Evidence of climate change is all around us – for example, the amount of Americans with asthma has more than doubled in the past three decades, and rates are alarmingly high among lower-income people, who are more likely to live near a power plant. It’s no wonder that people are getting sicker when, as a country, we emit more than 5.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year. As of August 2015, the Obama administration released a proposal to tackle this tremendous issue in the form of the Clean Power Plan (CPP).  The plan sets the country’s first-ever national standards limiting carbon pollution from power plants, which were previously unregulated. The CPP aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent by 2030 by establishing standards, but allowing individual states the flexibility to choose how this should be accomplished. With such a daunting goal, it can be confusing to know where to start when considering alternative energy for your properties. We caught up with Jennifer Burke, an energy consultant at Yardi subsidiary MCEnergy, to find out what this new plan means for the commercial real estate industry. How will the CPP affect commercial real estate? JB: The CPP is intended to reduce carbon emissions by 32 percent for U.S. power plants – below 2005 levels.  Coal fired power plants are the greatest emitters of carbon.  Therefore, the CPP will have the greatest impact to electricity pricing in geographic areas where coal is more dominant in the generation of electricity.  The PJM ISO, the largest Independent System Operator (ISO) in the U.S., which encompasses 13 states in the mid-Atlantic region, has a relatively high concentration of coal fired power plants and will be impacted the most.  As more coal plants are retired, there may...

Energy management software from Yardi® promotes efficiency and savings following the company’s acquisition of energy services provider MCEnergy Inc. Energy management services from MCEnergy include contract negotiations with leading electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and green energy suppliers to provide reliable energy at competitive prices. Turnkey submetering solutions and energy and environmental tracking software give property managers access to energy, environmental and sustainability data and information. MCEnergy’s product offerings complement existing Yardi solutions for utility billing, energy management, submeter data administration and intelligent HVAC energy optimization software. “MCEnergy has been providing market insights and energy management services to Class A commercial and industrial clients for nearly 20 years. Teaming with Yardi is a great opportunity to strengthen and extend our offerings on a national level and provide these services to the residential as well as commercial real estate communities. We are thrilled to join Yardi,” said Margaret M. Carey, president of MCEnergy. “Yardi continues to focus on advancing our clients’ energy-related objectives by providing options to actively manage consumption, cut costs and support environmental initiatives within a single full-business software platform. Acquiring MCEnergy is the latest step toward that goal, and we look forward to welcoming their energy, real estate and software expertise to Yardi,” said Gordon Morrell, executive vice president of Yardi. About MCEnergy Inc. MCEnergy, based in Valhalla, N.Y., is a world-class energy information and procurement company. MCEnergy helps clients secure energy at competitive prices, meter and track energy usage, calculate carbon footprints, institute green initiatives, manage data exporting for clients participating in the EPA EnergyStar Program and maximize recovery of utility revenue. The company advises hundreds of companies, from Fortune 500 to medium and small energy users. In 2005, MCEnergy was awarded the Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) certification by New York...