Proving Green=Energy Savings
Does the Responsible Developer need to track Green energy savings?
Absolutely, whether voluntary or mandatory, it is your best interest as the Responsible Developer because it means you are saving money or at least offsetting the cost of the money you spent on all that Green energy saving technology. If can also show you that your building performs better which makes it more attractive to tenants and prospective buyers!
If tracking energy use is voluntary, you still need to do it as part of good risk management. You need to at least track performance before any applicable warranties have ran, because monitoring will tell you if actual performance is within the guarantees, warranties or performance specifications for your building. If before that time energy use and cost are unexpectedly high it may indicate you have a problem that needs to be immediately investigated. While there is probably a contract requirement for you to timely notify the applicable design professionals and contractors, it is always a good idea to consider hiring a unbiased and objective energy use audit consultant (link is a sample reference only there are many available locally). This becomes critical when, in the face of well documented sub-par energy performance, your project team is doggedly representing that all is as it should be.
If tracking energy use is mandatory (yes many state and federal authorities are requiring mandatory production of records showing energy consumption) then you have no choice.
Locally, as of today, May 12, the City of Seattle's Department of Planning and Development is requiring that 800 commercial property owners of non-residential buildings over 50,000 sq. ft. must start tracking energy use and must report on October 3, 2011. Then, for both non-residential and and multifamily residential buildings over 10,000 sq. ft., annual reporting begins on April 1, 2012 (no not a belated April Fools joke).
These effected property owners must employ use of the EPA's Energy Star Portfolio Manager that is used to set "energy use benchmarks". This energy information must then be provided to the parties in real estate transactions (buyers, tenants and lenders).
So with this information becoming generally available to players in the RE market, this new "energy bench marking" is expected to be used by local RE agents to help owners see where they stand in the market and how competitive their building(s) are regarding energy use. Kidder Mathews was already working with its clients to do this voluntarily and has not had much push back from owners.
So again, whether mandatory or not, spending money on tracking the energy performance of your buildings means businesses and consumers that value green built will be willing to pay more, if you have empirical proof of performance.
