From the Editor
Let’s be honest, you’re probably about ready to throw an energy meter through the window the next time you hear someone impart upon you this nugget of wisdom: “You can’t manage, what you don’t measure.”  Facility managers know this. It’s practically the Golden Rule of energy and water management.

But knowing how your buildings are performing in terms of water and energy use is possible only if you have a basis of comparison — whether with your own historical data or that of other similar building types. And so the second Golden Rule of energy and water management is to benchmark. Constantly.

Expert facility managers understand data is valuable. That fact helps explain the allure and widespread adoption of the Energy Star for Buildings program. And now, the U.S. Green Building Council has announced (see In The News below) it is expanding its Building Performance Partnership (BPP) to existing buildings that already have achieved LEED certification.

When it began last summer, the BPP basically was an agreement between project teams registering new LEED projects — whether New Construction, Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance, Core and Shell, etc. — and USGBC that the project teams would report at least five years of energy and water data. The idea was to build a research project into the LEED rating system itself so USGBC could tell how well LEED buildings were performing and whether they were performing at least as well as they were modeled to perform.

Now, facility managers who work in facilities that had been LEED certified at any point in the past can voluntarily take part in the BPP. Those who do will receive the full compendium of USGBC’s data each year — data that compares performance at the same level as certification, as well as data about modeled vs. actual energy performance.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you already have a LEED certification, is participating in the BPP attractive? Is the availability of BPP data a carrot for pursuing LEED certification in the first place?

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

Green Strategies
Energy Upgrades: Take Money To Make Money

In the News
USGBC Opens Building Performance Partnership to Existing LEED-Certified Buildings
Building owners and facility managers with existing LEED certifications can now take part voluntarily in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Building Performance Partnership. Participants will receive yearly data from other participants, specifically focusing on modeled vs. performance data.

Green Multimedia
Sustainability: Facility Managers’ Roles in the Triple Bottom Line
Watch Larry Morgan, senior facilities manager for SAP America, explains how sustainability fits into the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit, and how and why facility managers are becoming more engaged in the triple bottom line. 

GreenTech Conference & Exposition

Managing and Controlling Your Energy Costs