Discover ENERGY STAR Solutions

Q&A with ENERGY STAR Expert Randy Moss

By Natalie Mahn on Mar 26, 2024 in Energy

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulations evolve, so do the challenges building owners and managers face with data aggregation and reporting. Fortunately, Yardi offers Energy Solutions that provide ongoing access to reliable data, automated workflows and streamlined reporting tools — all of which help alleviate those challenges.

It all starts with our Invoice Processing and ESG Reporting solution, which equips you to streamline disclosures, benchmark properties with ENERGY STAR® and GRESB, ensure data traceability and report on performance improvements. In the Q&A below, we delve further into the ENERGY STAR piece — an integral component — courtesy of Randy Moss, manager of sustainability products at Yardi.

You’ll see how as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for the last six years, Yardi has direct, automated access to import and export data in and out of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. That means you have a holistic view of your ESG data at all times, helping you meet benchmarking and reporting needs, make informed decisions and reduce the risk of errors. To date, nearly 9,000 properties have benchmarked in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager with Yardi, and we’re excited to see more growth in the future. 

Read on to learn all-things ENERGY STAR from Randy, whose impactful work in energy management and sustainability extends over 30 years. In his role at Yardi today, Randy helps clients and internal teams identify how our products can most effectively address specific sustainability needs.

What motivated you to get involved in ENERGY STAR as a Manager at Yardi?

Moss: Our clients were voicing frustration with the process of loading and maintaining data in Portfolio Manager. Since managing data is one of Yardi’s strengths, it made sense to assist clients in this area. In addition to being able to automate much of the data transfer to Portfolio Manager, Yardi’s team excels at confirming data is high quality and up to date.

What is ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager used for?

Moss: Portfolio Manager is now the most used system for Compliance and Green Finance reporting in North America. Literally hundreds of jurisdictions and programs use Portfolio Manager as their system of record for compliance reporting. Loading data into Portfolio Manager permits properties to share the same data with multiple programs. One property we manage today is sending Portfolio Manager data to five different programs. All receive reports based on the same data, eliminating the chance of discrepancies between data being sent to different programs.

The coming wave of Building Performance Standards (BPS) are usually referencing data in Portfolio Manager. This makes the accuracy of data in Portfolio Manager critically important.

What does it mean that Yardi is an ENERGY STAR Partner?

Moss: Yardi has been Partner of the Year for six years in in row and has received the Sustained Excellence Award, which is the highest level of EPA recognition, for three years now. This recognition is reserved for best in class service providers and Yardi is honored to be recognized as a Partner of the Year with Sustained Excellence. This motivates us to continuously seek ways to improve our services so we can provide our clients with the best service available for their ENERGY STAR data. 

How does Yardi help clients comply with local and state regulations?

Moss: New regulations are emerging almost weekly. Every jurisdiction — and there’s about 100 of them we report to — has different reporting requirements and timelines. For building owners and managers, the process of collecting data and reporting annually is painful. With Yardi Energy Solutions, we have a team of analysts who are highly skilled at working with environmental data and utility vendors. We handle capturing the data and putting it into ENERGY STAR, ensuring accurate and on-time reporting to keep your properties in full compliance with the relevant regulations. The Yardi team also tracks emerging regulations and trends in the industry. Building Performance Standards, built on ENERGY STAR data are the newest and most quickly expanding set of regulations. We track these as they are being developed and assist our clients in understanding the associated new reporting challenges, so they are not surprised.

Can you describe how companies can take advantage of automation with Yardi Energy Solutions?

Moss: Our partnership with ENERGY STAR allows us to exchange data between Yardi software and Portfolio Manager using APIs. We offer dashboards that provide very intuitive access to their energy, water, waste and emissions data. So, it’s not somebody sitting over there keying data into a system. We’re doing this using a lot of automation, which eliminates the chance for human error. By automating access to multiple data sources and enabling sharing data with organizations like GRESB and ENERGY STAR, we maximize both the quality and speed of data.

Another area where we see ENERGY STAR growing rapidly is in reporting for green finance mortgages, which provide access to capital on good terms for our clients. Green Finance reporting through Portfolio Manager is usually required and can add additional data collection challenges. Yardi’s team has good understanding of Green Finance reporting and can make these complicated yearly reports easy for our clients. 

What should we know about ENERGY STAR for 2024?

Moss: The use of ENERGY STAR for reporting building information is expanding with new regulations, which are popping up almost all the time. Regulations come in two general forms. First, benchmarking mandates require buildings to disclose data, with fines for failing to make reports in a timely manner. Then, there are building performance standards (BPS), which require buildings to meet certain efficiency goals. If they can’t meet those targets, there are penalties. As these types of regulations multiply and evolve, I predict that we will see even more interest in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is releasing new, more complex, capabilities in the future. Stay tuned to learn more about these new capabilities. 

Learn more and connect with our team

Too see a complete list of 2024 ENERGY STAR award winners, see energy.gov/awardwinners. If you have questions about energy reporting with Yardi or any of the topics covered above, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Through his 30 years of experience, Randy has developed a deep understanding of the ENERGY STAR and GRESB reporting frameworks, and he has led teams in developing and implementing innovative solutions to help clients achieve their sustainability goals. He is also a strong advocate for sustainability education and outreach, and he regularly speaks and writes on the latest trends and best practices in the field.

Randy’s expertise and dedication have been recognized by the industry, and he leads teams who helped Yardi receive numerous awards, including the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award in 2019, 2020, and every year since 2021 for Sustained Excellence. Randy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Statistical Process Controls (Quality Management) from Brenau University.