Enigin Update - U.S. DoE in Partnership to Expand Commercial Building Energy Efficiency
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a partnership with The Appraisal Foundation as part of the administrations target to improve commercial building energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020.
The partnership aims to expand access to energy efficiency and building performance information for commercial buildings and help American businesses to reduce energy waste.
Under the new partnership, the Department of Energy (DOE) and The Appraisal Foundation will work to ensure that appraisers nationwide have the information, practical guidelines, and professional resources they need to evaluate energy performance when conducting commercial building appraisals. This will help enable investors, building owners and operators, and others to accurately assess the value of energy efficiency as part of the building's overall appraisal.
"Providing appraisers with the tools to accurately include energy performance when they place a value on a commercial building will help American businesses and institutions save money by saving energy," said Secretary Chu. "If better performing buildings have a higher value, it will help enable the upfront investment for energy efficiency upgrades."
"This type of public-private partnership is critical to help advance energy efficiency, save companies money and create good paying jobs," said Penny Pritzker, chairman and CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, and a member of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. "The greener we can make commercial properties, the more we increase their value and the more people we put to work."
Last year, commercial buildings accounted for about 20 percent of all the energy used in the U.S. America's commercial buildings can be more energy efficient, which saves money for businesses and helps to make them more competitive.
The partnership will help to make sure that the market is equipped with the information it needs to ensure that the utility bill savings that come with building efficiency improvements are appropriately factored into the building's overall value.
In conjunction with The Appraisal Foundation, the DOE will develop information and educational tools relating to valuing green buildings based on the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice - the generally accepted standards for U.S. building appraisers. These tools and resources will help appraisers appropriately include energy performance and sustainability in valuations.
Under the partnership, the Department of Energy will also develop educational materials, and create a database to provide appraisers with energy-savings data, Federal green building programs and policies, and additional information on energy performance.
This partnership is one of the steps the DOE is taking as part of the part of President Obama's Better Buildings Initiative announced in February. The goal is to make commercial buildings more efficient, saving American businesses about $40 billion annually. The Initiative will accelerate private sector investment in energy efficiency to create jobs and build a stronger economy.
Strategies include challenging CEOs, University Presidents, and local governments to make their organisations leaders in saving energy; the Better Buildings Community Upgrade Program which has enabled more than 40 state and local governments to develop replicable business models that encourage innovation and investment in a sustainable energy efficiency industry; and better financing, workforce development, and state and local policies.
Enigin Distributors have exclusive access to cutting edge technology from Enigin that monitors and enables management of energy use in real-time, allied with further energy management solutions that intelligently controls various systems, from motors through to lighting.
Enigin plc's Eniscope will also provide detailed information and data of real-time energy use and analytical, historical energy use data.
Picture of DoE Building by Cliff1066
