By Kevin McCarty
May 3, 2010

The Conference of Mayors in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping cities assess how ENERGY STAR resources can support their Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) assisted programs.

The first of three webinars focused on how ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager can assist mayors and their staff in tracking the energy performance of public and private buildings within their cities.

At the April 6 session, Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran praised the ENERGY STAR partnership, citing results from a recent Conference survey that “improvements to city-owned properties were a top priority for the use of EECBG funds.” This same survey, Cochran pointed out, “showed that 71 percent of the 221 cities surveyed expected to incorporate ENERGY STAR tools and resources into their EECBG programs.”

In describing how Portfolio Manager can support cities with their EECBG programs, Leslie Cook, Public Sector Manager with EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program, told the participants how ENERGY STAR resources can help get long-term, sustained efficiency and climate programs up and running.

“We have programs for virtually any market in your community that may own those buildings, run those buildings or use energy in those buildings in the commercial sectors, such as offices, retail and hotels, public sector as well as health care providers, small businesses and congregations,” she said.

Cook explained the many opportunities that exist in the building sector to reduce a city’s energy use and carbon emissions. “About 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in this country are from the operation of commercial buildings and industrial facilities,” adding that “what we have seen in our work with partners is about 30 percent of the energy we use in commercial buildings is wasted.” Cook then pointed out that a reduction in energy use of 10 percent is possible with little or no cost to building owners and managers.

“Tools we offer at ENERGY STAR, such as Portfolio Manager, will allow you not only to track your progress and report out on your EECBG projects, but throughout your whole portfolio you can track and monitor your energy use and progress on buildings communitywide,” she said.

Cook reminded the session participants that ENERGY STAR tools can also be used locally “to spread the word on success you are having in making buildings more efficient” and highlighted other ways the program can recognize successful efficiency efforts, such as becoming an ENERGY STAR Partner and securing other designations. She praised Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson for his leadership on building efficiency, which recently earned him the 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award. Cook explained how program resources supported Abramson’s “Louisville Kilowatt Crackdown,” a citywide initiative where more than 100 building owners participated in a campaign to track and report on their energy savings.

With more than 120,000 buildings throughout the U.S. now being benchmarked using Portfolio Manager, Cook described how this “free, online software tool” allows city officials to “take information from monthly energy bills from your utility and translate it into easy to understand metrics that help you diagnose where you need to prioritize your investments in efficiency and where you can track the effectiveness of your efficiency programs.”

For more information on ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager, go to www.energystar.gov/benchmark, and for additional details on the USCM/EPA webinars, including the archived April 6 session, go to the website www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/energystar.