How grey buildings become green!
Three new standards are sweeping across the local and international stages influencing energy management for non-residential buildings. ISO 50001, BEPA E2797-11, and AB 1103 are changing thinking regarding energy management and efficiency and are allowing owners and buyers across California greater understanding of properties.
What are these three new standards and how do they influence public and commercial building owners in California?
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CEO Helge Biernath in the panel
The 4th Energy Efficiency Symposium, a one-day symposium focusing on energy efficiency in buildings, took place in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011. U.S. and German experts presented current trends and future perspectives on the use of energy efficiency in buildings in both countries.
Students in class
Students at Hamilton Meadow Park, School in Novato, CA are learning about energy efficiency — and performing their own energy audits. Think global – act local was the motto for c2e’s engineers when they taught the basic principles of energy efficiency and renewable energy and how students can influence their energy consumption.
ASTM International The American Society of Testing Materials (“ASTM”) recently issued a new standard for building energy performance assessment. The ASTM news release notes that building energy performance disclosure regulations exist in states such as California and Washington as well as cities such as Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington and New York. As the ASTM news release notes, these regulatory activities combined with the fact that energy efficient buildings are more attractive to lenders, buyers, and tenants, caused ASTM to develop a new standard for building energy performance assessment.
The ASTM states that E2797 “Building Energy Performance Standard for a Building in a Real Estate Transaction” (BEPA) is expected to be the foundation for accurate and reliable building energy use data collection, compilation, and analysis in the public and commercial property industry. It was also stated that the standard will complement existing building grading and certification systems to facilitate and improve benchmarking and building labeling.
c2e’s consultants today emphasized its fundamental commitment to protect the environment by passing the examination as an ASHRAE Building Energy Assessment Professional (BEAP). This new qualification allows that c2e will be working toward helping their clients improve the energy efficiency and performance of their facilities; we believe that an organization-wide energy management approach will help our clients enhance their financial health and aid in preserving the environment for future generations. Continue reading
c2e today announced a fundamental commitment to protect the environment by becoming an ENERGY STAR Partner. c2e’s voluntary partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR means that we will be working toward helping our clients to improve the energy efficiency and performance of their facilities; we believe that an organization-wide energy management approach will help building owners to enhance their financial health and aid in preserving the environment for future generations.
“The on-going improvement processes c2e manages are producing tangible, thoughtful, and
dynamic results, both in cost-savings and awareness” says Heiko W. Schramm, Vice President.
On February 1, 2011 the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco passed an ordinance amending the San Francisco Environment Code to adopt the San Francisco Existing Commercial Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance, requiring owners of non-residential buildings to conduct Energy Efficiency Audits of their properties and file Annual Energy Benchmark Summaries for their buildings, and making environmental findings.
What exactly does that mean to you as a building owner?
This ordinance requires non-residential building owners to file annual energy benchmark summaries for their buildings and an ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers) compliant commercial building energy audit every 5 years. Continue reading
Schwarzenegger’s legacy
The most noteworthy achievement of Schwarzenegger’s governorship is AB32, the state’s landmark global warming law. This groundbreaking effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has created a momentum for investments in the state. Here is one of the success stories:
Mounting Systems GmbH Selects the Sacramento Region for North American Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility
Daylight in buildings can save energy if the electric lighting is switched or dimmed in response to changes in daylight levels.
The company in this example operates three warehouses with offices and a green house in California. An energy survey was performed on-site to collect nameplate and operational data for the lighting systems, and to identify potential energy efficiency measures.
Financial Analysis
Once upon a time in far, far away there lived a fox who loved to eat. He lived close to a vineyard and he used to stare at the lovely grapes that hung there.
“How juicy they look…. If only I could reach them”.
One sunny day, the fox woke up and saw the grapes glistening in the sunlight. He jumped to reach them but fell short.
He jumped again. No, they were too high. He jumped even higher. But they were still out of reach.
He jumped and stretched and hopped but could not reach the grapes. Those yummy grapes hung higher than the fox could reach. No matter how hard he tried, the grapes remained out of reach. He panted from his efforts and was soon exhausted.
Finally giving up, he looked up in contempt and said as he walked away, “Those grapes surely must be sour. I wouldn’t eat them even if they were served to me on a golden dish.” Continue reading
Green Zeitgeist 