The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires commercial and multifamily building owners to improve performance in energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water use among other aspects of building operations. With compliance deadlines approaching, several jurisdictions are stepping up their energy benchmarking efforts. Indianapolis, Miami and New Jersey, for example, have deadlines this year. Deadlines for New York City, St. Louis and Denver come in 2024, with Washington, D.C., Boston and others to follow over the next two years. That’s why the EPA has been working to raise awareness of the importance of aggregated whole building data and ways that states and utility providers can provide it to property owners. This data delivers visibility into energy consumption and helps create a roadmap for instituting ongoing operational improvements. “Demand for this data will grow as building owners seek new federal incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act that require documentation of whole-building performance as a condition of participation,” the EPA says. EPA has also advised states on passing laws that can overcome barriers utilities face in providing data. Such laws can create a path to cover costs associated with providing the data and define requirements to protect individual tenant data. The EPA will launch a full-fledged campaign over the coming months, in partnership with key building owner associations, to raise awareness of the need for this data among state policymakers and utilities. How Yardi can help What is Yardi’s connection to property owners satisfying these EPA requirements? The company’s advanced software and service solutions “simplify the aggregation of whole building data collection and reporting for environmental, social and governance purposes. The first step is gathering data from multiple sources and identifying efficient and inefficient buildings,” says Joe Consolo, industry principal for Yardi Energy. He adds, “Tracking an asset’s performance over time is also critically important. Having received an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award and earned ongoing ENERGY STAR certification for our corporate headquarters, Yardi has the expertise to work with utilities and our client building owners, tenants and residents on these priorities.” Learn more about Yardi’s comprehensive energy management solutions for energy management solutions for residential and commercial...
Earth Day Options
Protecting the Planet
Let’s go green! Earth Day is April 22. Earth Day is celebrated with over a billion people worldwide, promoting a clean, green environment. Companies that have developed robust Environmental Social Governance (ESG) standards are seeing better profitability, stronger financial performance, and happier employees. Yardi was recently awarded the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy for the fifth year. Earth Day is important to us at our offices worldwide, as it is for our clients and their communities. No time is more vital than the present to act and invest in our planet. Here are some ideas to mark Earth Day at your properties and be good guardians of the environment. Host a “lights out” event for your community. Host a happy hour in the clubroom for an hour and encourage residents to turn off their electronics inside their units. Have organic paper-made utensils and plates. Serve up some organic cupcakes, green juices, and organic coffee. Clean-up event at a local park. Host a trash pick-up day if you are close to a park or recreation center. Residents can come out and help clean up the park free of cans, plastics, or any other trash that is on site. Be sure to provide supplies residents need, such as trash bags and gloves. Then, take it a step further and plant a tree with residents. Plant a tree or some flowers around the property. Native plants are the best option for local bees to pollinate. Plants serve as mood boosters and increase productivity and creativity. Your green efforts will give you leverage over the competition to retain or attract new residents. Explore the outdoors. This saves on indoor gym...
Energy Honors
Yardi Again Recognized by EPA
Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy efficiency achievements. As a Service and Product Provider, Yardi is honored to receive the 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award from the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy after being named Partner of the Year for four consecutive years. The award celebrates companies that offer energy services and products in the commercial, institutional or industrial markets for successfully assisting their clients in strategic energy management and building design. Highest EPA Accolade The Sustained Excellence award is the highest honor bestowed by the ENERGY STAR program. Its winners have made a long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency. They are among the nation’s leaders in driving value for the environment, the economy and the American people. Partner of the Year winners are not only promoters of ENERGY STAR, but also are especially adept at operating within the programs and work with ENERGY STAR to make ongoing improvements. The award acknowledges Yardi’s efforts to educate and support clients with benchmarking services and technology solutions across a variety of real estate sectors. Energy wins According to the EPA, in 2020 alone, more than 270,000 commercial properties used EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® tool to measure and track their energy use, water use, and/or waste and materials. These buildings comprise more than 25 billion square feet of floorspace more than a quarter of all the commercial floorspace in the nation. In 2021, Yardi helped more than 200 clients benchmark energy in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager for over 5,000 buildings, a 42 percent increase from the previous year. Yardi helped clients benchmark water in over 4,000 buildings, a 33 percent increase from 2020. In addition, Yardi actively promotes ENERGY STAR benefits, publishing 70 articles and providing resources for benchmarking energy performance and energy management such as webinars, client conferences courses, executive briefings sessions and other activities. “We’re so proud to receive this top honor from the EPA for the fourth consecutive year, and we again applaud our clients’ success. We look forward to continuing to help our clients and the real estate industry reap the benefits of using ENERGY STAR to meet their business and sustainability goals,” said Akshai Rao, vice president at Yardi. Learn more Find out how Yardi empowers real estate companies to meet energy and sustainability goals. See the complete list of 2022 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award...
Energy Distinction
Yardi Awarded EPA Honor
Yardi has long been proud to provide energy-related technical services to clients with the aim of improving efficiency, lowering costs and meeting sustainability benchmarks. The company gained a measure of its impact this month in the form of an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award in the service and product provider category. The award signifies that Yardi demonstrates exemplary leadership, innovation and commitment to environmental protection by instituting ENERGY STAR values, tools and resources within the industry, and its own operations. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped American families and businesses save more than $450 billion and over 3.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity while also achieving broad emissions reductions. The EPA co-manages ENERGY STAR, a voluntary program that helps consumers and businesses save money and protect the environment through the adoption of energy-efficient products and practices. Past ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award recipients include familiar companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Northwestern University and HP Inc. “This award reflects our clients’ success in using ENERGY STAR resources to achieve their corporate and community sustainability goals. We are proud of those achievements and look forward to helping our clients and the industry gain even more benefits from ENERGY STAR,” said Anant Yardi, founder and president of Yardi. “Energy efficiency is a core component of our mission as a real estate technology provider. We thank the EPA for this high honor and will continue applying technical innovation to current and emerging industry challenges,” said Akshai Rao, vice president of energy and procurement at Yardi. Yardi’s ENERGY STAR-related initiatives in 2018 that the EPA evaluated included: Benchmarking more than a thousand buildings in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® in 27 compliance jurisdictions every month. Yardi also benchmarked other properties in non-compliance areas for other programs Documenting its real estate clients’ success in using energy optimization software to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. One example is SL Green, New York City’s largest office landlord, which used intelligent energy optimization software from Yardi to increase the ENERGY STAR score for one of its properties from 48 to 76. SL Green also won the 2018 Earth Building of the Year Award from BOMA NY Sponsoring the BOMA Water and Waste Challenge Program, which helps property managers track, gather and analyze data. Yardi solutions supported W2 participants by automating data capture and generating insightful reports. One client, Kilroy Realty Corporation, reduced water use at a Class A building by 30% Promoting ENERGY STAR value propositions like higher occupancy and rent, increased asset values, actionable benchmarking information and favorable impressions among investors. The company did this through webinars, industry trade shows and publications, client user conferences, executive briefings, corporate blog posts and other activities Earning ENERGY STAR certification for its corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif. Working with EPA to improve ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software functionality in such areas as building energy performance measurement and reporting Yardi will receive the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April...
Tenant Power
Awards for Smart Energy Use
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program has helped business owners and individuals save money and protect the environment through energy efficiency since 1992. Now there’s a new dimension to the program. In the fall of 2017, EPA launched the ENERGY STAR Tenant Space pilot program to promote energy efficiency in commercial tenant spaces. EPA recently recognized 48 office tenants that demonstrated commitment to energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. The award recipients met five energy efficiency criteria during the 10-month Tenant Space pilot program: estimate energy use, meter energy use, light efficiently, use efficient equipment and share data. Recipients of 2018 ENERGY STAR Charter Tenant Space Awards include Forest City Realty Trust Inc., Kilroy Realty Corp., LinkedIn and Shorenstein Realty Services LP. Some organizations, such as Cushman & Wakefield, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, JLL and JPMorgan Chase, earned recognition for multiple locations. “Adhering to sustainable best practices not only enhances our bottom line, but it also highlights our broader efforts to consistently act as a responsible corporate citizen,” Jason Kern, CEO for LaSalle Americas, said in a statement in June following the designation of LaSalle’s corporate headquarters in Chicago as a Charter Tenant Space Award recipient. Along with verifying its electricity meters, LaSalle estimated the office’s energy consumption using an online tool developed by EPA with analytical support from the U.S. Department of Energy. The company documented its nearly 100% LED lighting fixtures, daylighting/occupancy sensors and nearly 100% ENERGY STAR certified equipment and appliances. LaSalle also established an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account to measure energy and water consumption. The voluntary Tenant Space program was created by the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015, which encourages owners and tenants to implement high-performance energy efficiency measures in commercial buildings. EPA continues to analyze the...
Score Alert
New ENERGY STAR Metrics
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® score gives building owners a snapshot of their property’s energy performance by comparing it to a database of similar buildings. Performance metrics in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®, an online tool for tracking energy and water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, changed on Aug. 26 to reflect the most recent market data available. This update is part of EPA’s standard process to “keep ENERGY STAR metrics as current as possible, and reflective of current market performance,” the agency says. The revised ENERGY STAR criteria incorporate the most recent Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), which constitutes the baseline against which owners compare their buildings to earn certification. In short, the change is an effort to make sure that the “similar building” comparisons for performance are as accurate as possible. EPA continues, “The most recent market data available shows an overall improvement in the energy performance of the U.S. building stock in recent years. So when Portfolio Manager metrics are updated on August 26, ENERGY STAR scores and other performance metrics will, on average, go down.” The new calculations “will be applied across all time periods, which means scores and metrics for all historical benchmarking data will change. By applying this update across all time periods, you’ll continue to be able to analyze changes that are a result of your own activities, rather than changes in underlying market data.” “The change is significant for buildings pursuing LEED or Green Globes certification, for buildings with GSA or other government space leases tied to an ENERGY STAR score of 75, for buildings in cities with mandatory benchmarking, and for the more than 450,000 commercial properties that have an ENERGY STAR score,” says Baltimore environmental attorney Stuart Kaplow, publisher of a green...
Benchmarking Bonus
NAA Return on Energy
Currently, over 45% of the US commercial building market uses the ENERGY STAR®, the US EPA’s voluntary certification program designed to measure energy efficiency and improve resource management. At the heart of ENERGY STAR® lies the ability to track energy usage data to reduce energy consumption and improve building performance. “It all starts with taking a look at what you have and seeing what [information] you’re tracking and what data is available,” Craig Haglund, Program Manager, for the US EPA’s ENERGY STAR program, said in the National Apartment Association’s recent webinar, Financial Success with Energy Benchmarking. With comprehensive data collection and analytics capabilities, US EPA’s Portfolio Manager works in concert with ENERGY STAR for complete resource management oversight. “They say ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure,’ which is 100% true,” Haglund continued, “but that misses what you can do with all that data.” Whole Building Consumption For building owners and managers interested in tracking their energy, water and waste metrics, ENERGY STAR provides an easy, comprehensive management tool: Portfolio Manager. With Portfolio Manager, building data can be tracked and analyzed. Users can create customized reports and monitor changes in energy, water, greenhouse gas emissions and more. “Portfolio Manager literally includes hundreds of measurement metrics,” explained Haglund. “Standardized reports can help users assess portfolio performance and share that information or integrate it into other presentations.” Those measurement metrics can be applied to any sized property portfolio, from one building to, in the case of East Coast real estate services firm Bozzuto Management, 63,000 units spread out over 220 communities and representing 2.1 million square feet of mixed-use development. “We have been using Portfolio Manager since 2012,” said Bozzuto’s Director of Sustainability, Peter Zadoretzky. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve gone from a messy,...
