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A real concern for the modern world is the control of carbon emissions and energy conservation. Learning from past experiences, the indiscriminate overuse and misuse of our natural resources has only led to ecological disaster and economic adversity. Corporate America and individuals, government bodies and other organizations have to come forward to find ways to manage and offset carbon emissions. To monitor the energy that commercial buildings are consuming many cities are using energy benchmarks to limit carbon emissions and seek ways to control the use of carbon fuels to sustainable levels. Cities that are currently using the benchmarking system include New York, Seattle, Austin, Washington D.C. Etc. Human are social and are increasingly becoming urbanized. Large cities are hotbeds of concentrated use of carbonaceous fuels and emissions. City authorities are using energy benchmarks to raise awareness, by motivating and placing the onus of responsibility on citizens to limit wastage and misuse of electricity and other power sources in commercial buildings. The concept of energy benchmarks is to measure the energy performance for a commercial building and then designate a rating to the performance. By making this information public, building owners can be made aware of ways in which they can improve the energy efficiency and reduce costs. Benchmarking can help in curbing costs and improving efficiency in the following ways: - Past Performance – Providing a comparison of past performance with current performance
- Industry Average – Basing the performance against average performance of peer groups
- Best in Class – Benchmarking against the best performance levels in the industry and not average
- Best in Practices – Qualitative comparison with some of the optimum practices in the industry
It is a known fact that the cheap and available fuels are a thing of the past, and that renewable alternative sources are the only solution to our future energy requirements. Renewable sources and capping the usage of carbonaceous fuels, conservation and reduced water wastage are some of the main ways to improve performance and efficiency. The city of New York has passed legislation (the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan) that requires that all buildings with a covered area in excess of 50,000 sq. feet must exercise benchmarking of their energy and water consumption annually in the EPA’s Energy Star Database. The legislation was passed with the aim of reducing the city’s carbon footprint by 5%. Larger buildings in most cities now have to comply with laws and submit energy benchmarks. The data submitted will be used to assess how a particular building is using energy and water in comparison to other buildings of similar size and capacity. If you are looking for full service energy consulting and ways to properly assess and submit energy benchmarks contact Associated Renewable.
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