REALpac’s Energy Benchmarking Program

 

www.realpac.ca

In September 2009, the Real Property Association of Canada (“REALpac”), in collaboration with the Canada Green Building Council (“CaGBC”) and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada (“BOMA Canada”), adopted an energy consumption target for office buildings of 20 equivalent kilowatt-hours of total energy use per square foot of building area per year (“20 ekWh/ft²/year”), to be achieved by 2015. For short, “20 by ‘15”.

After launching the “20 by ‘15” energy reduction target, REALpac again collaborated with CaGBC, BOMA Canada, and various energy experts, to develop further tools to help enable the real estate industry to understand their energy use and measure it in a meaningful way. These tools were released in the summer of 2010, which paved the way for a Canada-wide building energy consumption survey to be performed – REALpac’s Energy Benchmarking Program (“EBP”) was launched!

Among those tools developed is a unique approach to calculating whole building energy use that uses normalization to credibly compare buildings with different characteristics allowing an “apples-to-apples” comparison between buildings and portfolios. Normalization adjusts the total energy consumption from all major energy sources for variables such as the building’s gross floor area, different heating power of various energy sources (e.g. natural gas or steam), high intensity or exceptional energy use space types (e.g. data centers), plus occupant dependent variables (e.g. occupant density, vacancy, and operating hours).  The use of a normalized approach to calculating a building’s annual energy use accounts fairly for buildings with different characteristics and allows for more meaningful and robust energy intensity reporting and benchmarking between buildings across the country.

To launch the Program, REALpac asked its members, partner organizations, and affiliates, as well as other industry stakeholders, to participate in this groundbreaking, national Energy Benchmarking Survey (“the Survey”) by submitting 2009 energy consumption data from office buildings in the fall of 2010. The first Survey was intended to establish a baseline of building energy use in Canada and to begin to grow a database that had a foundation of accurate and robust data, collected using credible and equitable assumptions and a replicable methodology. Recognizing the growing interest and need for national benchmarking programs, REALpac has endeavoured to continue to collect data on an annual basis in order to maintain and grow the national benchmarking tool and data set in the same credible and consistent manner.

Now, with three years of building energy consumption data, it is possible to compare a building’s performance over time as well as within a geographic area, as part of a larger portfolio and/or amongst its competitors. For owners and managers, the consistent tracking and evaluation of performance data is central to any reduction initiatives and activities. The continuous collection and analysis of energy use data provides both the stimulus for action and the outcome of such actions taken, thus providing a feedback loop for improved operations. This type of data analysis can also be invaluable as an indicator of areas needing attention or of management systems that not generating the results expected and we hope that both owners and property managers incorporate these metrics/analyses into their operations.