Resource Site for Corporate Energy, Facility and Sustainability Managers
Harvard economist Robert Stavins recently published a study assessing the impact when US cities require their real estate owners to perform periodic energy analysis on their buildings. As Boston considers passing its own energy benchmarking ordinance, Stavin studied other existing programs and concluded “there is currently no real evidence that these mandatory programs lead to any [...] Read more »
More companies are establishing corporate-wide programs for coordinated energy reduction and improved capital allocation. The execution of these programs is often by lead by a Corporate Energy Manager along with his or her direct and extended team. This role requires new skills and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Look for more companies to staff this position [...] Read more »
In 2012, we’ve seen many changes in the vendor market for energy management and sustainability software. Energy and sustainability leaders need to be aware of these changes as they evaluate vendors in 2013. Here are four notable trends. 1. BMS vendors begin to open up their closed, proprietary building control systems. Led by Johnson Controls, [...] Read more »
Part one discussed the benefits for energy and facility managers of near-real time data for specific energy loads, work areas, or equipment. We reviewed some of the challenges such as time-starved staffs, misplaced internal corporate incentives for energy improvement, and a long ROI for the actual meter installation. Responses We received responses from many of [...] Read more »
The cost savings benefits of interval data for main utility meters and submeters for specific loads (e.g. lighting, refrigeration), work areas (e.g. welding), or equipment (e.g. electric furnace) are well understood by energy and facility managers. Energy data from utility bills are “rear view mirror” snapshots of energy use and typically received 30-60 days after [...] Read more »
This week we released an update to our report to help companies better understand the software market for Enterprise Carbon Accounting and Sustainability software. This is the fifth version of this report and we appreciate all the great feedback over the years. We analyzed 75+ vendors, had 30 vendor briefings and interviewed 26 companies who [...] Read more »
We continue our discussion of Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) software (we’ll return to energy management in mid-October). Many companies have shared with us lessons they learned about selection and implementation. This is especially true for sustainability teams who may be involved with their first implementation of enterprise-wide software involving dozens of internal users. Here are [...] Read more »
Obtaining electronically energy data (mainly usage and price information from electricity and gas utility bills) is a perennial problem for corporations that need a robust corporate program for energy or sustainability management. Data acquisition can represents up to 50% of the overall project costs and causes risk to the project success. This problem is particularly [...] Read more »
Many vendors, such as Assistly, DropBox, JigSaw, LinkedIn, Pivotal Labs, Skype, and hundreds more, use the ‘freemium’ pricing approach. These vendors offer an internet-based software application that is free and designed for widespread adoption. The vendor generates revenue from customers that choose to pay for additional features. This approach provides customers with a way to [...] Read more »
Plug load in corporate office buildings from computers, monitors, printers, coffee machines, vending machines, and other equipment can account for, according to various studies, 20-35% of electricity usage at a corporate office building. While real estate, facility and sustainability teams have projects to improve the efficiency for lighting and HVAC, few have projects that address [...] Read more »
