Tools and Resources

Use this case study to learn about the work Kansas City has done in partnership with ENERGY STAR over the last several years to improve the energy efficiency of its municipal buildings. Local governments can use these approaches and best practices to drive savings in their buildings and enhance their ability to invest in services for their communities.

This 2-page factsheet summarizes the energy, operational, and property characteristics of courthouses benchmarking in Portfolio Manager. Other statistics are also presented in an easy-to-read format.

The factsheet is part of the Portfolio Manager DataTrends series, which uses the data available in Portfolio Manager to examine benchmarking and trends in energy and water consumption in hundreds of thousands of U.S. commercial buildings.

This 2-page factsheet summarizes the energy, operational, and property characteristics of wastewater treatment plants benchmarking in Portfolio Manager. Other statistics are also presented in an easy-to-read format.

The factsheet is part of the Portfolio Manager DataTrends series, which uses the data available in Portfolio Manager to examine benchmarking and trends in energy and water consumption in hundreds of thousands of U.S. commercial buildings.

Learn how Des Moines Public Schools, a school district with more than 32,000 students and 70 facilities encompassing almost six million square feet of space, was able to improve its facilities and maximize energy savings by financing energy efficiency improvements through revenue bonds.

This two-page primer provides an overview of two of the most popular mechanisms for financing energy efficiency projects in the public sector: performance contracts and tax-exempt lease-purchase agreements. Both mechanisms provide effective alternatives to traditional debt financing, and both may allow you to pay for energy efficiency upgrades by using money that is already set aside in your utility operating budget – allowing you to draw on dollars saved from future energy bills to pay for new, energy-efficient equipment and projects today.

This 19-page primer is designed to establish best practices for energy service companies (ESCOs) that are implementing energy performance contract (EPC) projects by integrating several publicly available Web-based ENERGY STAR tools that the U.S. EPA has designed and provides free-of-charge through ENERGY STAR. EPA believes that the use of these tools will help make the results of EPC projects more actionable and understandable to building owners, tenants, policy makers, and the general public.

This five-page article introduces energy performance contracts and the corresponding benefits of using tax-exempt lease-purchase agreements as the underlying financing vehicle. It explains how to use the energy inefficiencies buried in your current operating budget to pay for energy-saving equipment.

This 14-page paper describes how performance contracts and tax-exempt lease-purchase agreements may offer you a practical solution when no money is available in the current budget for further improvements. It equips you to persuade the decision-makers within your school district, city, county, community college, university, or state that implementing energy efficiency upgrades is a good business decision and should be done as soon as possible.