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http://www.realenergywriters.com/ee-blog/2012/02/23/energy-efficiency-a-way-for-colleges-to-save-and-make-money/

Energy Efficiency:  A way for colleges to save and make money?

By Elisa Wood
February 23, 2012

 The Obama administration – and every parent with a child in college – is concerned about the ever-escalating cost of higher education. And for good reason. Tuition, room and board rose 37 percent for undergraduates at public colleges and 25 percent at private colleges (adjusted for inflation) from 2000 to 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

 Colleges are enormous energy users. National Grid says that in the Northeast, a US higher education hub, a typical 50,000-square foot college building uses more than $200,000 of energy annually. So one way for colleges to reduce costs is through greater energy efficiency, especially if it is financed adeptly.

 The Green Revolving Fund offers an interesting model. Basically, the college sets aside money in a fund to make energy efficiency improvements, and then uses the money saved on energy bills to replenish the fund and make more improvements to further drive down energy bills.

 About 50 colleges have established GRFs, and they are achieving a median annual return on investment of 30 percent, according to Mark Orlowski, executive director of Sustainable Endowments Institute, who presented a recent webinar on the funds through the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.

 A GRF removes energy efficiency from competition for college resources. Energy improvements cease to be a burden on the operating budgets, and conversation about efficiency transforms into one about investment and re-investment. Colleges find seed money for GRFs from a variety of sources, including reserve funds, alumni donations, endowments and utilities.

 The Sustainable Endowments Institute and several partners have launched a challenge to raise college GRF funds to a cumulative $1 billion, up from the current $65 million. Existing funds vary in size from $5,000 at the College of Wooster in Ohio to $25.45 million at Standard University. The average fund is $1.4 million, according to SEI.  The funds can be found in 25 states, and at colleges as big as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with 42,000 students and as small as Kalamazoo College with an enrollment of 1,381. Students, themselves, started the programs at 17 of the schools.

 A recent blog by Joe Indvik posted by the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education offers several good reasons for colleges to pursue GRFs over other ways to invest in efficiency. For example, he points to the “sizzle” factor.  “A GRF is a unified, purposeful investment vehicle that is easy to market and generates a more positive public image than traditional investments. It demonstrates concrete commitment to sustainability in a way that one-time investments cannot,” he says.

 This is not a new concept. Harvard has had a GRF for  more than a decade. But the idea has taken off in recent years, with about three quarters of GRFs formed since 2008.  Energy efficiency companies would be wise to track their creation, since they clearly open the door to new business opportunities. More details can be found at www.greenbillion.org and http://www.endowmentinstitute.org/

SRS Platform Capability Provides Missing Link to the Question: “What is the Impact to my Building’s Energy Star Rating from Investing in Specific Energy Conservation Measures?”

TRUMBULL, CT – FEBRUARY 23, 2012 – Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Inc. (SRS), the industry leader in on-demand building energy assessment and proprietary benchmarking software, today announced the availability of its Energy Star Projected Rating capability.

A fully-integrated component of SRS’s Sustainable Real Estate Manager^® software platform, this innovative functionality allows commercial and public building stakeholders to determine their building’s projected Energy Star rating based on the installation of specific energy conservation measures (ECMs).  This “missing link” capability enables energy service companies to determine an optimized bundle of ECMs and the related key financial metrics.  The result is a technically-sound, transparent methodology consistent with leading industry standards that provides the user with an unprecedented level of confidence in the projected energy savings.

As a further benefit, seamless integration with SRS’s proprietary peer building benchmarking solution provides stakeholders with the industry’s most comprehensive “best practice” for benchmarking (e.g., comparing a building’s energy consumption, costs and overall efficiency to “peer” buildings of comparable size, use, and location).  SRS’s Peer Building Benchmarking™ database contains over 120,000 buildings nationwide.  Updated regularly, the data encompasses 15 property types, 3.3 billion square feet and over $7.8 billion in annual energy costs. 

“SRS’s Energy Star Projected Rating tool is a game-changer that for the first time enables industry participants to accurately project their building’s Energy Star rating based on the completion of specific ECMs”, noted Brian J. McCarter, SRS CEO.  He added, “As an experienced Energy Star Automated Benchmarking Partner, SRS is frequently asked; “How will my building’s Energy Star rating be impacted by the implementation of specific ECMs?”  With this new SRS platform capability stakeholders can now answer that question in a technically supportable manner with a high degree of confidence facilitating energy efficiency investments.”

About Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Inc. (SRS)

SRS, an industry leader in on-demand building energy performance assessment and proprietary benchmarking software, delivers Sustainable Real Estate Manager^® an Internet-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) workflow platform enabling building stakeholders to assess, benchmark and optimize the energy and sustainability performance of their properties.  Its Peer Building Benchmarking^™ database contains over 120,000 buildings nationwide encompassing 15 property types comprising 3.3 billion square feet, over $7.8 billion in annual energy costs and $635 million in annual water/sewer costs and has reinvented commercial real estate’s energy efficiency benchmarking best practice.  For more information, visit www.SRMnetwork.com.

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Contact:

Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Inc.

Brian J. McCarter

(203) 459-0567

http://www.srmnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/Whitepaper_EE_Financing_Options_Final_02-15-12.pdf

How recent developments and tools incorporated into underwriting best practices are enabling energy efficiency financing to become a mainstream financial asset class

TRUMBULL, CT – FEBRUARY 17, 2012 – Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Inc. (SRS), the industry leader in on-demand building energy assessment and proprietary benchmarking software, today announced it is sponsoring a new whitepaper: Energy Efficiency Retrofit Financing Options for the Commercial Real Estate Industry.  Published by Building Energy Performance Assessment News (BEPAnews), this new report is the seventh in its Critical Issues Series and is available at no cost.

The paper discusses innovative, “market ready” financing mechanisms that are supported by new tools that significantly reduce the financial underwriting risk.  It also describes how these solutions solve the underwriting issues that have delayed large scale market adoption of commercial property energy efficiency investment.  (download paper)

“SRS is proud to sponsor this research paper that provides commercial building stakeholders with the insight needed to accelerate energy efficiency retrofits and unlock the full-potential to monetize energy savings opportunities, noted Brian McCarter, SRS CEO.  He added, “these new best practices have overcome most if not all the technical and financial underwriting obstacles thereby allowing building owners to obtain attractive financing for energy efficiency projects.  Furthermore, these recent developments will enable energy retrofit financing to become a mainstream financial asset class with a high degree of standardization, predictability and scale.”

About Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Inc. (SRS)

SRS, an industry leader in on-demand building energy assessment and proprietary benchmarking software, delivers Sustainable Real Estate Manager^® an Internet-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) workflow platform enabling building stakeholders to assess, benchmark and optimize the energy and sustainability performance of their properties.  Its Peer Building Benchmarking^™ database contains over 120,000 buildings nationwide encompassing 15 property types comprising 3.3 billion square feet, over $7.8 billion in annual energy costs and $635 million in annual water/sewer costs and has reinvented commercial real estate’s energy efficiency benchmarking best practice.  For more information, visit www.SRMnetwork.com.

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http://www.pikeresearch.com/newsroom/revenues-for-u-s-energy-service-companies-to-reach-13-billion-by-2020

Revenues for U.S. Energy Service Companies to Reach $13 Billion by 2020

February 2, 2012

While the energy service company (ESCO) industry has been active for approximately 30 years, it continues to evolve in response to business opportunities and economic trends.  Today, newer service offerings, such as demand response and energy management software, enabled by intelligent metering and control systems that afford customers greater flexibility and control over their energy usage, are opening new opportunities for ESCOs.  According to a new report from Pike Research, the ESCO market for energy efficiency project installations and services in the United States exceeded $5.1 billion in 2011.  Driven by public policies that encourage a greater emphasis on energy efficiency to reduce costs and improve operations, this market is expected to continue to grow faster than the domestic economy and reach at least $13 billion in sales by 2020.  Under a more aggressive scenario, the ESCO market could reach $16 billion by 2020, the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts.

“The full impact of recent federal stimulus funding has yet to be realized,” says research analyst Brittany Gibson.  “But the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has directed billions of dollars into energy efficiency projects at all levels of government and in all geographic regions of the nation, driving increased investment and accelerating innovation among ESCOs.”

The ESCO market predominantly takes the form of direct contracting between providers of energy efficiency services and equipment and government agencies, public institutions, and commercial customers – typically via performance-based contracts, wherein funding for individual projects is based on a promise of “guaranteed savings” to facility owners/managers.  In particular, the federal sector’s appetite for this energy service performance contract model is growing, helping give rise to a market structure dominated by a group of very large companies that specialize in these contracts.  At the same time, project sizes are increasing as clients look for more comprehensive technologies and designs to address their energy consumption.  Of particular significance for ESCOs is President Obama’s 2009 executive order, which mandates that all federal agencies must achieve a 30% reduction in energy use by 2015. 

Pike Research’s report, “The U.S. Energy Service Company Market”, describes the continuing evolution of the ESCO market, detailing drivers and barriers to deeper penetration of energy efficiency in the U.S. economy.  The study focuses on the role that performance contracting is playing as a vehicle for financing efficiency projects for public entities that face budget and credit limitations, as well as the convergence of new technologies and service offerings into traditional energy conservation projects.  Key industry players are profiled in depth and market forecasts extend through 2020.  An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.