Better Buildings Initiative August 2015

Each month, the Energy Department’s Better Buildings Initiative and partnering organizations lead or participate in webinars, events, and conferences. This monthly update aims to provide information to help your organization stay informed on the latest opportunities to get involved in the Better Buildings Initiative.

Upcoming Webinars, Peer Exchange Calls, Events, and Conferences

Better Buildings Webinars

Better Buildings webinars highlight partners and real results to help your organization succeed and advance its energy goals. These webinars are held monthly and each webinar features a new topic.

Please email us to suggest a webinar topic or view the archive of webinars.

Energy Models 101 for Building Owners, Managers and Tenants: Strategies for Using Iterative Energy Models to Drive Project Savings

Date and time: September 8th, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET

Presenters: Mark Chambers, District of Columbia Department of General Services; Kristin Field, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL); Amir Roth, Department of Energy

Overview: This webinar shares strategies and resources building owners, managers, and tenants can use to transform the energy model from a one–time report provided at the end of design to an iterative tool used throughout the design process to drive energy savings. NREL will highlight its Building Energy Modeling Guide for Building Owners, DOE will provide a brief primer on modeling, and Better Buildings Challenge partner, the District of Columbia will share case studies demonstrating the value of getting to know your energy model.

Better Buildings Peer Exchange Calls

Better Buildings partners are invited to participate in peer exchange calls to share resources and plan future program efforts.

Better Buildings Residential Network – Staged Upgrades: Homeowner–focused Strategies for Encouraging Energy Upgrades over Time

Date and time: August 20th, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET

Overview: Join this call and learn about program design and communications strategies for working directly with homeowners to encourage them to undertake energy efficiency upgrades over time. Discuss how to effectively present upgrade options to homeowners, build lasting relationships, and leverage opportunities that arise as homeowners replace equipment and appliances, remodel, prepare to sell a home and encounter other events that offer opportunities to increase home energy efficiency. Please come ready to share any questions or insights you have—and to offer feedback to the U.S. Department of Energy about how best to support these kinds of staged upgrade strategies.

Better Buildings Alliance Energy Management & Information Systems (EMIS) Technology Team Call

Date and time: August 21st, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET

Presenters: Jessica Granderson and Reshma Singh, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Overview: EMIS can enable significant energy savings, often with rapid payback. Participate in this call to understand the latest findings in increasing the market adoption of EMIS.

Discussion Topics:

Developing sector–specific packaged energy information systems

Join the conversation here.

Better Buildings Conferences

The Energy Department is planning the following Better Buildings events or conferences to amplify and leverage successful partner models and solutions.

Better Plants Conference Track at the World Energy Engineering Conference, Orlando, Florida

Date: September 30th – October 2nd

Overview: Better Plants partners and stakeholders will participate in a series of panels and special events over the course of the three–day conference. Companies including Darigold, Eaton, Koch Industries, ArcelorMittal, 3M and General Mills will be discussing energy management topics such as benchmarking plant energy performance, implementing new technologies, identifying efficiency opportunities, and installing CHP systems. A limited number of discounted registrations are available to partners on a first–come, first–served basis. Email Clifton.Yin@ee.doe.gov for more information.

View the program here.

Industry Events and Conferences

The Energy Department and Better Buildings partners are speaking or participating in panel discussions at the following upcoming industry events or conferences.

AFCOM – Data Center World 2015, National Harbor, Maryland

Date: September 20th – 23rd

Overview: At this conference, professionals managing and operating enterprise level data centers, server rooms, and cloud and colocation facilities will present on a variety of topics facing the industry. The Energy Department will moderate a panel of Better Buildings partners and highlight solutions to help overcome financing challenges, capacity issues, and resiliency.

Other Opportunities to Participate in Better Buildings

Better Buildings programs are looking to hear from you. Review this month’s opportunities to engage, share your expertise, and make recommendations to advance current and future activities.

Planning on attending Greenbuild in Washington D.C. this November? We want you to participate in our session!

Better Buildings is hosting an education labs session to spotlight the diversity of companies partnering with the Energy Department to set ambitious energy savings goals and share their successful strategies to cut energy waste across their portfolio of buildings. We are currently recruiting partners to join us and share their success stories, energy efficiency resources, and tips for reducing the energy footprint of their existing and/or new portfolio.

Please email Holly Carr if you are attending Greenbuild and are interested in participating or presenting in this session.

Water Savings is what’s next for Better Buildings Challenge partners

We are working with partners to set water savings goals, report their progress, and share water saving solutions with their peers and the public. Email your DOE Better Buildings Challenge contact for more details.

Share your ideas on design and construction of high–performance tenant spaces by September 30th

The Energy Department is seeking stakeholder input to inform a study on the design and construction of energy efficient tenant spaces in commercial buildings. Stakeholders can provide feedback on a variety of topics related to the design and construction of energy efficient tenant spaces, including: design features, processes, and best practices, as well as policies, financial metrics, modeling approaches, and measurement and verification tools.

Click here for details on the request for information. All responses should be submitted following the instructions in the RFI to SeparateSpaces2015BLDG0012@ee.doe.gov.

Join the Interior Lighting Campaign for resources on how to upgrade your interior lighting and save 60 percent

If you are a building owner, operator, or manager committed to energy efficiency and high quality lighting in your facilities, accomplish these goals plus gain recognition for your efforts by joining the Better Building Alliance’s Interior Lighting Campaign.

Organizations who join the campaign as participants commit to: evaluating their facilities’ troffer lighting use and adopting high efficiency troffers (e.g., LED lamps, retrofit kits, LED fixtures, and ultra–high efficiency fluorescent systems) and associated lighting controls where it is technically justified and economically feasible. The goal for ILC is to replace 100,000 standard troffers, or roughly 10 million square feet of lighted space, with high efficiency troffer lighting by May 2016.

Visit the ILC website and learn more about joining today.

Better Plants Supply Chain Pilot

The Energy Department is working with a select group of existing Better Plants and Better Buildings Challenge partners to extend the benefits of energy efficiency to their suppliers. Through this pilot initiative, DOE will partner with participating suppliers to set energy saving goals, develop energy management plans, and track and report progress. Referring partners receive recognition and an annual report of supplier energy savings, while their suppliers receive technical assistance including priority access to free energy audits from DOE’s Industrial Assessment Centers.

To learn more, email betterbuildings@ee.doe.gov.

Better Buildings Home Upgrade Program Accelerator

The Better Buildings Home Upgrade Program Accelerator supports residential efficiency programs managed by utilities, state and local governments, and non–profit organizations as they promote energy upgrade services for homes across the country. Home Upgrade Program Accelerator Partners will minimize costs associated with managing energy upgrade programs while improving overall program effectiveness. The Home Upgrade Program Accelerator is looking for additional residential energy efficiency programs to become Partners as they demonstrate a range of best practices related to optimizing operations, such as adoption of common data standards—called HPXML—to enable streamlined data exchange.

Review the fact sheet and webinar for information about the benefits, commitments, support, and promotional opportunities of joining, or get in touch with us by sending an email to Better Buildings Support.