Mercy Housing: Energy performance

Better Buildings Challenge Partners commit to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline.  Mercy Housing has improved their portfolio-wide energy performance by 3% from a 2019 baseline, making progress towards a goal of 20% by 2030. Mercy Housing used a variety of approaches including leveraging rebate programs and direct installs for energy and water efficiency retrofits, changing procurement guidelines, and building to environmental standards. Of particular note was its work with an ESCO that offers a payment model based on measured, weather-normalized, post-implementation energy savings to implement a multi-year, multi-phase, multi-property energy and water efficiency retrofit project.

Multifamily property owners often face challenges in gathering whole building data for properties with large numbers of individual tenant-paid utility accounts. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, partners can demonstrate progress towards their savings goal by reporting two types of data: (1) whole-building energy use, including tenant-paid utilities, for at least 30 percent of their portfolio; and (2) owner-paid receipts (common areas only) for the remaining share of their portfolio. Mercy Housing's portfolio consists of 318 properties and more than 22 million square feet and approximately 23,500 housing units, with whole-building data (both tenant-paid and owner-paid receipts) available for 87% of their portfolio.

This graph breaks out the portfolio's energy performance for properties with whole building energy use vs those with owner-paid receipts. The energy intensity for properties with whole-building data is much higher than those with owner-paid receipts, because it accounts for the significant use associated with tenant spaces.  Mercy Housing has achieved 3% savings in properties with whole-building data and 5% in properties with owner-paid receipts. 

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy. Mercy Housing has achieved energy performance improvement of greater than 15% at more than 25 of its properties. There are 137 properties that have experienced an increase in Source EUI.  These properties have been targeted for future energy efficiency improvements.

Property-level energy performance metrics, including EUI and percent improvement to date, are critical to track progress over time and identify opportunities for additional energy savings. Mercy Housing's portfolio consists of properties with a wide range of baseline EUI values, most of which are from  50 to 150 kBtu/sq. ft. The majority of properties have shown energy improvement since 2019. The properties located near or below the 0% axis may present good opportunities for further savings.