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November 2010
Interview
AutomatedBuildings.com
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EMAIL INTERVIEW -
Brian Dawson & Ken Sinclair
Brian Dawson, Chairman and CEO of Calico
Energy
Dawson’s company Calico Energy is
encouraging ENERGY STAR participation across the nation by helping utility providers extend automated
ENERGY STAR programs to building managers. Calico’s award-winning Green
Certification™ software facilitates the submission of building-wide energy
usage data, radically simplifying the process of organizing and sharing energy
data by serving as an automated bridge between existing back-end utility data
systems and the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Green Certification helps building
managers take full advantage of ENERGY STAR to examine and compare their
buildings’ usage history. Using this information, building managers are
empowered to develop new energy-saving strategies and measure their effect.
Calico is an ENERGY STAR partner.
ENERGY STAR
Obtaining ENERGY STAR certification has been
shown to translate into a three percent premium in rental value and a sixteen
percent increase in sale price for commercial buildings
Sinclair: What are the main benefits of enrolling in
ENERGY STAR?
Dawson: ENERGY
STAR participation gives building managers and facility owners the tools and
information they need to pinpoint where they can reduce their energy
consumption to meet government regulations, save costs and reduce their impact
on the environment. By recording, reviewing and acting upon energy consumption
behaviors, an organization shows its dedication to helping fight global warming.
Furthermore,
building managers can quantify the impact of operational improvements and increase
their property value. For example, obtaining ENERGY STAR certification has been
shown to translate into a three percent premium in rental value and a sixteen
percent increase in sale price for commercial buildings (source: Doing Well By
Doing Good, Green Office Buildings, September 2009). Bottom line, the ENERGY
STAR label is synonymous with a lower cost of operation.
Sinclair: How much time will I need to invest weekly when
participating in ENERGY STAR?
Dawson: There
are two common approaches to participating in ENERGY STAR– manual tracking and
data entry, which can be time consuming, and Automated programs. Automated programs
require a short time investment of about 15 minutes per month with very fast
set up (see how CommonWealth Edison has deployed an automated program for the
building managers in its service area here: Putting
ENERGY STAR Certification Within Reach of Commercial Buildings
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Sinclair: What types of actions can be taken by reviewing
information calculated/provided/organized by ENERGY STAR?
Dawson: ENERGY
STAR provides building managers with a clear view into their energy usage
trends and behaviors. Using this information, building managers can take
concerted steps to bring energy consumption within their target goals. For
example, if a building manager determines energy costs don’t dip significantly
overnight when tenants are not populating certain office space, they can design,
roll out and begin enforcing power down policies where occupants power down
systems that don’t need to be left on. ENERGY STAR even provides all the
reporting building managers need to track the effectiveness and impact of these
types of initiatives.
Sinclair: How can information collected in ENERGY STAR
help me work toward meeting other regulations?
Dawson: Since ENERGY STAR has become so successful, it
is now being incorporated as the standard yard stick by which buildings are
measured for demanding standards such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) 2009. ENERGY STAR records can even be shared across with LEEDs,
saving time and resources (two birds, one stone!).
A full list of regulations that ENERGY STAR
helps utilities and building managers meet can be found here: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/government/State_Local_Govts_Leveraging_ES.pdf
Sinclair: How can I ensure my tenants' privacy is
protected when participating in ENERGY STAR?
Dawson: Some automated ENERGY STAR programs utilize
enterprise-class data security systems and data aggregation to ensure all
customer records are safe. This approach eliminates privacy concerns and
permission requirements by aggregating individual customer data and making it
anonymous. Building managers can then have total confidence in the calculation,
storage and transmission of their information.
Privacy and security protocols vary across
utility providers; building managers should ask their utility for more
information.
For more information about ENERGY STAR for buildings, please visit:
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