We thank the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for supporting this research, and Learning & Technology Services for printing this poster. W HAT IS E NERGY S TAR P ORTFOLIO M ANAGER ? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager is a free online tool that can be used to track energy and water use as well as greenhouse gas emissions of a building or group of buildings. It compares performance across buildings of the same category using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. The metric used to quantify relative efficiency of a building is Energy Use Intensity (EUI). EUI equals a building’s annual kBTU usage divided by its gross square footage. W HAT D OES P ORTFOLIO MANAGER HAVE TO DO WITH LEED? The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design (LEED) creates environmentally rigorous design standards and awards certification to building projects that meet these standards. Various levels of certification correlate with how many design points a project earns. Points can be earned, for example, by providing access to quality transit, reducing heat island effects, rainwater management, and optimizing energy performance. LEED certification pertains to the design process. We wanted to see if there was a relationship between LEED certification and ongoing performance measures based on the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. A RE E NERGY U SE I NTENSITY AND LEED C ERTIFICATION C ONNECTED ? Andrew Bocher, Rory Smuhl, Dr. James E. Boulter, Dr. Karen G. Mumford | Watershed Institute for Collaborative Environmental Studies A P ILOT S TUDY O F UW S YSTEM B UILDINGS Gross Square Footage:170,000 LEED Status: Not Seeking Opening Date: 2012 Important Features: Solar Hot Water, Green Roof Gross Square Footage: 84,586 LEED Status: Silver (LEED 2.2) Year Opened: 2010 Important Features: Natural lighting, Green Roof Gross Square Footage: 42,500 LEED Status: Silver (LEED 2.2) Year Opened: 2010 Important Features: Geothermal, Photovoltaic Ready Gross Square Footage: 191,000 LEED Status: Gold (LEED 2.2) Year Opened: 2011 Important Features: Natural lighting, Photovoltaic Panels, Green Roof Gross Square Footage:189,000 LEED Status: Gold (LEED 2.2) Year Opened: 2009 Important Features: Solar Hot Water Heating, High Efficiency Florescent Light Bulbs Gross Square Footage:182,000 LEED Status: Not Seeking Year Opened: 2013 Important Features: Low-E Glazing Windows, Occupancy Sensors C ONCLUSIONS & R ECOMMENDATIONS I NTRODUCTION Energy efficiency is a high priority for new construction projects on university campuses nationwide. The University of Wisconsin System is no exception due to Executive Order 145 that established energy efficiency goals for new buildings on UW campuses based on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. The law requires buildings to be constructed to LEED silver standards, but does not require post-construction LEED performance certification. Post-construction LEED certification is thought to ensure that buildings perform at expected levels. In this study, energy use intensity data from a sub-sample of UW-System buildings were examined to see whether those buildings that did not undergo post-construction LEED certification performed as efficiently as those that were certified. M ETHODS W.R. Davies Student Center (Eau Claire) Yellow Jacket Union (Superior) Elmwood Student Success Center (Oshkosh) Sage Hall (Oshkosh) Centennial Hall (La Crosse) Centennial Hall (Eau Claire) Two buildings constructed at UW-Eau Claire—Centennial Hall and the W.R. Davies Student Center—were built to LEED silver but were not certified and thus served as non-certified baseline buildings. A roster of LEED-certified UW System buildings was provided by the System Office. Two LEED certified student centers were selected to compare to the Davies Center. These included UW-Superior’s Yellow Jacket Union and UW-Oshkosh’s Elmwood Student Success Center. Two LEED-certified classroom buildings were selected to compare to Centennial Hall. These included UW Oshkosh Sage Hall and UW La Crosse Centennial Hall. To calculate a building’s energy use intensity (EUI), the Energy Star Portfolio Manager (see program explanation above) requires 12 consecutive months of energy use data, Gross Floor Area, and building type. Energy use data is typically obtained from a utility provider’s bills. For our research, we obtained natural gas, electricity, district steam, water, and solar data for some or all buildings. We requested this data from campus facility managers and upon receiving it entered it into the Portfolio Manager. Once the necessary information was entered, Portfolio Manager was able to calculate EUI based on actual building benchmarking data (see figure 1). We also calculated the EUI mean for each building type. We graphed the EUI of the individual buildings, the study means, and the median national EUI for three Portfolio Manager building categories (College/University, Office, Social/Meeting Hall) using Energy Star-provided median data. 1.Performance associated with certification is not consistent – This may be due to the small sample size, however. 2.Portfolio Manager categories are too broad – We were unable to find building categories to match our buildings in Portfolio Manager. If there were more specific categories, such as “College/University Student Union,” we would have a clearer picture of where the UW-System buildings fall nationally. 3.Yellow Jacket Union requires further investigation – We are curious as to what UW-Superior could do to increase the efficiency of their Student Union. This could not be deduced from the data we were provided for the purposes of this study. 4.Sub-meter – There were buildings that were not included because energy use data was not available for individual buildings. Having only data for a campus as a whole makes it difficult to assess individual building performance. UW-Eau Claire actively sub-meters all of its campus buildings. 5.Use Portfolio Manager – It is growing in popularity, but could be made more comprehensive if more organizations used it. 6.Follow-up study – Conduct a large-scale study incorporating a greater number of buildings across additional campuses. Student Centers Classroom Buildings A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to members of the UW System for providing energy usage data for use in this study including: from UW Eau Claire – Mike Traynor and Anita Spahn, from UW Oshkosh – Cassandra Fowler and Brian Kermath, from UW Superior- Dustin Johnson, and from UW Lacrosse – Dan Sweetman. Sources: EPA. U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type. n.d. 20 April —. Welcome to Portfolio Manager. n.d. 20 April —. What is Energy Use Intensity (EUI)? n.d. 20 April Green Building Alliance. LEED. n.d. 20 April USGBC. Directory. n.d. 20 April Figure 1 - Growth in Environmental Protection Agency’s Portfolio Manager for benchmarking building energy use. F INDINGS 1.The range of EUI scores for Student Centers is wide – with a LEED Silver building having the lowest EUI for its category ( Elmwood Student Success Center at UW-Oshkosh with an EUI of 88.8) and the highest EUI for that category (Yellow Jacket Union at UW-Superior with an EUI of 311.7). In the middle is a non-LEED certified building (Davies Center at UW-Eau Claire with an EUI of 172.5) (See Figure 2) 2.Classroom buildings exhibit a much smaller range but the result is the same – a LEED Gold building has the lowest EUI in its category (Centennial Hall at UW-La Crosse with an EUI of 77.2) and a LEED Gold building with the highest EUI (Sage Hall at UW-Oshkosh with an EUI of 93.9). Again, in the middle is a non-LEED-certified building (Centennial Hall at UW-Eau Claire with an EUI of 78.6) Figure 2 - Energy Use Intensity Results from Energy Star Portfolio Manager Analysis