Retail Rewards

Macerich + Pulse

By Joel Nelson on Jul 24, 2019 in Energy, News

The sustainability framework that leading retail property owner, operator and developer Macerich operates under calls for eliminating energy waste and nearly eliminating emissions, water waste and landfill impact.

Evidence of Macerich’s success in translating these “Innovating to Zero” principles into best practices includes a No. 1 GRESB Benchmark ranking for four years running among North American retailers and a Top 30 onsite generation designation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based S&P 500 company has generated 16 megawatts of grid relief and saved more than 300,000 KwH annually with solar panel installations and LED retrofits. It’s the only U.S. retail real estate company to earn the highest “Climate A List” ranking from CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), the world’s most comprehensive collection of self-reported environmental data.

Another accolade came in the form of a Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation (“Digie”) Award in the Most Intelligent Building Project category that Macerich received at the Realcomm ׀ IBCon conferences in June.

Macerich recently marked another notable milestone: the 10-year anniversary of a multifaceted energy management sustainability program that has reduced the company’s environmental impacts while squeezing every ounce of efficiency from its operations.

The company’s plan called for using advanced energy management software to combine internet of things data with additional logic and analytics functionality. The goal was to turn disparate charts, graphs and reports into coherent, actionable intelligence for operations teams and managers across 51 million square feet of real estate in 15 U.S. states.

The software central to achieving that vision, the Yardi Pulse Suite, integrated Macerich’s central energy management systems with utility billing, energy data collection and the Yardi Voyager property management and accounting system. The suite enables connection, analysis and display of building information from Macerich’s portfolio on a single connected system. Its functionality also includes fault detection and diagnostics, HVAC optimization, load shape analysis, auto-generated work orders and property baselining.

Operational and financial data leveraged by the Yardi Pulse Suite helped Macerich reduce and sustain energy use and costs at its centers by 5% to 12%.

In 2018, Macerich sought to enhance its energy intelligence with full visibility into demand and consumption. That came from Yardi Utility Expense Management, an element of the Yardi Pulse Suite that collects, tracks and completes payments for utility invoices and also collects valuable energy data for benchmarking.

Macerich can compare electricity demand with consumption metered by its utility provider with powerful dashboards that illustrate usage, savings and spikes between different time periods and across the portfolio. Macerich also receives regular recommendations and alerts that provide prescriptive actions for reducing demand and costs.

“The integrated approach that we’ve taken with Yardi Pulse lets us increase our energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions. We’re pleased that Yardi has helped us propel our energy management operations into the next generation of cost and consumption savings,” said Ryan Knudson, Macerich’s assistant vice president of operations & energy management.

Learn more about sustainability initiatives from Macerich that help set the standard for the retail real estate industry.