The Building Advisor

Sauer Incorporated's HQ in Jacksonville, Florida

If the existing building stock of commercial real estate in the U.S. is an agreed-upon goldmine for energy savings, hospitals and health care facilities represent a pot of gold at the end of the efficiency rainbow.

Hospitals use about 2.5 times the amount of energy as a similar-sized commercial building, according to a 2009 estimate published in Environmental Leader. “As a sector, hospitals and health care facilities account for a disproportionate amount of energy use and emissions, EL’s article “Hospitals Due for Energy Efficiency Overhaul” states.

Ed Brady made the healthcare / efficiency connection with BuildingAdvice. Brady, a Service Account Representative for mechanical contracting company Sauer, Inc.’s Columbus, OH location, started using BuildingAdvice in early 2010. In only a few months of using the efficiency platform for commercial buildings, Brady had quoted $750,000 in energy efficiency retrofits to Fayette County Memorial Hospital, a two-building, critical access hospital in Columbus.

“Fayette was ready to think more seriously about their energy spend,” Brady said by phone in August.

Sauer, a four-branch company with an annual revenue of $478 million, had committed to pursuing energy services as part of its overall corporate strategy this year. Sauer, Inc. sister company Ruthrauff Sauer, based in Pittsburgh, PA, recommended BuildingAdvice to Brady and his associates in January of this year. The following month, Brady was putting AirAdvice’s industry-leading energy services platform to work.

“We needed a competitive edge to both maintain existing service agreements and expand new ones,” said Brady. He worked with his AirAdvice support representative, Zack Buquet, to discuss and design a marketing strategy around the product. Together, they agreed that offering free benchmarking was the strategy that best fit Sauer’s needs.

Fayette County Memorial Hospital

“The contract customers weren’t biting on the energy services,” said Brady of his existing client base. “We found that by offering free benchmarking, you will definitely get potential new clients and some nice first meetings,” Brady said. “It doesn’t really take that much of my time to do the benchmarking.”

Brady had done roughly seven benchmarks for a variety of property types when he approached Fayette County Memorial Hospital, whose leadership showed a very favorable reaction to the energy benchmark – especially considering one building scored the lowest on the EnergyStar ratings scale possible, the other very low.

After performing a complete canvas of all mechanical equipment, Brady and associates found boilers from 1974, outdated cooling towers, and rooftop units near ASHRAE end-of-life. Sauer budgeted replacement costs, estimated paybacks and used a BuildingAdvice Energy Audit to propose, among other retrofits:

• $500,000 to replace old boilers and pipes
• $185,000 for rooftop unit replacement
• $20,000 for lighting

The meeting went well, and the hospital is seeking funding by to pay for the bulk of the work by early 2011. In the meantime, the hospital will use in-house resources to address the low-cost recommendation from BuildingAdvice’s Energy Assessment to replace the lighting system. Savings from these upgrades will be show results to be evaluated in January, particularly in electrical usage. The hospital is then eligible to push the lighting retrofit through the local utility to become eligible for rebates.

Brady is clear that his relationship with Fayette is due 100% to starting the energy conversation and following up with BuildingAdvice reports. Doing the assessment allowed him to get in the door, survey the entire facility and identify all of this project work.

Ruthrauff Sauer, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Moreover, Brady has discussed ongoing continuous energy monitoring – another service available through BuildingAdvice – after the hospital has its equipment replaced, to monitor, manage, and ensure ongoing energy savings “in real time,” as Brady puts it.

“BuildingAdvice not only gets people’s attention, it’s useful,” said Brady. “We have had some great successes already.”

Very exciting news around AirAdvice. Joanna Turpin, Contributing Editor of The Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News and Contractor Excellence, interviewed our very own Tim Kensok, Director of Business Development, yesterday for an article in The NEWS’ November issue on commercial energy audits. After speaking with Tim for the better part of an hour, Joanna called Tim “a virtual fount of knowledge!”

What else is going on? In the Charlotte Business Journal, contributing writer Julie Bird wrote this article last week: Finding a work force for energy. It asks what mid-career engineers can be doing to train themselves for a transition into the energy industry. Funny, Tim talked about that quite a bit for The NEWS. In fact, The Building Advisor has always known what a big part of our services sales training represents, but to hear Tim talk about it, it’s almost as if BuildingAdvice were secondary. What we’re really focused on as a company is helping HVAC contractors find ways to deliver and benefit from offering a new offering: energy savings.

So if there are any contractors in Charlotte who saw the article and want to know more, all they have to do is check out one of our free webinars (or the materials we archive online).

Lastly, in Philadelphia, The Energy Commercialization Institute awarded half a million dollars to eight research projects that will “advance the development of promising energy technologies” (Energy Commercialization gets research money – Philadelphia Business Journal). The Institute was set up with state money and established by Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University.

$160,522 was awarded to five business-university partnerships from the Institute’s Energy Sponsored Research Agreement Fund, which funds projects that businesses are paying universities to help them with, and matches the amount of money being put up by the businesses. Another $350,000 went to three university partnerships from the Energy Translational Research Fund, which provides money to research projects involving more than one university that it thinks will produce results that can be commercialized.

This time around the projects included automotive and industrial applications, low cost printable solar cells, energy storage from smart grid technology, wind turbines, greenhouse-gas emission-free hydrogen fuel from fossil fuel, the development of liquid fuels from low-quality coals and inexpensive components for solar cells.

No energy efficiency technology.

Images courtesy Flickriver and Energy Commercialization Institute.

A month ago,Chris H., Assistant Global Energy Solutions Manager at Solutia Inc., posted “Five Overlooked Building Improvements with Quick ROI that Increase Energy Efficiency” to myfacilities.net.

In it, he touches on a variety of utility-saving solutions, the most pertinent to The Building Advisor being number 3, Energy Management Systems.

He writes,

Greg Galusha of MacDonald Miller in Bellevue, WA

“An energy management system consists of a combination of building management systems and advanced software solutions that work together to control a building’s HVAC operations…The system ensures optimal energy usage, resulting in greater efficiency and lower utility costs.”

He then posted the post to the Building Owners and Managers (BOMA) International LinkedIn Group under the question header, “How can you increase energy efficiency and reduce utilities?”

To date, there have been 56 comments.

Some of them have been from blog spotlightees before, like Greg Galusha of MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions (“MacDonald-Miller Finds BuildingAdvice Perfect Fit for Energy Efficiency in Small to Midsize Buildings“) and Zack Buquet, one of our own here at AirAdvice and a Building Advisor contributor.

The long and the short of it is this: talk of replacing HVAC units, building envelopes, window film, demand response, lighting, and reflective insulators, elevator motor “soft starters.” From the short and sweet to vociferously verbose, there is no shortage of ideas out there on how to save dough on energy. We just need to DO it.

Great comments from Gary Markowitz, President, Kilojolts Consulting Group, Inc. & KCG Energy LLC. Gary touches on culture – shifting the mindset of a company toward energy efficiency as a priority. Julius Walcyznski at Canada’s Pulse Energy has some great things to say as well regarding occupant engagement.

Zack Buquet, Energy Services Business Consultant at AirAdvice

But here at AirAdvice, we’re looking at the causes of energy waste in buildings, and work with HVAC contractors to attack the problem. Those contractors in turn work directly with the building owners and managers BOMA serves, the decisionmakers behind energy efficiency decisions. Until those owners and managers recognize that they are throwing money away unnecessarily, the building’s occupant engagement can’t happen.

BOMA’s LinkedIn discussion also contains quite a bit of chatter around energy benchmarking, assessments and audits; it’s great to hear these words being used with knowledge, even if it is within a fairly specific community.

Mike Zimmerman, CEO of BuildingIQ in Sydney, Australia, wrote:

Mike Zimmerman, CEO of BuildingIQ

“…Energy Reporting systems such as Lucid Designs provides energy-use metrics from meters and the BMS [Building Management System?]. There are also now Energy Optimization technologies that supervise how the BMS runs and and make the building much more intelligent. Our system, called BuildingIQ…is a Predictive Energy Optimization system that incorporates energy prices, weather forecasts and ASHRAE comfort models to optimize energy use, cost and comfort. This type of proactive system that interacts with the BMS can save 10-20% of total building energy and is paid for on a subscription basis…”

Throughout the conversation, claims of savings between 10-30% on utility bills are made.

Where do you think a realistic savings percentage average from the use of energy management systems looks like?

And is this savings driven more by occupants or building systems?

Drop us a comment!

Shell Ridge Property Management Co., Inc. maintains approximately 300,000 square feet of commercial space in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 1980, Shell Ridge has specialized in asset management strategies for small medical offices. Its 15 buildings range from 40,000 to 100,000 square feet.

Shell Ridge’s medical office properties represent a desirable portfolio for mechanical contractors. Marina Mechanical, a 50-year-old company headquartered in San Leandro, Calif., began maintenance for a Pleasanton, Calif. Shell Ridge property five years ago. In the ensuing years of service, energy conservation was rarely discussed.

But when Marina began feeling heat from its competitors in the middle of a down market, it turned to its best customers to expand relationships.

Marina had obtained training on the BuildingAdvice energy services diagnostic platform in November of 2009, and began the process of leveraging its action-oriented reports as a differentiator.

Gamechanging Energy Services Offering

“We offered to show both the property manager and owner at Shell Ridge, some sample energy benchmarking and assessment reports,” says Denny Mann, Vice President of Service with Marina Mechanical, when explaining how he got the energy conversation started. “The property manager was actually very educated on energy benchmarking, and as a result, very interested. Once she saw the type of information the BuildingAdvice reports gave, she was extremely interested.”

“BuildingAdvice differentiated Marina from other mechanical contractors waiting to get their foot in the door,” says Denny.

Denny offered to do complimentary energy assessments on two Shell Ridge buildings. Shell Ridge has several buildings where Peak Day Pricing, a program of local utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), would come into play.

Peak Day Pricing (PDP) is PG&E’s demand response program, which acts as an incentive for business owners to curtail their facility’s energy use during times of peak usage. During the summer, PDP substantially raises energy prices on “event days” (above 98 degrees); businesses have a 24 hour notice when there will be an event to lower their energy usage for that day.  By charging a very high rate on event days, PG&E motivates customers to invest in strategies that will lower their consumption overall, and especially on the peak days.

Peak day pricing is specialized to the PGE territory, but not a unique phenomenon.

“Peak day pricing is definitely acting as a market stimulator for energy services and spurs client interest,” Denny said. “I think soon people will be lined up to get involved with energy reduction conversations.”

Taking Action

In going over the results of the assessment reports, conversations began about what Marina could do to help Shell Ridge avoid demand charges across the company’s property portfolio.

Which led to a second meeting with the owner, and an agreement to generate Energy Benchmarking Reports on all of the Shell Ridge properties to determine Energy Star scores.

“BuildingAdvice reports marked our transition from just being their mechanical contractor to forming a partnership. It completely transformed the relationship,” says Denny.

With portfolio-wide benchmarks on the docket, Marina took recommendations from the first two properties’ energy assessments to Shell Ridge ownership.

“BuildingAdvice helped us identify that the building was running when it didn’t need to be,” said Denny. Supply and reset strategies were created, so that the building was not not pouring 55 degree air into the interior when clients were not there, all of which were identified in the report.

Two low- and no-cost recommendations were approved and completed April of this year. Shell Ridge made the decision to complete the service based on the return on investment outlined in BuildingAdvice’s Energy Assessment Report. In addition to revisions to lighting and HVAC schedules based on peak day pricing, the report showed a seven-year payback on a demand control vent.

“We’re letting those changes take effect,” said Denny. After a 12-month period, savings achieved will be tabulated.

Next Steps and the Advent of Mandatory Energy Disclosure

As of late June, Marina wrapped up the energy benchmarking process on all of the Shell Ridge portfolio. Based on buildings’ Energy Star scores, Marina will make recommendations on which properties need energy assessments.

Looking ahead, the mandates of California’s Assembly Bill 1103 (AB 1103) state that non-residential business owners or their agents are required to input energy consumption and other building data into the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager system, which generates an energy efficiency rating for the building.

As of January 1, 2010, AB 1103 mandated disclosure of a building’s energy data and rating of the previous year to prospective buyers and lessees of the entire building or lenders financing the entire building. That deadline has since been pushed back, and the task of devising a disclosure schedule has fallen to the California Energy Commission (CEC). The CEC is in the process of drafting a new compliance schedule; January 1, 2011 is speculated to be the new required disclosure date.

New York City, Washington DC and other regions have adopted similar required energy data disclosure. Smart owners and managers are on the move to meet deadlines.

Net Impact

The ability to offer energy services differentiates providers. Marina knew a competitor was making an aggressive play for service agreements in Shell Ridge’s multiple locations. Yet, in the same timeframe Marina stayed in discussions with Shell Ridge by centering their meetings around energy services through BuildingAdvice.

“After going through BuildingAdvice training, we quickly realized that being able to offer our customers a systematic, low-cost / no-cost approach to reducing their energy consumption would change the way we were viewed.”

BuildingAdvice has “helped us retain current business and significantly raised the bar on the services we offer.”

Energy. It’s what AirAdvice is all about: how buildings can most efficiently use this natural resource to operate, and how a focus on energy services can improve the bottom line of the businesses of our contractor channel partners while helping the building owners and managers they serve.

Starting July 22, we’ll be walking our talk in our next free webinar series, “Energize Your Service and Retrofit Sales.” This three-part series offers HVAC contractors concise sales strategy on using BuildingAdvice to build business. Topics include:

Part 1: Use Energy Services to Ensure Maintenance Agreement Renewals

Thursday, July 22, 2010 1:00pm Eastern (10:00am Pacific)

Understanding your service business metrics. What are energy services and how do they fit into a planned maintenance program? What to do in advance of your service renewal date. Meeting with your client prior to next service date anniversary. Qualifying your customers’ interest with automated ENERGY STAR™ benchmarking. Adding energy services to existing service agreements.

Part 2: Winning New Service Business With Energy as the Differentiator

Thursday, July 29, 2010 1:00pm Eastern (10:00am Pacific)

Sales management: getting your team ready. Targeting prospects who you can help with your energy services. Getting a meeting with the right person. Successful prospect meetings. Qualifying prospects up-front with energy benchmarking. Selling an energy assessment. Writing winning proposals.

Part 3: Use Energy Services to Drive Project Revenue

Thursday, August 5, 2010 1:00pm Eastern (10:00am Pacific)

Targeting the right accounts and the discovery meeting. How to ensure retrofits continue to drive savings. Monitoring and verification. Selling an energy audit, closing retrofits using the audit report and partnering with your local utility.

If you’re considering adding energy management to your company’s service offerings or are looking to improve an existing energy service offering, start with this educational series on starting an energy management conversation and building valuable client relationships through a focus on energy cost savings. Register for free here.

How has BuildingAdvice helped other contractors? Read MacDonald-Miller Finds BuildingAdvice Perfect Fit for Energy Efficiency in Small to Midsize Buildings.

Image by Whitney for Congress.

While you’re catching up on your email from the holiday weekend, here’s a grab-bag of pertinent and interesting articles from the past few days:

The Case for PACE: Clean-Energy Financing for Commercial Buildings Holds Promise – Costar Group

Greenprint Foundation Announces Leitner as Chief Executive Officer – Building Energy Performance News

Government Gives Out $76 Million for Green Buildings – EarthTechling

Lab at St. Elizabeths is local team’s entry in green-building research center competition – The Washington Post

Joulex strives to keep network power management simple – GreenTech Pastures on ZDnet

You might remember GreenPastures writer Heather Clancy from our little poll on attractive greentech writers. More importantly, she’s joined Melissa Hincha-Ownby in covering this energy management company of late. The IT-focused energy management company is getting quite a bit of attention of late. To reference “When Harry Met Sally,” (you know the scene? After Meg Ryan’s “performance” in Katz’ Delicatessen, when the lady talks to her waiter…?)

We’ll have what Joulex is having.

"I’ll have what she's having."

Joulex, “agentless” power management for enterprise systems (“if it’s on the network the Joulex Energy Manager software can turn it off. That includes everything — IP phones, servers, routers, hubs and such,” says Clancy’s post). CEO Tom Noonan says these policies can help save between 40 percent and 60 percent of the IP device power consumption in an organization, with an estimated ROI in six months.

And lastly, how could The Building Advisor skip this gem:

Beekeeper in Dusseldorf Biomonitoring

Honeybees Deployed to Test Air Quality at German Airports – New York Times

The idea being to sell the honey made from airport-based bees, to prove to the general public that the air cannot be polluted if the honey tastes that good.

When in Dusseldorf…bring The Building Advisor back some Dusseldorf Natural.

Images courtesy The New York Times, djueat, and From the Front

Greg Galusha, Senior Account Manager at MacDonald Miller in Bellevue, WA

Greg Galusha, Senior Account Manager of MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, started using the BuildingAdvice platform of energy diagnostics for commercial buildings after attending a webinar last October.

MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions is a 45-year-old company with six regional offices throughout the Pacific Northwest and corporate offices in Seattle, Wash. With a staff that includes 21 LEED accredited professionals, 4 Certified Energy Managers, a Utility Incentives/Rebates Coordinator, and over 9 million square feet of LEED projects under its belt and in‐house energy modeling services, MacDonald-Miller’s Green Team is formidable.

When Galusha was looking to beef up MacDonald-Miller’s maintenance division, he sought a tool that would give the company a competitive edge. Growing from a base in mechanical design since 1965, the company has evolved to help its clients manage energy consumption as an offshoot of mechanical, but in the last few years sought to up its game in energy services offerings with a team of engineers (see above Green Team). The Green Team is well suited to the larger buildings MacDonald-Miller services, but smaller properties needed to be serviced differently to be economically viable for both parties.

Speaking by phone from the Seattle office, Galusha realized that for small to midsize properties, “I didn’t have a comprehensive tool for my maintenance customers.” Adding that BuildingAdvice’s target property size – under 200,000 sf – comprised roughly 80% of the business for his maintenance department, Galusha was looking for the right diagnostic. “A bigger contractor like us has a lot of tools in the toolbelt,” Galusha explained, “but BuildingAdvice dovetails nicely with the others, especially for maintenance.”

With energy engineers at his disposal, how does Galusha find the science behind BuildingAdvice? He’s found BuildingAdvice to be a scientifically accurate tool he can trust with a holistic perspective into building intelligence, and the right-sized solution for small to midsized buildings.

Galusha shares BuildingAdvice’s straightforward, action-oriented reports directly with the facility manager. Building staff respond well to the reports, finding them easy to interpret and setting the stage for “a more fun conversation” than just “What’s your price?” From there, the way is paved for recommending adjustments, upgrades and improvements.

The Hyatt Regency Bellevue expansion by MacDonald Miller

“The customer sees the need because the tool shows we’re right. Customers are very receptive to the reports, especially when they realize its going to save them money on their bottom line,” said Galusha.

One example was a 10-year-old, 25,000 sf building in Kirkland, WA, where a tenant renewal prompted the owners to check out the building’s energy performance. They were right to be worried: the building had an EnergyStar score of 17. There was definitely room for improvement.

After running the Energy Benchmark Report and sharing it with the owners, Galusha proposed a maintenance and energy services agreement totaling approximately $4,900. He provided additional options for test and balance work ($12,000). Confirmation and verification options were discussed. MacDonald Miller will complete the first assessment, then come back and revisit the test and balance work.

“In a similar building, we put extra time into the Energy Savings Assessment and made minor control changes. Now we’re up two EnergyStar points in one month,” Galusha reports.

Is it normal to see savings that quickly? “Typically we do see savings. Lots of underqualified shops make shortsighted decisions, and when we take over their contracts, we’re able to realize energy reduction quickly. BuildingAdvice gives us a way to quantify savings.”

Galusha explains that he could be using Portfolio Manager, the Department of Energy’s free tool to benchmark energy performance, but “by itself, it would be of no benefit to customer. The BuildingAdvice Energy Assessment is a high value report, and it gives us the opportunity to monitor that building’s energy for our clients.”

“In the right places, BuildingAdvice can be very profitable for us.”

“We’ve been around for 90 years,” says Dave Stroh, co-owner of Wolin Mechanical Electrical in West Des Moines, Ia. “We know what affects operations.”

Dave’s a straight shooter. And what he’s talking about is the difference between a free energy assessment from a utility company, which might measure power usage and draw, versus BuildingAdvice’s ability to reduce energy costs in the commercial buildings he services by making specific recommendations for adjustments and improvements.

Dave, who added electrical services to Wolin Mechanical after purchasing the business in 1996, acquired the BuildingAdvice program seven months ago. By April, his BuildingAdvice sensors were booked out three months in advance. He told The Building Advisor, “Frankly, I’m having a hard time keeping up with customer demand for energy services as a result of running BuildingAdvice’s Energy Assessment Reports. It just sets the table for everything.”

As Dave says, the Energy Savings Assessment report says to his customers, “here’s how we can help you.” How does he know it’s working? “They can see it in energy bills. I see it in smiles, in dollars, and in repeat business.”

Preventive Maintenance services aren’t like a yard, Dave explains. You can’t see that it’s mowed when you’re done. “But, with BuildingAdvice, I’m able to quantify and show how beneficial these services are,” he explains. “It’s the ability to put a tangible into an intangible market.”

“None of my peers offer anything like this,” he adds. “Our building managers have been thrilled with the results.”

Another thing Dave’s happy about is the customer service he gets through the BuildingAdvice support team. Dave reports to always being able to reach a customer service representative on the phone, and most often gets the answer he needs while he has that person on the phone – not 24 hours or more later. “From the top down, the AirAdvice culture is really customer service oriented,” says Dave. “I’m really impressed with where the rubber meets the road.”

Dave Stroh is co-owner of Wolin Mechanical Electrical in West Des Moines, IA. Image courtesy Wolin Mechanical Electrical.

As a followup to Greener, Greater, a Long Way Away?, our blog post from April 16 on New York City’s commercial energy efficiency legislation, The Building Advisor caught up with Rob Ragozine, president of Donnelly Sustainable Energy Services in Queens, New York, which uses BuildingAdvice as part of its

efficiency services for commercial buildings.

The Greener, Greater Buildings Plan may be the most sweeping energy efficiency legislation yet, but the deadline for most buildings to begin required energy benchmarking is still a year away. So, we checked in with Rob to feel the calm before the storm.

“There’s lots of buzz about the plan,” Rob said, but not a lot of benchmarking studies – yet. Owners and managers are “generally aware of plan, but don’t understand the detail.” As a result, Donnelly is currently doing a lot of owner / manager education on the finer points.

One such point is the fact that benchmarking data will become publicly available in September, 2012. Energy efficiency stats will be searchable by building address, as well as being available on tax assessment web sites.

As a result, Rob articulates incisively to his clients, “There needs to be a strategy involved.”

Many owners know their heating, cooling, and lighting systems need updating. With a year’s lead time, Rob points out, why should any building go on the books as having a poor efficiency score? Owners are considering implementing improvements before getting benchmarked, so as not to get stuck with an ugly EnergyStar score available to prospective tenants in a competitive marketplace.

“We’re going through a market transformation right now,” Rob said. “With the market crash in the last couple of years, tenants have become more savvy. They know the effect of utilities on lease rates.” With benchmarking scores soon-to-be available using a simple internet search, buildings with noncompetitive energy efficiency scores will be quickly discarded.

Rob’s most forward thinking clients look at the benchmarking requirement as more than a box checking exercise, but a plan to identify next steps. “Benchmarking is a starting point,” says Rob. BuildingAdvice, which Rob has used to benchmark and increase energy efficiency starting with the Donnelly Headquarters, speaks to these tiers with its tiered reporting structure: Energy Benchmarking, Energy Audit, and Energy Assessment Reports. And without reports, how can you sell energy efficiency, a product people can’t actually see until their utility bills go down after implementing recommendations?

“The biggest hurdle is that a lot of this is conceptual sale right now,” said Rob. Making the mechanics of energy efficiency more concrete was one of Rob’s goals with his energy seminar, “The Cost of Doing Nothing,” addressing what he sees as a laissez-faire attitude to “money people pay for utilities they’ll never get back.”

Donnelly Mechanical is one of the largest HVAC contractors in the New York City service area providing both construction and maintenance/emergency services. Clients range from small independent businesses to large corporations and include commercial tenants, building owners and building managers in the five boroughs of New York City as well as Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties. Donnelly Mechanical services many of New York City’s most prominent corporations such as Reuters, Major League Baseball, Bank of America and Latham & Watkins, among others.

Great reports this week from around the country on incentives for energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings. In Maryland, the Annapolis Capital reports that Robert Hannon, president and chief executive officer of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., organized a recent roundtable of energy efficiency professionals at the Staples Hanover Fulfillment Center, home of Maryland’s largest solar-panel system atop the facility’s 200,000 square foot roof.

It was under this roof that Peter Garver, founder and president of the Garver Development Group discussed one of our favorite topics, the marketability of energy efficient buildings (BuildingAdvisor covered this in “Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings Lends Edge in Sacramento”).

Also, Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) was able to educate business leaders on the utility’s Smart Energy Savers Program offerings, which receive funding through EmPower Maryland, an energy-efficiency act established in 2007 to reduce peak demand and per capita electricity consumption by 2015.

Through the program, businesses can get incentives which typically cover up to 50 percent of the total cost for retrofit projects, including HVAC systems and other commercial building equipment, and up to 75 percent of the incremental cost for new construction projects.

BGE manager of strategic customer planning Paul Frey told the assembled stakeholders that the program was being underutilitzed. (Here in Oregon we were so gung-ho for our incentives the Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) had to be reformed by increasing accountability and capping programs for renewables, among other changes).

In New Mexico, nonprofits that operate in the Public Service Co. of New Mexico’s service territory still have time to apply for energy-efficiency grants of up to $5,000. As reported by the New Mexico Business Weekly, “The PNM Fund, a division of the PNM Resources Foundation, will award $250,000 in Reduce-Your-Use grants for nonprofits to implement energy-saving measures that lower their electric bills and help the environment.”

However…the “room for improvement” award goes to the American South. The New York Times’ Green Inc. reported Monday on a study from Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University. Check out the opening of the report:

“The South is the largest and fastest-growing region in the United States, with 36 percent of the nation’s population and a considerably larger share of the nation’s total energy consumption (44 percent) and supply (48 percent).”

It gets worse.

“…the South consumes 43 percent of the nation’s electric power, 40 percent of the energy consumed in residences and 38 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings.”

Apparently, “The South also has the lowest penetration of energy-efficient products, and per-capita spending on energy-efficiency programs is lower than the national average.”