I once attended a conference with a team member. At the lunch break, she turned to me
and said, “You are really good at doing things, and really bad at sharing what you have
done.” She was not wrong. I prefer to do the thing rather than to talk about the thing. Since
then, I have tried to be better at sharing, which is part of what led me to write for Yield Pro.
Last week I was a panelist on the “Energy Management: The Business of Smart Efficiency”
at The Smart Spaces Conference in Dallas. The panel was moderated by Daniel Holcomb, a
senior analyst in smart home research at Parks Associates. The speakers included Mauro
Dresti of Carlo Gavazzi, Jason Powers of ADS-TEC Energy, Marcus Scheiber of ROCIQ and
me. Topics covered included monetizing energy efficiency through tenant-facing programs,
the role of AI and automation in demand response, and how ESG initiatives affect property
valuation and investment strategy. The panel also discussed specific questions related to
monetizing energy programs such as procurement, community solar and demand
response.
What struck me most about the discussion was the focus on resident engagement. Some
of the largest property management companies have reported that anywhere between 60
and 85 percent of the energy used in a multifamily building is resident in-unit consumption.
This is a significant statistic for those communities in Building Performance Standard
jurisdictions (there are fifteen) which require that energy performance targets be met.
While, as an industry, where we have primarily focused our energy efficiency upgrades on
our common area components that are paid for by owners, we are now turning our
attention towards efficiency and the reduction of energy consumption within the units.
Additionally, our turnover rate per year is declining as our focus shifts into resident
retention as a revenue strategy. How do we keep our residents? Energy efficiency is a new
topic in those strategy conversations.
Personally, I could not be more excited about the conversation. When I started in this
industry almost twenty years ago, resident in-unit cost and consumption was not a topic
for concern as those expenses were not germane to the performance of a property. Now we
are talking about energy in the building in a new way which, from my perspective, can lead
to new opportunities for residents and managers economically, in manager-resident
relationships and in resident retention.
Whereas in my career, I have always been very good at doing things but mediocre about
talking about them, I want to set an intention with you now: let’s talk regularly about
resident energy consumption, and the benefits of focusing on it.