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ENERGY STAR Resources Can Help Hotels and Hospitality Associations Respond to New Benchmarking Legislation

An increasing number of state and local governments have enacted benchmarking and/or energy performance disclosure legislation affecting commercial buildings. In many cases, these laws have incorporated EPA's Portfolio Manager tool as the mechanism for compliance. A complete list of localities with commercial building benchmarking mandates is available here (132KB). This resource also includes a summary of the many cities and states that have incorporated Portfolio Manager as the primary tool used to support voluntary benchmarking competitions.

The passage of benchmarking mandates represents an opportunity for hospitality associations and other organizations (e.g., state and local green hospitality groups) to deliver a valuable service to members. By providing benchmarking trainings, or by directing their members to free online trainings, quick reference guides, and additional resources available on the ENERGY STAR website, associations help local hoteliers to comply with upcoming mandates. And the benefits don't stop there. Once hoteliers start benchmarking, they will have established the foundation for ongoing energy management and energy performance improvement.

This past June, EPA was invited to attend a meeting of the Hotel Association of Washington, DC (HAWDC), and to present an overview of ENERGY STAR and EPA's free online benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager. Through this presentation, HAWDC sought to educate its members about the new benchmarking and reporting legislation that will affect commercial buildings (including hotels) in the District of Columbia. Even more importantly, this session provided members with clear and actionable guidance on how to comply with the mandate and properly benchmark their properties in Portfolio Manager. HAWDC also used its newsletter as a channel for sharing this information with members.

Associations and other organizations interested in providing similar guidance to their membership are encouraged to visit the ENERGY STAR for hospitality website at http://www.energystar.gov/hospitality. 

15 Hotels Added to the List of ENERGY STAR Labeled Properties

Since January of 2011, 15 hotel properties have earned the ENERGY STAR certification, indicating that they are among the top 25% of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency performance. Hotels earning the 2011 ENERGY STAR certification span a variety of geographic locations, building sizes, and amenity categories — from The Sheraton Waikiki and The Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu, HI, at 2 million ft², to the 42,000 ft² Courtyard Raleigh Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, NC. Eight of these 15 hotels have earned their first ever ENERGY STAR certification, while the seven repeat awardees attest to the importance of maintaining energy management best practices over time.

Other properties earning this distinction so far in 2011 include: Homewood Suites Oakland - Waterfront (Oakland, CA); Hotel Nikko (San Francisco, CA); Washington Marriott at Metro Center (Washington, DC); Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa (Honolulu, HI); Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel (Honolulu, HI); Hyatt Regency Boston (Boston, MA); Westin Waltham (Waltham, MA); the Worcester Courtyard (Worcester, MA); Residence Inn - Charlotte Uptown (Charlotte, NC); Courtyard by Marriott - Middletown (Middletown, NY); Courtyard by Marriott - Clemson (Clemson, SC); Best Western Windjammer Inn and Conference Center (Burlington, VT); and The Davenport Tower (Spokane, WA).

More information about how you can earn the ENERGY STAR certification is available here.  Additionally, a complete list of certified buildings, including hotels, can be found online at ENERGY STAR 's Labeled Buildings Locator.

Ramp Up Your Energy Management Efforts With Automated Benchmarking

You may already be benchmarking your hotels in EPA's Portfolio Manager tool. But did you know that a number of energy service providers can help to automate the process and provide easier access to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) energy performance score? A variety of organizations — including software companies specializing in property management and sustainability, utility procurement and bill processing, and energy services companies — have integrated EPA's automated benchmarking capabilities into their existing energy software and services. These services securely exchange client building data with EPA's free benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager, over the Internet. Automated benchmarking providers help their clients obtain EPA's 1-to-100 energy performance score more efficiently than through manual data entry into Portfolio Manager.

Automated benchmarking services offer building owners and operators up-to-date energy performance information that can help to prioritize energy management projects and track improvements across large portfolios. By taking a portfolio-wide approach to benchmarking, organizations can more readily identify properties that are candidates for improvements, and which are the top performers that can be used to highlight and communicate energy management best practices.

To find a service provider that offers automated benchmarking, be sure to visit the ENERGY STAR Most Active Automated Benchmarking Providers list, at http://www.energystar.gov/spp. If you are currently working with a service provider and would like to make them aware of the opportunity to become an Automated Benchmarking partner, please direct them to http://www.energystar.gov/abs.

EPA's National Building Competition Reaches the Last Leg!

The 2011 National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings has progressed steadily as 245 buildings across the country industriously work to curb their energy use. In July, EPA announced the top category contenders as of the midpoint. In early November, you'll see which buildings came out on top overall, as well as the cumulative impact of all competitors. In case you missed it, below is a list of the top category contenders as of the midpoint:

Bank: USE Credit Union: San Diego, Calif. 20%
Courthouse: Hammond U.S. Courthouse: Hammond, Ind. 14%
Dormitory: Kenan Residence Hall at UNC: Chapel Hill, N.C. 3%
Hospital: St Mark's Medical Center: La Grange, Texas 10%
Hotel: The Colonnade Hotel: Boston, Mass. 2%
House of Worship: First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis: Minneapolis, Minn. 14%
Office: Scientific Instruments: West Palm Beach, Fla. 30%
K-12 School: Jackson Creek Middle School: Bloomington, Ind. 26%
Medical Office: North Suburban Medical Office Building: Thornton, Colo. 18%
Retail: Office Depot: Plano, Texas 17%
Warehouse: Norandex: Rochester, N.Y. 8%
Other: University of Central Florida's Garage C: Orlando, Fla. 31%

In the first six months of the competition alone, teams representing 245 buildings around the country have saved more than $3.7 million on utility bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity used by 2,300 homes annually. Competitors measure and track their building's monthly energy consumption using EPA's ENERGY STAR online energy tracking tool, Portfolio Manager. The building with the largest percentage reduction in energy use, adjusted for weather and the size of the building, will be recognized as the winner in November.

Visit www.energystar.gov/BattleoftheBuildings to learn more about the competitors, get real-time updates via a live Twitter feed, and join in on a Facebook forum to exchange ideas and strategies.

Important Policy Change for ENERGY STAR Certification

EPA is adopting a policy that will change the year associated with your ENERGY STAR certification.  Currently, the certification year is based on the 12-month period ending date listed on your Statement of Energy Performance (SEP).  However, for all label applications approved on or after January 1, 2012, the year of your certification will reflect the year during which your application for ENERGY STAR certification is approved, regardless of the SEP period ending date. The purpose of this change is to align the year of your certification with the calendar year in which it was approved.  This change will make it easier for you and EPA to communicate and celebrate your award with the public.  

Important Information for Those Who Have Not Yet Applied for 2011 Certification
If you received a 2010 certification with an SEP dated in the last four months of 2010, please take note: In order for you to earn a 2011 award, your application must be approved by December 31, 2011.  EPA will guarantee 2011 approval for all applications that are postmarked by November 15, 2011 or earlier and which require no additional questions or follow-up by EPA. Since, typically, your building might not have been eligible to apply by this deadline, EPA has manually reset your building's account to be eligible as of August 31, 2011.

Important Information for Everyone Eligible for ENERGY STAR Certification
In future years, to ensure that your building earns certification for the current year, you must postmark your application by November 15. As long as your application does not trigger any follow-up or additional questions, EPA will guarantee current-year approval, which means that your building will receive current-year certification.

Perspectives: Partner Highlight Best Western International Best Western International recently announced that the Beardsley Operations Center (BOC), located next to the company's corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, has earned the ENERGY STAR label, signifying superior energy performance. The BOC is home to over 600 employees comprising Best Western's reservations, sales, IT, human resources, customer care, hotel inspection and revenue management personnel. The BOC is the largest Best Western corporate facility, with over 110,000 square feet of office space. Since kicking off its energy efficiency and broader green efforts in 2008, the BOC has achieved an 11% reduction in energy consumption and has saved nearly 1.4 million kWh of electricity. Best Western achieved these savings through a combination of capital improvement and installation of energy efficient upgrades, behavior change, and education and awareness campaigns. Notably, Best Western pursued and received approximately $90,000 in utility company incentives for installing energy efficient upgrades to lighting and air conditioning systems. To read a full profile of the BOC and the energy efficiency measures that helped to earn it this notable distinction, click here. Perspectives: Energy-Saving Tip Did you know? If America's commercial and industrial buildings improved their energy use by just 10 percent, we could prevent the greenhouse gas emissions equal to all the automobiles in Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Texas combined!