BRENNA WALRRAVEN BOMA Chair

CEE’s Commercial Buildings Workshop, held Jan. 16 in Long Beach, Calif., provided a forum for discussion of the commercial whole-building program opportunity. It also provided an opportunity to learn about programs that are incorporating whole-building, energy-efficiency approaches.

The day-long workshop, which had 40-plus attendees, also enabled participants to examine relevant national initiatives and
market sector trends.

Speakers and panelists included representatives from EPA, Southern California Edison, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, NYSERDA, Xcel Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric. They discussed their programs, exploratory efforts and how whole building approaches are gaining traction within commercial markets.

“Participants explained how they have begun to use whole-building approaches to achieve energy savings over time,” said CEE Commercial Program Manager Jason Erwin.

“We also learned how some administrators are leveraging state and national initiatives to support their own programs and to help them reach out to specific market segments, like the commercial real estate office market.”

The workshop, held one day prior to CEE’s Program Meeting, examined a number of program approaches including:

• Engaging building owners, operators and managers by using industry forums and developing relationships with building owner industry groups, like the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)
  
  
• Leveraging ENERGY STAR^® Benchmarking and other national efforts
  
  
• Integrating operations and maintenance elements into programs (e.g., incorporating the Building Operator Certification (BOC) training program
  
  
• California’s experience with its Commissioning Collaborative and energy savings potential of retro-commissioning in the office sector

Her presentation underscored the importance of engaging the commercial office sector, which consumes the most energy of all commercial building sectors nationwide (19 percent of the total energy usage of commercial buildings).

Presentations from the workshop are available on the CEE Web site.

Leveraging industry forums
One avenue to engaging the commercial office sector is through the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), an organization representing 19,000 members nationwide and with which CEE has created a strong relationship in recent years. BOMA Chair Brenna Walraven, and CEE members discussed how collaboration can be fruitful for both program administrators and local building owners.

BOMA, in a partnership with ENERGY STAR^®, developed the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), a Web-based seminar that educates real estate professionals about low- and no-cost energy-saving opportunities in their buildings.

BOMA licenses use of the BEEP material to its local chapters, who can then work out financial arrangements with area utilities. Several CEE members have worked with their “BOMA locals” in a variety of different ways.

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), for example, has found it effective to convene lunch meetings that include its own program staff as well as area real estate professionals and local BOMA representatives. “It’s a more personal, interactive approach that allows for networking,” said Jack Davis of NEEA.

Peter Turnbull of Pacific Gas & Electric reported that his company takes a more “hands-off” approach, funding local BOMA chapters in San Francisco to license, arrange and deliver the BEEP training in PG&E’s service territory.

A number of other national resources and initiatives were also discussed at the workshop (see related story ).

For more information about CEE's work with commercial buildings, contact Jason Erwin.

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