Have You Seen These Signs On Our Buildings?
Every unit of energy we consume has a consequence. In order to appreciate our impact on the use of natural resources, we measure energy use on an individual tenant basis, on a building-by-building basis, and on a portfolio basis. That’s the only way we know how much energy we are consuming annually, and then we can set goals to try and reduce the annual consumption through more efficient operations.
The sign on the building shows the raw data of pure kilowatts being drawn from the grid. That’s the screen that says “Current Draw – XX kW”. This is the total demand the whole building is drawing from the electrical grid.
The second screen shows the total number of kilowatt hours consumed in the most recent 12 months, and is updated monthly. It combines the kilowatt demand and the time over which each kilowatt of electricity is drawn and provides the kilowatt hours. Total that up on a monthly basis for 12 months, and you get your annual use. Divide it by the square footage of your premises, and you get the generally recognized measurement for the commercial real estate industry of X kilowatt hours, per square foot, per annum.
Having collected annual data from each of our tenants, we can now issue scorecards that show them their annual use for the most recent year, compared with the first year we started measuring (the baseline year). A typical scorecard looks something like this:
In order to make the score a good one, we have designed efficiency into our buildings. Insulated foundations and footings, energy efficient lighting with motion sensors, daylight-harvesting skylights and windows, computer-controlled heating and air conditioning are all part of the standard package.
Give us a call or email us if you’d like to find out more about our buildings. We’d be happy to hear from you.
And, the most immediate consequence of scorecards and efficient buildings is that each tenant gets the support and information they need to help lower the cost of their energy bills.