America is a disposable society According to a Fortune Magazine article in November 2013, American cities are scrambling to deal with the mounting piles of garbage. Alarming statistics support this statement: In 2011, we generated 250 million tons of garbage, nearly double the amount of 1970. The number of landfills over the same period dropped…
Month: November 2013
Are strategies for multifamily energy effciency different than other building types?
What are specific Cost-Effective Energy Savings Measures for Multifamily The approach to selecting energy savings measures is different for multifamily than other building types. Although there are opportunities (depending on the climate zone) to save space-conditioning energy, the shared wall geometry of dwelling units and reduced external surface area in multifamily buildings means that less…
Developing a long term portfolio strategy for investing in energy efficiency
Seven (7) events that trigger energy efficiency upgrades and resulting savings There are many discrete financial and regulatory events that may prompt an owner to upgrade a Multifamily building. However, in general, there are a few specific events in a Multifamily building’s Lifecycle when it is typically more cost effective, convenient and efficient to make savings…
San Francisco Energy Audits – Are you ready?
Learning from History Three major U.S. cities – New York, San Francisco, and Boston – have created energy ordinances that pair benchmarking with energy audits and/or building tune-ups (retro-commissioning) every five to 10 years. We anticipate San Francisco to transition its energy ordinance for Commercial buildings to Multifamily properties in 2014 or 2015. As a result, the…