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The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International is a 100-year-old global membership group. It is a primary source of information on office building development, leasing, building operating costs, energy consumption patterns, local and national building codes, legislation, occupancy statistics and technological developments.The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International believes that reducing energy consumption and taking other steps to "green" existing buildings helps drive return on investment, keeps properties competitive with new construction and benefits tenants and the environment.
Consider these statistics: The commercial office building industry spends approximately $24 billion annually on energy and contributes 18% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Energy represents the single largest operating expense for office buildings, typically a third of variable expenses. If only 2000 buildings adopt BOMA's Energy Efficiency Program's no- and low-cost best practices over the next three years, energy consumption and carbon emissions will be reduced by 10%, which will result in $400 million in energy savings and 6.6 billion pounds less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
Here are 10 tips from that program to get you started:
1. Inspect Equipment Regularly
• Regularly inspect all equipment and controls to ensure they are functioning as designed.
• Double-check Energy Management System (EMS) programming to make sure that operations are optimized. One firm corrected an EMS software programming error from "And" to "Or" and saved $3700 annually.
2. Consider Your Cleaning Options
• Team Cleaning. Have janitors go through the building as a team floor by floor, turn the lighting on or off as they progress through the building.
• Occupancy Sensors. Install motion sensors that will turn lights on when janitors are cleaning and automatically turn them off when the floor is vacant.
• Coordinate. Have janitors coordinate with the security crew to walk through the building and turn off equipment that was inadvertently left on by tenants.
• Day Cleaning. Why not have the janitors clean during the day while the lights are already on?
3. Encourage Tenants to Turn Off Equipment
• During off hours, make sure to power down everything -- such as copiers, kitchen equipment and task lights. Use cleaning/security personnel to turn off miscellaneous items such as coffee pots, and individual office lights.
4. Use High Efficiency LED Exit Signs
• Replace inefficient exits signs with high efficiency light-emitting diode exit signs. LED exit signs operate 24/7 and have lower maintenance costs due to their extended life.
5. Institute an Energy Awareness Program
• Create promotional items, post posters, write news releases -- tell everyone about your commitment to energy savings. Use your company newsletter and company/building announcements to keep tenants informed about your energy saving goals and how they can both help and benefit.
6. Install Power Management Software for Monitors
• In U.S. companies alone, more than $1 billion a year is wasted on electricity for computer monitors that are left on when they shouldn't be. Avoid that waste by installing power management software for computer monitors and CPU/hard drives.
7. Change Incandescents to CFL
• Compact fluorescent lights use less energy, have a longer lamp life and produce less heat, thereby reducing heat load. Also, check the lighting in restrooms, closets, server rooms and some common areas. Thanks to the 2005 energy bill, lighting retrofits and upgrades that meet energy efficiency requirements may be tax deductible, up to $0.60 per square foot.
8. Harvest Daylight
• Locate workstations requiring high illumination adjacent to windows.
9. Evaluate After Hours Usage
• Talk to the tenants to learn if they are actually using their space during the lease-required operating hours. Adjust building operating hours to reflect actual tenant usage.
10. Adjust Ventilation
• Reduce exhaust and outdoor-air ventilation rates within codes. Take a look at the fans and adjust ventilation in unoccupied and low-density areas to reduce the ventilation to a practical, yet comfortable level.
For additional resources on sustainable practices for commercial real estate, click here.
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