Blog

It may not feel like it here in Kansas City, but summer is right around the corner. For businesses looking to save on utility costs, that means implementing strategies for cooling commercial buildings. It seems that commercial buildings are more susceptible to higher energy use. This is because offices and commercial buildings have high indoor […]

As data increases and businesses are taking a proactive approach to energy savings, there's a growing opportunity to capture it with application software. Apps are a great way to monitor and make use of this data for consumers and professionals. The growth of apps in sustainability is all about data. "Energy, water, waste, toxics, carbon – […]

The U.S. Department of Energy Technical Assistance Program (TAP) recently released an 11-step outline for public sector organizations to use in developing an energy benchmarking plan. Benchmarking is comparing a metered building's current energy performance with its energy baseline. It can help building managers compare performance over time or between similar types of buildings or to […]

Office Depot is reducing their energy use by making numerous energy efficiency investments, including a lighting retrofit project. The company is de-lamping one out of every three bulbs in tens of thousands of fixtures across more than 1,000 stores, and adding reflectors to the remaining two bulbs to maintain light output. The $8 million project […]

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is getting ready to open the doors to the world's most energy efficient high-performance computing (HPC) data center. The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) will require as much as one megawatt of electrical power to run, and is the first data center "dedicated solely to […]

It's often overlooked, but proper lighting maintenance is a large part of reducing utility bills, especially for businesses where lighting accounts for an estimated 20 percent of the total energy used in commercial buildings. More often than not, many businesses do not have a detailed lighting maintenance policy other than replacing burned-out bulbs. Poor lighting […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of U.S. cities with the most Energy Star certified buildings in 2012. The news highlights how owners and managers of commercial buildings across the country are taking action on climate change while delivering real financial savings to their business bottom line. Last year, there were more […]

The World Green Building Council recently released “The Business Case for Green Building” a report that reviews the costs and benefits for developers, investors, and occupants. The report highlights the “large number of compelling benefits from green buildings received by different stakeholders throughout the life cycle of the building.” Attaching a financial value to the cost and […]

The dramatic increase in spending on energy efficiency programs is likely to reach $9.5 billion. A recent study from the Institute of the Edison Foundation analyzes the impact of efficiency program spending on the electricity sector. From 2006 to 2010, spending on efficiency programs doubled in the U.S. as more states developed policies promoting efficiency. […]