1. ENERGY STAR for Schools
Katy Hatcher
ENERGY STAR National Manager, Public Sector
US EPA
September 2009

2. What is ENERGY STAR?
A government-backed, voluntary program that helps businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy performance by providing energy-efficient solutions for homes, businesses, and institutions.
The national symbol for environmental protection through energy efficiency, recognized by more than 75% of all U.S. households.
ENERGY STAR is administered by EPA and DOE, and is the government-backed symbol of energy efficiency for qualifying buildings, new homes, and products in more than 40 different categories.
--On a building, the ENERGY STAR label means superior energy performance in qualifying office buildings, K-12 schools, grocery stores, hotels, and hospitals, residence halls, warehouses, and courthouses.
--Every ENERGY STAR qualified home meets EPA’s strict guidelines for energy efficiency. This performance is verified by an independent third party.
--Products for your business and your home earn the ENERGY STAR by meeting strict energy efficiency guidelines set by EPA and DOE. Some ENERGY STAR product categories include Water Coolers, Lighting, Office Equipment, Heating & Cooling Equipment, Transformers, Ceiling Fans, Ventilation Fans, Reach-in Refrigerators, Appliances and Consumer Electronics.
ENERGY STAR works with many different organizations and associations all over the country. 2

3. ENERGY STAR
Those of you familiar with ENERGY STAR have probably seen the label appear on items around your home or office, on products like televisions, computers, light bulbs, programmable thermostats, refrigerators, and many others. 3

4. What is ENERGY STAR for Commercial Buildings?
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency energy management program.
Offers proven solutions to help building owners and managers reduce energy consumption.
Program for new construction and existing buildings.
Works in markets with a focus on:
Commercial property (offices, retail, hotels)
Public sector (government, K-12, higher ed)
Healthcare
Small business and congregations

5. Opportunities in Buildings
Commercial buildings and industrial facilities generate about 50 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
30 percent of energy consumed in commercial and industrial buildings is wasted.
Energy costs represent a typical school district’s second largest operating expense, after salaries—more than the cost of computers and textbooks combined.
Reductions of 10 percent in energy use can be possible with little or no cost.
Why are buildings important to EPA? The answer is clear when you consider that commercial and industrial buildings are responsible for about half of the total carbon emissions of the country.
Additionally, 30 percent of the energy used in these facilities goes to waste.
EPA has learned through its partnerships with many different organizations that a reduction in energy use of 10 percent is possible with little or no cost to building owners and managers.
When you consider these together, you realize that there’s a big opportunity for improving the energy performance of these buildings. EPA has focused so much on commercial and industrial buildings because there is a lot of ground to be gained in this area. 5

6. K-12 Schools and ENERGY STAR
EPA challenges school districts across the United States to save 30% through ENERGY STAR
Nearly 2,000 K-12 buildings have earned the ENERGY STAR
58 (out of 70 total) school districts have been recognized by EPA for saving 10% to 40% district-wide
More than 16,000 K-12 school facilities have been benchmarked in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager 6

7. Council Rock School District
Located in Pennsylvania
Across the district’s 17 facilities
More than 6,000 tons of CO2 emissions have been avoided
Electricity use has been reduced by 7.7 million kilowatt hours
More than $2.5 million saved in just 2 years
ENERGY STAR Leaders Recognition
20% Improvement (2007)
30% Improvement (2007)

8. Nash-Rocky Mount Located in Nashville, NC 29 separate sites
20 ENERGY STAR labeled schools
Portfolio average ENERGY STAR rating over 75
Cost Avoidance Savings -- $3,159,819
KWH Reduction 21,742,044
ENERGY STAR Leaders Recognition
10% Improvement (2006)
20% Improvement (2006)
Top Performer (2007)

9. Whitefish Bay School District
Located in Wisconsin
Across the district’s 5 facilities
Energy use and cost reduced by 20%
Savings of over $927,000 over 2003 baseline
Average rating over 75; 4 out of 5 earned ENERGY STAR in 2007
ENERGY STAR Leaders Recognition
Top Performer (2008)
20% Improvement (2008)

10. Standardized Measurement Enables Energy Efficiency Strategy
Estimate Energy Use at Design
Verify Energy Use in operation
Monitoring progress as organizations manage energy better
Standardized metrics enables strategies, consistency

11. Key ENERGY STAR Tools ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management
Target Finder – New Buildings
Portfolio Manager – Existing Buildings
Building Upgrade Manual – How to Improve
Lots of wed-based training available

12. ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management
A roadmap to help partners –
Key Steps:
- Develop tracking, evaluation, and reporting plan
- Establish baselines
- Conduct benchmarking
- Track energy use, emissions, and savings
- Estimate impacts
- Report progress
- Revise program based on results, as appropriate
Leading organizations develop a systematic approach towards energy management.
EPA has been able to distill the common elements of successful practices. And in turn have created guidelines to help other organizations adopt a superior energy management approach, which is represented in this graphic.
The first step is making a top-level commitment to continuous improvement of energy performance. Today, we are focusing on the second critical step, assess performance.
[If appropriate:] If your organization is not an ENERGY STAR partner, you are missing an opportunity to demonstrate this commitment through ENERGY STAR. Visit for more information. 6 12

13. Rating System for Buildings
Is 80 kBtu/SF/YR high or low for a building?
Statement of Energy Performance
EPA Rating
EPA recognizes the need for a tool to measure the energy performance of buildings and plants.
We are all familiar with the MPG sticker displayed on new cars. We’ve become accustomed to comparing a broad variety of automobiles regardless of makes and dealership based on their energy efficiency.
Now, you can obtain a “Statement of Energy Performance” for your building or building portfolio by using the ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager program. The SEP is analogous to the sticker that is placed in the window of a new car.
Fuel Efficiency
MPG
Is 60 MPG high or low for an automobile?

14. Space Types Eligible for the 1-100 Performance Rating System
Hospitals
Retail
Office Buildings
Hotels
Medical Office Buildings
Courthouses
Financial Centers
Waste Water
Treatment Plants
Even if a space does not fall into any of these categories, you can still track a weather normalized kbtu per square foot and compare your building to the CBECS kbtu per square foot national average in Portfolio Manager and also receive carbon emissions for the building.
Warehouses
Residence Halls
Supermarkets
Schools

15. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
Free on-line benchmarking tool for all commercial buildings
Track energy use
Weather normalized source EUI
National average comparisons
Comparison to custom baselines
Energy performance ratings (for selected spaces)
Track energy costs, upgrades, and investment cost
Track carbon emissions
Track water consumption
Customized dashboard and data sharing
Apply for ENERGY STAR recognition

16. Assess Performance for Strategic Energy Management
Identify best opportunities for savings
Track progress over time
Verify savings from upgrade efforts
Knowing your baseline performance from an initial rating enables you to set realistic and measurable improvement goals.
Rating your facilities on a regular basis allows you to track the energy performance of your facilities. You’ll see if the energy performance is improving or declining over time. You’ll use this information to improve your energy management plan.
Also, the energy performance rating should improve after actions/upgrades—this tool verifies the effect your efforts and investments have on performance
Note to trainers: be sure to include the following point:
It is becoming more common for companies to use the energy performance rating as a baseline upon which service providers must improve the rating. Your company can contractually obligate (or non-contractual agreement) service providers to improve the energy performance rating of a building or portfolio. 16

17. 1. Identify Best Opportunities for Energy Efficiency Improvements
Identify under-performing buildings to target for energy efficiency improvements.
Estabish baselines to set goals and measure progress
Portfolio Manager enables users to compare the energy use of similar buildings. Enter energy use data into the tool to:
Identify under-performing buildings to target for energy efficiency improvements.
Establish baselines to set goals and measure progress for energy efficiency improvement projects over time.

18. 2. Track Progress Over Time
Set a baseline and monitor energy efficiency improvements over time
View percent improvement in weather-normalized energy use intensity.
Track reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Monitor energy and water costs
Portfolio Manager allows users to track key consumption, performance, and cost information during energy efficiency improvement projects. Use Portfolio Manager to:
Monitor energy efficiency improvements compared to a baseline.
Track reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Monitor energy and water cost savings.

19. 3. Verify Savings Results
Provide transparency and accountability to help demonstrate strategic use of capital improvement funding.
Quickly and accurately demonstrate savings for an individual building or entire portfolio:
Energy use
GHG emissions
Water use
Energy costs
Portfolio Manager can help users document reductions in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and costs for an individual building or an entire portfolio. This valuable information can be used to provide a level of transparency and accountability to help demonstrate strategic use of ARRA 2009 funding.

20. Portfolio Manager Four Simple Steps
1. Create/edit a Portfolio Manager account
2. Add/edit a property
3. Add/edit a space
4. Add/edit energy meters

21. Data for K-12 Schools Address Energy Consumption Space Type Data
Zip Code for weather normalization
Energy Consumption
12 consecutive months for each source
Space Type Data
Square footage
High School (Y/N)
Open On Weekends (Y/N)
Number of Walk-in Refrigeration Units
Number of Months in Operation (Optional)
Number of Personal Computers
Percent of Floor Area Heated and Cooled
Presence of On-Site Cooking Facilities
The first step in the rating process is to collect information.
The data you’ll need to collect includes the address. PM uses the zip code to create a weather profile based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data over a 30 year period.
The energy consumption data is collected by gathering the most recent 12 consecutive months of utility bills—you will need data for all major sources of energy, e.g. electricity, gas, oil, steam, etc. for the same 12 months
All of this data is captured in EnergyCAP as the first phase of work to integrate the ENERGY STAR rating into EnergyCAP.
The Space Type info you need to collect is specific to the activity taking place in the facility.

22. Automated Data Options: ABS
Utilities can provide energy data directly into Portfolio Manager
Energy Services Companies can host data from Portfolio Manager in their own software for customers

23. Utility Supported ABS Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E)
Automated Benchmarking Program began in 2007
Launched the “More Than a Million” initiative, which was designed to reach building owners and property management firms with fleets of buildings capable of implementing 1 MW of demand savings
In 2007 alone, these efforts resulted in more than 900 benchmarked buildings
More at
Commonwealth Edison
Benchmarking support began by providing spreadsheets of energy use data on a regular basis to its customers upon request, which could be used for manual data entry or Upload Template creation.
Launched in June 2008, ComEd is now offering its commercial customers ABS data feeds for free.
Today, over 230 building managers are benchmarking more than 560 buildings
More at

24. ABS Providers (as of 6/18/09)
Advantage IQ
LPB Energy Consulting
Pacific Gas & Electric  
The E Group
New Energy Technology
UtilityAccounts.com
Cadence Network (now part of Advantage IQ)
Performance Systems Development
Good Steward Software (EnergyCAP & GreenQuest)
Siemens
Energy Watchdog
Johnson Controls 
Ei3
Energy Solve
NorthWrite
IBS, Inc
Summit Energy

25. How to Improve? Building Upgrade Manual
Expanded benchmarking guidance, including benefits, options, and best practices
Unique Facility Strategies for K-12 schools, retail stores, hotels/motels, and supermarkets
Updated resources, case studies, and savings data
One of the features of the newly updated BUM is expanded benchmarking guidance on benchmarking. EPA offers tools and resources that can help you measure and track energy and water use in your building, which we will cover in a little more detail later.
The upgrade manual also includes facility strategies for a variety of building types that are based on the experiences of ENERGY STAR partners. These partners have helped EPA develop case studies that highlight their successes. 25

26. Upgrade Manual Contents
Managing and Planning Upgrade Projects
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Benchmarking
Chapter 3: Investment Analysis
Chapter 4: Financing
The first section focuses on managing and planning upgrade projects and covers everything from benchmarking to helping you learn about how to finance your upgrade projects. 26

27. 5-Staged Approach for Building Upgrades
Staged approach for planning upgrades to maximize energy savings:
Retrocommissioning (Chapter 5)
Lighting (Chapter 6)
Supplemental Load Reductions (Chapter 7)
Air Distribution Systems (Chapter 8)
Heating And Cooling Upgrades (Chapter 9)
A staged approach to building upgrades will help to increase the financial and environmental benefits realized. The stages recommended by the EPA account for the interactions among all the energy flows in a building and produce a systematic method for planning upgrades. Each stage includes changes that will affect the upgrades performed in subsequent stages, so when they are performed sequentially they set up the overall process for the greatest energy and cost savings.
The staged approach recommended by ENERGY STAR accounts for the interactions among all the energy flows in a building. Each stage includes changes that will affect the upgrades performed in subsequent stages, thus setting the overall process up for the greatest energy and cost savings possible. 27

28. For More Information Visit: www.energystar.gov/k-12
Leslie Cook, US EPA
(202)
Katy Hatcher, US EPA
(202)
The Cadmus Group, Inc. (EPA contractor)
Julio Rovi
Kudret Utebay
(703)
If you have any questions or comments about the information presented, please contact any of these EPA representatives. You can also find more information about the ENERGY STAR program by visiting energystar.gov. Thank you for your time and interest in improving energy performance with the help of ENERGY STAR.