Industry resources and reports

Below is a compilation of resources and reports from multifamily industry partners that offer additional guidance for managing your properties' energy use and potential improvement opportunities.

Resources to help you save

As more and more multifamily owners and managers focus on the energy efficiency of their properties, many industry partners have developed helpful tools and resources to help you save. Here are just a few.

Enterprise Community Partners' Multifamily Resident Engagment Tools

The Multifamily Resident Engagement Tools help you to support healthy living, lower costs, and protect the environment -- all by engaging residents in green living. The tools include proven strategies for getting residents involved, training in a box, a green leader toolkit to empower motivated residents, and printer-ready creative materials for your property.

Enterprise Community Partners' Multifamily Retrofit Toolkit

The Multifamily Retrofit Toolkit distills Enterprise Community Partners’ experience retrofitting multifamily affordable housing into the critical steps necessary for success. It can be used as a roadmap for multifamily housing owners, investors, and developers, and outlines a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to retrofits. The Toolkit can be used for an entire portfolio, a single project, or midway through a retrofit process to make smart and cost-effective decisions.

SAHF and Bright Power Multifamily Energy and Water Management Toolkit

The Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future and Bright Power, Inc. developed the Multifamily Energy and Water Management Toolkit to help you reduce the energy and water use of your property by 20 percent. The tools are grouped into four areas: Portfolio Energy and Water Strategy, Operations and Maintenance, Utility Tracking, and Energy and Water Initiatives.
 

Reports on best practices and savings potential

Dozens of studies have been conducted to analyze the savings potential of the multifamily housing market and gain insight on the most cost-effective investments to make in multifamily housing properties.

Transforming Multifamily Housing

Transforming Multifamily Housing: Fannie Mae’s Green Initiative and ENERGY STAR® for Multifamily (Fannie Mae): This white paper presents the results of Fannie Mae’s Multifamily Energy and Water Market Research Survey, which collected details on the energy and water use, cost, and property characteristics for over 1,100 properties, including market-rate, affordable housing, and senior living. Among their findings, Fannie Mae found that the least efficient property may end up spending $165,000 more in annual energy costs than a similar property operating the most efficiently. Data from this survey also served as the basis for the ENERGY STAR® 1-100 score for multifamily properties.

Energy and Water Savings in Multifamily Retrofits

Energy and Water Savings in Multifamily Retrofits: Results from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Green Retrofit Program and the Energy Savers Program in Illinois (Bright Power Inc., Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future): This report provides a detailed analysis of 236 multifamily properties that underwent energy and water retrofit projects from 2009 to 2012. The report includes results for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Green Retrofit Program and the Energy Savers Program in Illinois, and concludes that there were significant energy savings and cost reductions for participating properties.

Energy Transparency in the Multifamily Housing Sector

Energy Transparency in the Multifamily Housing Sector: Executive Summary (Institute for Market Transformation): This report by the Institute for Market Transformation is intended to serve as a guide for policymakers and multifamily stakeholders on benchmarking and disclosure rules and regulations. It provides an introduction to the multifamily housing sector, followed by a thorough review of existing benchmarking and disclosure policies and an assessment of continuing policy challenges and opportunities.

Engaging as Partners in Energy Efficiency

Engaging as Partners in Energy Efficiency: Multifamily Housing and Utilities (ACEEE, CNT Energy): CNT Energy and the American Consortium for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) outline the opportunities and strategies for the multifamily housing sector to engage electric and natural gas utilities to expand resources available for energy efficiency retrofits. Using case studies that showcase successful approaches, their analysis shows that certain states are ideal for improving multifamily building energy efficiency policies.

Recognizing the Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Underwriting

Recognizing the Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Underwriting (Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation): In conjunction with Living Cities, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation undertook this project to encourage the financial industry to scale up financing of building energy efficiency retrofits. This study addresses a key bottleneck for private capital: the lack of confidence in energy savings for lenders to underwrite loans against. The report analyzes 231 energy efficiency retrofit projects in New York City in order to assess trends in pre- and post-retrofit building performance, analyze the reliability of savings projections, and frame an approach for incorporating energy savings projections into underwriting.

Reducing Energy Costs in Rental Housing

Reducing Energy Costs in Rental Housing (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University): This research brief describes the direct and indirect energy cost burdens that renters face and the disproportionate share of both total housing outlays and household income that lower-income tenants pay for energy. The analysis also looks at differences in energy costs and use between renters and homeowners living in various types of housing, as well as geographic variations in energy costs. The paper then examines the “split-incentive” problem in the landlord-tenant relationship and outlines strategies to overcome this barrier to efficiency and affordability.

U.S. Multifamily Energy Efficiency Potential by 2020

U.S. Multifamily Energy Efficiency Potential by 2020 (Prepared by the Benningfield Group Inc. for The Energy Foundation): This report is designed to help national and regional policy-makers understand the economic and achievable energy efficiency potential in the country’s existing multifamily sector. The research team synthesizes findings from over two dozen state and regional energy efficiency potential studies which estimate the multifamily sector’s energy savings potential on a national and regional basis.