A Whole Lotta Learning Going On | Torchlight #39 | Nancy Anderson, Ph.D. | The Sallan Foundation

8/3/2019 A Whole Lotta Learning Going On | Torchlight #39 | Nancy Anderson, Ph.D. | The Sallan Foundation

1/4

0

TorchlightA Whole Lotta Learning Going On

By: Nancy E. Anderson, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Sallan Foundatio

Issue: Torchlight #39

Date: December, 2011


2/4

1 2011 The Sallan Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.sallan.org

Torchlight #39

A Whole Lotta Learning Going On

Scrolling through a list of New York City public buildings that are being propelled into the 21st

century with energy audits and efficiency makeovers, I found the monumental art deco Brooklyn

Central Library on Grand Army Plaza. As a high school student, I spent many Saturdays there

combing through the stacks looking for materials on historical subjects and I vividly recall finding

Civil War era documents that crumbled to dust as I turned the pages. Even as a teen-ager, I felt

queasy about having the historical record simply vanish in my hands. Surely, there must be a better

way to make this material available, even to the youngest researcher, without losing it by using it!

While I trust that library standard operating

procedures and technologies now keep

such irreplaceable materials both secure

and accessible, I was thrilled to see that

today this art deco, free-to-all repository of

historical ideas and information is able to

make a new contribution to the 21st

century because its ready for its energy-

efficiency make-over. An audit completed

in 2010 examined energy use in four main

areas of this 350,000 square foot municipal

gem. If all the energy conservation and

retro-commissioning recommendations

made in the audit are adopted, the library

could save $333,000 a year on its energy

bills; thats a savings of 45%. Just think of

all the books and magazines, whether

paper or electronic, $333,000 could buy or preserve.

According to New York Citys first annual Energy Benchmarking Report, 2,730 government

buildings have been studied and rated, using the EPAs Energy Star Portfolio Manager software i By


3/4


Torchlight #39


using a scale of 1-100, Portfolio Manager allows the comparison of energy performance in similar

kinds of buildings. According to the report, The City uses benchmark scores and other data to

prioritize energy audits, retrofits, improved operations and maintenance, and retro-commissioning

activities.

Take libraries. There are 108 libraries in the New York Public Library system, which together

consume 2% of the Citys overall energy use. But when it comes to comparing this system with

libraries around the US, these 108 really shine, with an energy use index thats 22% better than the

national average. Only the Citys outpatient health care facilities do better. At the other end of the

scale, New Yorks places of public assembly and food sales rank nearly 80% worse than their

counterparts elsewhere. And when it comes to the biggest energy users, Gothams fourteen sewage

treatment plants, nothing at all can be said because Portfolio Manager cant be used to calculate

energy use in these industrial facilities. A complete priority list for energy audits, retrofits,

operational improvements and retro-commissioning has not yet been established, but to date, the

City has planned or has completed several individual projects.ii

Lets stand back from the details to consider the bigger Benchmarking picture. The Citys

Benchmarking Law part of its Greener Greater Building Plan offers the opportunity to

collect and organize data that is useful for taking action and changing behavior when it comes to

making energy-related decisions about real estate, an urban asset that can never move offshore.

What kinds of decisions? Things like where you would prefer to live or work, rent or buy. Other

things like determining the value of greener building renovations or training building operators to

maximize the energy efficiency of the equipment on hand. And, I predict, decisions by banks and

other financial institution about mortgages and loans. With comparative building benchmarking data

on hand, it will be easy to see whos burning money and whos offering a better value.

Of course, New York and other cities that benchmark are just learning the intricacies of how to do it

right. First efforts can be replete with dirty, incomplete or inaccurate data. First efforts must

grapple with software like the Energy Star Portfolio Manager, which never envisioned being

mobilized to assess the array of building types and functions typical of big cities or the quirks of


4/4


Torchlight #39


local electric metering practices. Looking ahead, the gold standard of next-generation

benchmarking software and metrics should be to create models that are predictive, but were not

there yet. But todays baby-steps and challenges are only the beginning and New York Citys first

annual Benchmarking report is a great place to start.

Soon, Benchmarking reports will include data coming from its larger commercial and then, larger

residential buildings. New York Citys Benchmarking law is the latest addition to the great

American tradition of sunshine and right-to-know laws. In this tradition, the expectation of public

access to building performance data and the ability to make efficiency comparisons among

buildings are more powerful behavior changers than building inspectors citations. Just like the

promise of our libraries, there is so much to be learned.

Nancy Anderson is the Executive Director of The Sallan Foundation.

i To calculate ratings, Portfolio Manager uses information on electricity, natural gas, steam, and fuel oil

consumption and adjusts for other factors, including building type, gross square footage, year of construction,

weather, and operational data like operating hours and number of staff. Buildings that are not eligible for

benchmarking scores still receive useful tracking information such as Energy Utilization Index (EUI), or

energy use intensity, and GHG emissions figures.

ii Just to be clear, benchmarking is a standardized way to take a "snapshot" in time of building energy use that

make building-to-building and over-time comparisons possible. Auditing and retrofitting buildings are not yet

standardized procedures and, as with retro-commissioning, are designed and carried out on a property-by-

property basis.

Documents

A Whole Lotta Learning Going On | Torchlight #39 | Nancy Anderson, Ph.D. | The Sallan Foundation