By Johanna Schweiss,
Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator,
USGBC-Missouri Gateway Chapter
No matter where you live, work, play, or worship, we’re all looking to reduce costs. And if cost reductions also lower environmental impacts, well you can sign me up! Energy conservation cuts your utility bills while also lowering your greenhouse gas footprint, a win-win in my book. And energy benchmarking is the first step to energy conservation.
Energy benchmarking is the process of measuring how much energy your building consumes and comparing your performance to similar buildings and the past. Your office, your school, your house of worship, your city hall, or your corner store: all buildings benefit from benchmarking. It’s the first step toward saving energy and saving money through energy conservation. You know the saying – you can’t manage what you don’t measure!
And the good news is that benchmarking is pretty painless. ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free and secure online tool that tracks energy and water consumption, as well as the associated greenhouse gas emissions. Any building can use ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and according to their data, buildings that benchmark for 3 years see an average 7% reduction in energy use.
Need some help getting started? Join the U.S. Green Building Council- Missouri Gateway Chapter for a Benchmarking Blitz on October 27! Celebrate ENERGY STAR day while getting hands-on help setting up an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account, entering your energy use, and understanding your results.
For best results, bring a few details about your building, including the square footage, main uses of space, and number of occupants. You will also need at least 12 months of historical energy use data. Ameren Missouri and Laclede Gas have offered to provide historical energy use data for those that register by Tuesday, October 20.
The Benchmarking Blitz will take place on October 27 from 3:30 – 5:30 at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s Grove Bierhall, 4465 Manchester Avenue, 63110. Visit www.usgbc-mogateway.org to learn more and register to attend.