April Top 10 Solutions

The 10 most-viewed resources from the past month include toolkits for Smart Labs programs, energy efficiency project financing, and solutions from partners IHG Hotels & Resorts and New York City Housing Authority. Check them out!

1. Efficiency-Resilience Nexus Resources

This easy-to-use resource navigator helps building operators, state and local officials, utilities, and other organizations take steps to build resilience and increase their ability to bounce back from natural disasters and other stressors. Resources include roadmaps for community-wide resilience planning, financing and design guidance for building owners and operators, and webinars featuring experts who have undertaken resilience improvements. Read more.

2. IHG Hotels & Resorts: Green Engage™ Sustainability Platform

IHG Hotels & Resorts, a Better Buildings partner, created the IHG Green Engage™ system to manage its energy, water, and waste reduction efforts in a global, franchised business environment. The platform allows hotels to track, measure, and report on their carbon footprint and utility consumption and offers more than 200 ‘Green Solutions’ with detailed technical guidance that hotels can employ on-site to achieve greater sustainability. Green Engage can help hotels save up to 25% – about $90,000 – annually on energy. Read more.

3. Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) Toolkit

This collection of resources enables state and local communities to benefit from the experience of partners who have successfully established and implemented performance contracting. It includes best practices and innovative approaches that states, cities, and K-12 schools have used. Users can easily find the information they need at each stage of their ESPC decision-making process. Read more.

4. Smart Labs Accelerator Toolkit

This toolkit features a step-by-step guide to help your organization plan, assess, optimize, and manage a Smart Labs program to reduce energy intensity, mitigate safety and health risks, and improve ventilation in laboratory buildings. The toolkit also includes tasks, resources, and other deliverables to direct you through a systems-based management approach. Read more.

5. New York City Housing Authority: 344 East 28th Street

To address energy conservation challenges faced at its 344 East 28th Street multifamily apartment complex, Better Buildings partner New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) conducted an extensive lighting, heating, and hot-water modernization project. Energy-efficient upgrades made to these building systems, as well as NYCHA’s first-ever deployment of renewable technologies, resulted in 37% annual energy savings and nearly $114,000 in cost savings. Read more.

6. Wastewater Energy Management Toolkit

Municipal wastewater treatment systems in the U.S. consume approximately 30 billion kWh annually, and their operations are typically the largest energy users in a community. This toolkit enables water resource recovery facilities to improve their energy efficiency, providing best practices and innovative approaches successfully used by wastewater facilities to establish and implement energy management plans. It is based on the work of DOE's Better Buildings Sustainable Wastewater Infrastructure of the Future (SWIFt) Accelerator. Read more.

7. Clean Energy for Low-Income Communities (CELICA) Toolkit

Low-income households spend about 8% of their income on energy costs, three times more than average. Better Buildings Accelerator partners committed $335 million to help 155,000 low-income households access energy efficiency and renewable energy benefits, collecting resources and lessons learned into the CELICA Toolkit. The toolkit includes a guide to program development and replicable program models for single-family and multifamily housing, as well as community solar. Read more.

8. Green Revolving Funds Toolkit

This collection of solutions provides guidance on establishing a green revolving fund to overcome a lack of dedicated capital. A green revolving fund is an internal capital pool dedicated to funding energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainability projects that generate cost savings. A portion of those savings is then used to replenish the fund, establishing an ongoing funding vehicle to help drive energy efficiency and sustainability investment over time. Read more.

9. Smart Energy Analytics Campaign Toolkit

With analytic software applied to everyday building operations, owners are using data to their advantage and realizing cost savings through improved energy management. This toolkit collects the best resources from DOE’s Smart Energy Analytics Campaign to help facility owners and managers take advantage of savings opportunities and performance improvements from energy management information systems (EMIS) and ongoing monitoring practices. Read more.

10. High-Efficiency RTU Replacement Toolkit

This toolkit helps HVAC contractors and service companies work with their customers through a step-by-step process of evaluating and managing their inventory of rooftop units (RTUs) and how to evaluate the business case for high-efficiency replacements. From an incentives database to a comparison calculator, the toolkit provides everything needed to make an informed decision regarding RTU replacements. Read more.