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Lighting
Understanding advanced lighting techniques and technologies for commercial buildings can have a profound impact on your budget, market differentiation, building aesthetics, tenant comfort and more. Find a host of advanced lighting solutions for your business including educational resources, training opportunities and qualified contractors.
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Windows
Outdated windows are often a leading culprit in energy waste and tenant discomfort. From low-e attachments to high efficiency replacements, check out the latest in energy-efficient windows technology, and get to know the most cost-effective, energy-saving solutions for your commercial building.
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Integrated Design
By learning how every aspect of your building works together, you’ll be able to incorporate holistic efficiency into your next commercial project. Use these resources to help you look at your commercial renovation or new construction project to save you or your client energy, time and money.
View SolutionAHU preheat/heating coil and cooling coil
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This symptom is limited to single-duct systems that have both heating and cooling coils located in the air handling unit (AHU).
Air Distribution
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Air-distribution systems include air handlers, ductwork, and associated components for heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning buildings.
American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE)
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ASHE serves as an advocate and resource for continuous improvement in healthcare engineering and facilities management and is the largest professional group affiliated with the American Hospital Association.
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
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ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing, and continuing education.
Ashforth Leads the Way
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A well-established, family-owned firm with roots going back to 1896, the Ashforth Company might be expected to do business traditionally.
Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)
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AEE is a gateway for information on the dynamic field of energy efficiency, energy services, deregulation, facility management, plant engineering, and environmental compliance.
Association of Facilities Engineers (AFE)
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AFE provides education, certification, technical information, and other relevant resources for plant- and facility-engineering, and operation-and-maintenance professionals.
Benchmarking: Best Practices
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While nearly all benchmarking tools perform basic functions such as comparing energy use between buildings, some tools offer additional features that distinguish them from others.
Benchmarking: Collect Data
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Collecting energy consumption data from your utility is the first step in benchmarking. However, you will need additional information to complete the benchmarking process.
Benchmarking: Learn More
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Benchmarking is a key part of actively managing your building's energy use. It lets you create a standard for comparing, measuring progress, and spotting potential problems.
Best Practice O&M
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Creating a best-practice operation-and-maintenance (O&M) program increases the efficiency of facility staff, improves building operational practices, and reduces utility costs.
Boilers
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Boilers are pressure vessels designed to heat water or produce steam, which can then be used to provide space heating and/or service water heating to a building.
Briefings & Templates
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Quick overviews detailing the interactions between energy and commercial real estate, these briefs and templates will help you to digest the essential facts and take action.
Building Night Walk Video Series
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Conducting a Night Walk of your building is a good way of identifying a myriad of operational issues that could be costing energy, money, time and tenant comfort.
Building Owners and Managers Associations (BOMA)
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The mission of BOMA International is to enhance the human, intellectual, and physical assets of the commercial real-estate industry through advocacy, education, research, standards, and information. Local associations are in Boise, Portland, Seattle, South Puget Sound, Tri-Cities, and Spokane.
Building Performance Services
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Building Performance Services (BPS) are services designed to help optimize building efficiency.
Business Case: Enhanced Operations and Maintenance
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Investment in effective operation and maintenance (O&M) is the most economical way to achieve reliability, safety, comfort, and energy efficiency in your buildings.
Business Opportunity
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Recent dramatic changes in the marketplace have resulted in new and growing concerns for building owners
Cascadia Region Green Building Council
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The Cascadia Region Green Building Council, a chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) promotes the design, construction, and operation of buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy
CB Richard Ellis
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In May of 2007, CBRE announced a company goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2010 and engaging its clients in environmental and energy initiatives.
Central Kitsap School District
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The fourth grade classrooms are too warm. A motor is broken. The vice principal's office is stuffy. A louver is stuck. What happens when problems like this crop up in most school districts?
Chilled-water pump does not slow down sufficiently as system load decreases
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Make sure you understand the control strategy for your own system and how it is configured before starting to diagnose problems.
Collect Utility Bill Costs
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The cost of energy includes fixed and variable charges. The fixed charges are set monthly charges, while the variable charges depend on consumption and/or demand. Energy-saving measures reduce only the variable charges.
Common Opportunities: The Top Five
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Saving energy through better building operation starts with finding opportunities in five areas that have been shown to have the most frequent problems and the potential for the greatest benefits.
Cooling Towers
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Cooling towers are heat exchangers that use water and air to transfer heat from air-conditioning systems to the outdoor environment.
E2C: How Northwest Hospitals Increased Energy Efficiency Through Partnerships
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While healthcare systems and hospitals have embraced one-off energy efficiency projects that have a cost reduction value proposition, it is historically challenging to stimulate broad organizational commitment to the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) processes needed to achieve significant energy savings and market shift behavior.
Electric League of the Pacific Northwest
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The Electric League is a resource and clearinghouse for information about the electrical community.
Energy Efficiency Market Transformation and Lasting Impact
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The healthcare sector uses 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually and is fertile ground for a market transformation initiative that promotes sustained adoption of energy-efficient business practices. While healthcare systems and hospitals have embraced one-off energy efficiency projects that have a cost reduction value proposition, it is historically challenging to stimulate broad organizational commitment to the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) processes needed to achieve significant energy savings and market shift behavior.
Energy Management at PeaceHealth
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PeaceHealth, a nine-hospital system serving Washington, Oregon and Alaska provides medical centers, critical-access hospitals, medical groups, laboratories, and over 1000 hospital beds to a diverse set of Northwest communities. As part of their Hospitals and Healthcare Initiative and BetterBricks platform, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) approached PeaceHealth in 2005 and facilitated the adoption of a system-wide strategic energy management (SEM) plan with a goal of leveraging a comprehensive set of SEM business tools and practices to enable reduced energy consumption, maximized resource efficiency and lower operating costs.
Engaging Tenants and Brokers in Your Sustainability Initiatives
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You know you're already doing everything within your control to operate a high-performance green building - retrofitting lighting, tuning up your HVAC systems, offering recycling bins - but you may feel your hands are tied when it comes to your tenants.
ESCOs
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In offering energy-conservation programs, performance contracting, retrocommissioning, and capital projects, you provide high-value services to your clients.
Exploring Opportunities To Engage Your Tenants
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As part two of a series on tenant engagement, this toolkit expands on the lessons from the first green leasing toolkit, Leverage Leasing Practices to Reduce Energy and Utility Costs.
Facilities Expo: Solutions for Engineering, Management and Operations
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Facilities Expo is a free two-day show that includes a product showcase on the exhibit floor and educational seminars that focus on the latest industry products, services and technologies, offering solutions to help reduce costs and increase operational efficiency.
Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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FEMP helps federal agencies find innovative solutions to their most difficult energy challenges and address their full range of energy management responsibilities
Financing Primer for Deep Energy Retrofits
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This primer is designed to help owners, investors and project champions address one of the most frequently cited barriers to energy efficiency projects—the lack of budget or available funding. This preparatory document offers a simple roadmap for the financing available for deep energy retrofit projects.
Gerding Edlen Development Company
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Wilde has been active in construction and real estate development since 1967. Prior to joining Gerding/Edlen Development, he was vice president of Baugh Construction, a large regional construction company now owned by Skanska USA.
Green Building Opportunity Index Profile Report
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The Green Building Opportunity Index is the first office market assessment tool to provide weighted comparisons of top U. s . office markets on the basis of both real estate fundamentals and green development considerations.
Guide to Healthcare Energy Management
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The Tools and Materials listed in this Guide support actions associated with developing and implementing Strategic Energy Management (SEM) at healthcare facilities. SEM is a holistic, organization-wide approach to best practices in energy management. Individual tools listed here can also be useful to utility staff, design and construction professionals, and hospital facility staff where SEM approaches are not in place.
High Performance Portfolio Framework
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Energy management strategies for a competitive office market.
How to Get There
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What characterizes high performance in real estate? Which traits allow portfolios to excel in managing energy and adding value?
Improve Your Building's Energy Performance
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Resources to help building owners take control of their building's energy score and become leaders in commercial real estate
Improve Your Building's Energy Performance- Portland, Oregon
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Resources to help building owners and managers in Portland, Oregon to take control of their building's energy score and become leaders in commercial real estate
Improving a Building
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Activities that improve a building's energy performance fall into four general categories
Industrial Efficiency Alliance
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The Industrial Efficiency Alliance and its partners offer business and technical training courses that are designed to equip attendees with the knowledge and tools to improve competitiveness and enhance system performance through increased energy efficiency.
Industry Expert Shares Advice on Energy Savings and Smart Hospital Operation
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Mike Hatten is an internationally known engineer, recognized for his expertise in building energy efficiency and is a principal of . He combines a design, analysis and training background in his roles as project manager, educator and project engineer.
International Facility Management Assocation (IFMA)
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IFMA is a professional association for facility managers. IFMA membership comprises more than 17,500 facility professionals in 56 countries. Their members have a voice in 125 chapters, 15 councils, and one Special Interest Group.
International Training Institute (ITI)
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ITI has a variety of curricula that teach the students how to operate and service HVAC equipment. This includes the refrigeration system and it components, all types of heating systems (oil, gas, and electric) and their components, as well as the electrical fundamentals required by all of these systems.
International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
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IUOE is a progressive, diversified trade union that primarily represents operating engineers who work as heavy-equipment operators; mechanics and surveyors in the construction industry; and stationary engineers who work in operation and maintenance in building and industrial complexes, and in the service industries.
Interpreting Electric Meter Data Series
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Interpreting Electric Meter Data Training Series: Through this five part series, you'll learn how to: Read and understand your facility's energy bills, Obtain and interpret meter data, Determine what to track
It Takes a Village: Teamwork Facilitates NEEA's Move to New Office Space
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From brokers to landlords, from interior designers to employees, it takes a village to move a company. In NEEA search for a new home, that village consisted of a cross-functional, collaborative team made up of people from both within and outside of our organization.
Kennedy Associates: Investing Responsibly Without Compromising Financial Returns
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Kennedy Associates, a Seattle-based real estate investment advisor, has long understood that high performance buildings are not only the right thing to do - they're a business imperative.
Kennedy Associates: Setting the Bar for Tenant Improvements
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Office space is constantly being built out to suit the needs of a changing tenancy. After the dust settles from a series of tenant improvement (TI) projects, will a building owner still be left with the same high-performance green building he or she started with? How does an organization protect an asset's value, and ensure consistent, long-term performance levels across its entire operating portfolio?
Kilowatt Crackdown Commercial Building Competition
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Working on behalf of regional partners to engage the commercial real estate market, BetterBricks created the ‘Kilowatt Crackdown’ energy efficiency competition. The Kilowatt Crackdown challenges commercial building teams to reduce energy consumption over a calendar year and adopt energy management best practices as standard practice.
KRMC: Simple and Strategic Building Operation Improvements Result in Big Energy Savings
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Kalispell Regional Medical Center (KRMC), in Kalispell, Montana, is a community hospital and a regional referral center offering the most advanced health services and medical technology in the area.
Leverage Leasing Practices to Reduce Energy and Utility Costs
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A growing number of commercial real estate companies, tenants, and brokers are using innovative lease language to increase building performance, save money, and bolster sustainability.
Lighting Design Lab
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The Lighting Design Lab in Seattle, WA provides assistance to commercial lighting designers, facility managers, and specification writers that seek the most efficient lighting technologies and strategies.
Living Proof The Bullitt Center High Performance Case Study
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This report encapsulates the story of the origins, the design, and the performance of the Bullitt Center, an ambitious experiment to create a new paradigm for 21st century buildings.
MacDonald-Miller Makes Energy Efficiency a Priority
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Always looking for new ways to help their customers be successful, MacDonald-Miller decided to shift their focus to "energy first." The result is tremendous energy savings for their customers and a healthy revenue stream for the company.
McKinstry
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McKinstry has transformed itself into an industry-leading energy and facility services company. Not only is the company ahead of a sweeping market wave, it is changing the way people think about buildings and what buildings can do.
Mechanical Contractors
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With experience in new construction, retrofits, and design/build assistance, you are well-positioned to take advantage of the Building Performance System (BPS) program to offer even more to your clients.
Merit Mechanical: Leading the Way in the New Economy
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In the midst of challenging economic times,erit Mechanicals helping building owners evolve to meet today's realities and prepare for the future.
National Sustainable Building Advisor Program (NaSBAP)
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NaSBAP offers a training program specifically designed for working professionals wishing to apply sustainable concepts to the buildings they design, develop, and construct-buildings that are energy- and resource-efficient, healthy working and living environments, environmentally responsible, and cost effective.
NEEA's Suite Search
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The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) is on a mission mobilize the Northwest to become increasingly energy efficient for a sustainable future.
On the Path: Rating the Energy Performance of Commercial Buildings
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For more than a generation, EPA fuel economy labels have allowed consumers to compare the potential environmental impact of a large selection of vehicles.
Oregon School Facilities Management Association (OSFMA)
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The purpose of OSFMA is to promote and foster the highest degree of professionalism in the planning, maintenance, and operation of school facilities.
Plant Operations Support Program
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The Plant Operations Support Program is comprised of state agencies, educational facilities, municipalities, and port districts, and acts as a clearinghouse for best practices, organizational standards, and surplus/salvage materials.
Process
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What characterizes high performance in real estate? Which traits allow portfolios to excel in managing energy and adding value?
Puget Commercial Office Buildings Named Champions of Energy Management
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The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Seattle King County announced today the winners of the 2011 Kilowatt Crackdown, which recognizes Puget Sound-area office buildings that have achieved a superior level of energy efficiency.
Selling Efficient Spaces: Brokers Bring Green into the Equation
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Brokers are uniquely positioned to drive efficiency improvements - and poised to capitalize on the benefits.
Service Companies
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As a service company focused on supporting HVAC systems in a variety of buildings, your primary concern is customer satisfaction. Building Performance Services (BPS) can help you keep your customers happy and differentiate you from the competition.
Simple Strategies to Maximize the Value of Commercial Energy Benchmarking
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You can manage what you don measure.
Software Solutions
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Several software tools are available to help you with Utility Bill Tracking, Benchmarking, and Trend Logging.
Spark Tool
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Spark is a free, online interactive tool for leased commercial office buildings considering a building renewal project targeting 35% or more energy savings. Spark is an early assessment tool, which quickly estimates total project costs and financial benefits of an “integrated package” of efficiency measures.
Spark Tool: A Personalized Business Case to Present to Ownership
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Quickly and easily estimate the costs and savings for a large, complex energy retrofit project at your building
Tailoring the Business Case for Efficiency to Fit Your Capital Budget
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The benefits of energy efficiency don't stop at the meter. They extend to your bottom line.
The Building Symptom Diagnosis Tool: Your Guide to Uncovering Energy Savings
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Occupants in one part of the buildings complain that they are too cold. In another part of the building they are too hot. You, the building engineer get blamed for it all. That's why we developed this simple Building Symptom Diagnosis Tool.
The Empire State Strikes Back
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In 2009, owners of one of New York City great architectural landmarks, the Empire State Building embarked on a renovation to reduce the skyscraper energy use by more than one-third by 2013.
The Greenest Lease Around: NEEA and Unico Collaborate on a Win-Win
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The Greenest Lease Around
Trend Logging: Best Practices
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Trend logging provides a wealth of information. Managing it can be overwhelming without the right tools. The best trend-logging tools provide features that help you quickly review the data in meaningful ways. For example, they may superimpose plots of energy demand for different periods. They may also let to zoom in on shorter time periods that seem to have a problem, and then zoom back out to get the "big picture.
Trend Logging: Collect Data
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Trend logging is a diagnostic tool that uses data gathered at short intervals, such as every 15 minutes, to understand how a building or one of its systems is operating. This data can help you identify potential efficiency problems.
Trend Logging: Learn More
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Trend logging is a diagnostic tool that uses data gathered at short intervals, such as every 15 minutes, to understand how a building or one of its systems is operating.
University of Washington (UW) Facility Management Program
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The University of Washington's Program in Facility Management provides a solid foundation in facility-management principles and practices in a format that allows individuals to stay on the job while they learn.
Utility Bills: Best Practices
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While nearly all utility-bill-tracking tools perform basic functions, such as creating graphs that show energy use over time, some tools offer additional features that help you better evaluate a building's performance.
Utility Bills: Collect Data
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Each utility bill looks a little different, but ultimately provides the same information-energy consumption and associated charges.
Utility Bills: Learn More
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Your utility bill is the starting point for measuring the energy use in your building and establishing an energy-management program.
Washington Association of Maintenance & Operations Administrators (WAMOA)
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WAMOA is an organization of educational facilities maintenance professionals in Washington State. Their mission is to promote and foster the highest degree of professionalism in its members engaged in the management of maintenance and operations in educational facilities.
Washington State University (WSU) Energy Program
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The WSU Energy Program provides support and information for Resource Efficiency Managers (REMs) or Resource Conservation Managers (RCMs)
Water Distribution
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Many large buildings and campuses have HVAC water-distribution systems, also called hydronic systems. Water is heated or cooled in a central plant, then pumped to air handlers, where ventilation air is conditioned as needed.
What factors make a green building market?
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Why does one market tend to have more LEED Certified buildings than another? What is the impact of vacancy rates, utility incentives, or public policies on the feasibility and economics of "going green?