking for ways to reduce excess energy consumption are tasked with the job of finding where the problems are and addressing those issues through the most cost-effective means available.

Much like your other building systems, lighting systems require consistent routine maintenance to operate at their peak. Compare your current light levels against IES standards to see if there are areas where your light levels can be adjusted for optimal energy savings.

Taking advantage of power-saving modes on printers, fax machines, and computer equipment will help reduce overall energy expenditure. Encourage tenants to turn off non-critical office equipment at the end of the business day.

While it may seem that these steps do little to curb costs, consider this: One copier left on all day and night costs approximately $150 per year in energy costs. Multiply that figure by the number of copiers, printers, computers, and fax machines in all the offices in your building and you can clearly see the costs add up to a significant amount over time.

Once you have an energy management strategy in place, it is essential to measure and monitor its effectiveness. Modern technologies allow for real-time monitoring of system functionality, providing facility managers with up-to-the-minute data regarding the status of all building systems.

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