Better Buildings Challenge: Webinars Archive

Learn how partners are improving efficiency in wastewater treatment and why this matters for everyone.

Learn about Zero Energy Buildings from the public and private sector.

Large organizations are no stranger to the paid-from-savings retrofit model that is marketed by major energy-services companies (ESCos). But small organizations are increasingly searching for technical and financial support in pursuing these projects. Learn more about how small organizations and large organizations alike can seek out technical experts and financing options while protecting their interests and saving energy and water.

Hear how partners are addressing energy use in warehouses and distributions and gain ideas for you to take back to your buildings.

Join the Department of Energy for a webinar and peer exchange on financing for K-12 Schools. Learn about the use of bonds for energy efficiency retrofits as well as considerations for private financing. Experience a live demo of the new Energy Efficiency Financing Navigator. 
Featuring: 
• Crystal McDonald, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy 
• Toby Rittner, President and CEO of the Council of Development Finance Agencies 
• Joe Indvik, JDM Associates 

If you’ve been struggling to find funding for energy efficiency projects in your buildings, then this session is the one for you. This webinar (1) demonstrates the Efficiency Financing Navigator, a new tool to help you find financing that's right for you; (2) explains how to access incentives and tax credits using DSIRE and other resources; and (3) gives you practical advice about where to start and how to look out for pitfalls when finding financing.

Energy Management has evolved a lot over the past decade. As organizations move beyond just changing out light bulbs, investment in commercial and industrial building energy efficiency has more than doubled between 2006 and 2014, from $7 billion to $16 billion. This growth has been fueled by a mix of organizational sustainability commitments, the availability of enabling incentive programs, the proliferation of cost-effective technologies, and the promise of significant financial savings. Since 2008, the EDF Climate Corps program has played a significant supporting role in this growth, helping over 400 “host organizations” jumpstart energy management solutions by matching them with trained graduate student fellows who work onsite to identify actionable energy reduction strategies. This one-hour webcast will summarize findings from a comprehensive report that highlights key trends, opportunities and next steps for companies regardless of their sophistication on energy management topics.

You’ll learn how:

1. To be more strategic and sophisticated about energy management, beyond just energy efficiency
2. Companies are scaling up their energy projects to achieve greater results
3. To choose and implement energy projects, leveraging the latest technologies
4. To leverage your investments to provide better environmental returns

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This webinar was the inaugural meeting of the new Building Envelope Tech Team. The main topics discussed were:

• Online resources such as real world demonstrations, case studies, specification documents, and installation guidance for building envelope subcategories: windows, walls, and roofs
• Profiling Chesapeake College, a Better Buildings Partner, investments in building envelope wall, windows, and roof technologies
• Discussion of the pros and cons of new technology, such as: next generation windows, dynamic controls, window shading, and sprayable air sealing.

In parallel with decreasing system costs and new business models, public policy is driving energy storage adoption around the country. Organizations are beginning to consider energy storage options, but little information is publicly available on benefits, business models, or best practices. Energy storage is a broad category of technologies with many different capabilities that can be daunting to sift through and find the best opportunities. In this session, attendees will get an overview of energy storage technologies, use cases, business models and how it can help you manage energy spend. 

1. Understand types of energy storage available and what may work on your building 
2. Identify use cases for energy storage that provide you value 
3. Learn about potential business models and procurement strategies 
4. Identify additional resources to help you make decisions on energy storage 

While sub-meters on their own don’t save energy or water, they play a crucial part in successful energy and water reduction efforts. Get the low down from our expert panelists on the best practices, benefits and current costs to meter energy, water and data centers in your buildings.

Capturing the story behind energy savings projects helps catapult a culture around planning future projects, funding them, and growing a team's value in your company or organization. Hear from leading partners, learn about the innovative SWAP, and learn from media experts giving tips on telling your tale.

Workplace charging programs are successful when organizations choose the charging station design that best fits the needs of both, employers and employees. Taking into account the available budget, program goals, employee interest, and site specific requirements, an employer may choose to install Level 1, Level 2, or DC fast charging. During this webinar, Margaret Smith will present an overview of the types of charging stations and share examples of Workplace Charging Challenge Partners that use each type of charging.

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The commercial mortgage loan process involves high stakes and energy efficiency is generally not a motivating factor for lenders, with current mortgage practices not fully accounting for the risks and opportunities associated with energy use of buildings. After a scoping study and stakeholder engagements with lenders and building owners, Lawrence Berkeley Nat Lab and Haas School of Business identified several potential inventions to properly account for energy factors in the lending process. Here, they demonstrated how and where energy factors can "move the needle" on key underwriting metrics such as default risk, NOI, and economic or functional obsolescence. 

Presenters: 
Paul Matthew, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 
Nancy Wallace, Haas School of Business UC Berkeley

Preview the new and innovative technologies that are making headlines this fall. Hear about the latest from DOE’s High Impact Technology (HIT) Catalyst program, including an update on micro-Combined Heat and Power demonstrations, a sneak peek into energy savings from testing of multi-technology packages (Going Beyond Widgets), as well as opportunities to host joint HIT and Green Proving Ground demonstrations to verify the performance of emerging technologies. Find out more about how you can engage with the Better Buildings Tech team to help you lower energy use in your building portfolio.

Presenters: Amy Jiron, DOE; Cynthia Regnier, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Kris Jorgensen, A.O. Smith Corporation

This webinar provided an overview of available energy storage technologies, use cases and the benefits they can bring to the commercial real estate sector, along with a case study of a successful energy storage project. 

Buildings that produce more energy than they consume, commonly defined as zero net energy buildings, have moved from concept to reality in recent years. Can you achieve zero net energy commercial buildings at little to no cost premium? Join us to find out. You’ve read success stories and seen real-world examples. Now it’s time to take action. We’ll show you how to quickly estimate photovoltaic energy production and building energy consumption; and share cost control strategies including performance based procurement, power purchase agreements, tax credits, incentives and more. Ultimately, this webinar will arm you with the practical information and resources you need to develop an early zero net energy building feasibly study and budget.

Presenters: Scott Hackel PE, LEED AP, Principal Energy Engineer, Seventhwave; Ben Heymer PE, Senior Project Manager, Seventhwave; Shanti Pless, Senior Research Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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This webinar presents a Q&A discussion with visual aids of two organizations completing significant energy savings through lighting retrofits. Rachel Healy of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) will discuss the upgrades to their 25 parking garages that serve the transit system of the nation’s capital. Frank Inoa of Arby’s Restaurants will discuss retrofits of 100 Arby’s facilities. This 60-minute event will include a 45-minute presentation and a 15-minute live question and answer session with attendees.

Moderator: Paul Wessel, Director, Market Development at U.S. Green Building Council 

Presenters: Rachel Healy, Director of Sustainability, WMATA; Frank Inoa, FCSI, CFCP, Director of Engineering at Arby’s Restaurant Group

Presenters: Bill Conley, Yamaha Motor Corporation; Maureen Roskoski, Facility Engineering Associates 

The Measuring & Monitoring Guide is one the newer publications in the How-To Sustainability Guide series. Inspired by the adage that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, the guide was created by subject matter experts and facility management practitioners. It was designed to explain the importance of measuring inputs and outputs while monitoring progress and consistency in facility operations. Recommendations, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and best practices are presented to assist in optimizing and improving facility performance.

The Guide discusses aspects of the Measurement process, including who should be responsible and accountable for the activity and reporting. It outlines appropriate timing for when to measure and how life cycle assessment analysis plays a critical role in establishing a complete accounting of resource management.  It explains key metrics in major categories and highlights resources. 

Items addressed also include sustainability reports, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and Green Building Rating systems.  The Guide is supplemented by Case Studies, a glossary of common terms and links to external resources.

Do you ever wonder how energy efficiency and sustainability efforts are impacting the value of your properties? This webinar focused on energy efficiency and sustainability in the appraisal and valuation industries. Colliers International explained how they have adapted their processes to ensure that they realize the full value of energy efficiency and sustainability upgrades. Inspyrod discussed various techniques and data challenges that might be encountered during the valuation process. Sustainable Values provided an introduction and overview to the recently launched Energy Matters! training course that teaches appraisers how to incorporate energy and sustainability metrics into their property valuation.

Presenters: John Scott, Colliers International; Devesh Nirmul, Inspyrod; Theddi Wright Chappell, Sustainable Values

This webinar will help Better Buildings Challenge Multifamily partners understand the Better Buildings Summit 2016 recognition criteria. While data sharing is an important part of the program and the recognition criteria, Showcase Projects and Implementation Models also play very important roles. Join your Better Buildings Challenge Account Managers as we discuss what partners can do to be recognized in 2016! Better Buildings Challenge partners will learn about the Better Buildings Summit 2016 recognition criteria and how partners can best work with their Account Managers toward successfully compiling program deliverables worthy of Summit recognition. Attendees will:

• Learn about the Better Buildings Summit 2016 recognition criteria

• Review data submission protocols and schedules

• Learn how to select and draft Showcase Project submissions

• Learn how to select and draft Implementation Model submissions

• Learn how the multifamily account managers and data team can expedite your deliverables 

This webinar explored innovative measures Better Buildings Challenge partners have taken to improve water efficiency while reducing energy use. United Technologies Corporation discussed their impressive water reduction goals and best practices in managing water, while also focusing on energy management strategies at diverse manufacturing sites. The City of Atlanta discussed their new, high-efficiency pumping station and how the efforts of large-scale users to reduce water use can help the City reduce both water and energy use. InterContinental Hotels Group highlighted their worldwide water management program, which includes metering and tracking consumption and water efficiency strategies.

Presenters: Sean West, United Technologies Corporation; Juliette Apicella and Jean Pullen, Southface (representing the City of Atlanta); Maury Wolfe, InterContinental Hotels Group

This webinar describes how the DOE helps move energy efficiency opportunities in buildings from ideas to mass-market uptake by identifying and developing high impact technologies. Hear highlights of up and coming emerging technology demonstrations and how you can get involved. Panelists included Better Buildings Challenge partner New York Presbyterian Hospital describing their experiences measuring and managing their energy savings and demand reduction opportunities through the BuildingIQ platform. We also had the founder and CEO from enVerid discussing their technology for achieving energy savings by reducing the amount of outdoor air required in buildings without sacrificing air quality.

Presenters: Andy Mitchell, U.S. Department of Energy; Roberto Nunez, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; Udi Meriav, enVerid.

The adoption of LED technology in outdoor lighting applications brings with it an opportunity for controls that was not possible with previous technologies. A growing number of vendors - some familiar, some not – have been developing and aggressively marketing new software and hardware products promoting the many potential benefits of controls. However, actual field experience remains relatively limited and the various components and associated standards and protocols continue to evolve, and as a result many questions persist for potential new users of networked outdoor lighting controls systems. This webinar session briefly reviewed some of the lessons learned by early adopters of these systems over the course of multiple pilot projects, with a focus on the following topics: justifying and financing an installation, writing a specification, start-up and commissioning challenges, dimming and energy savings, monetizing energy savings and utility tariffs, and identifying and qualifying additional value propositions.

Plug and process loads become a larger piece of the building energy pie as the low hanging fruits of energy efficiency, such as lighting retrofits, are harvested. This webinar included a discussion by NREL on simple low-cost and portable plug and process loads interventions. Stanford University shared its successes in creating a plug load inventory, analysis and action plan to reduce associated energy consumption. The General Services Administration presented one of its marquee projects of the federal government leading by example highlighting strategies for reducing plug and process loads in an historic zero energy building retrofit. 

Presenters: Rois Langer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); Moira Hafer, Stanford University; Jason Sielcken, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) 

Think you are not an IT company? Think again. As sales move online, email archives grow, and more information is collected and stored, many organizations are seeing dramatic increases in energy use from data centers. Watch this webinar to learn how Better Buildings Challenge and Accelerator partners have formed partnerships within their organizations and implemented measures to dramatically reduce data center energy usage.

This webinar focused on transforming building milestones such as purchase, sale, tenant transitions, etc. into energy efficiency opportunities. Presenters from Better Buildings participants University of Virginia, the City of Hillsboro, Oregon, and Arby’s Restaurant Group shared their strategies for taking advantage of these milestones to get more from their buildings.

This webinar shared strategies and resources building owners, managers, and tenants can utilize 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. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) highlighted its Building Energy Modeling Guide for Building Owners, Better Buildings Challenge partner District of Columbia shared case studies demonstrating the value of getting to know your energy model and DOE provided a brief primer on modeling.

Finding energy savings opportunities for a business franchise can be easy, but getting them implemented can be hard. While franchisors typically supply business knowledge, architectural designs and equipment, franchise agreements and business models are not often designed to make it simple for franchisees to capture energy efficiency opportunities as they arise. In this webinar Better Buildings partners Ford Motor Company, Dunkin Brands and InterContinental Hotels Group shared the programs and tools they use to bridge this gap and motivate franchisees to save energy and reduce their environmental impact.

Finding energy savings opportunities for a business franchise can be easy, but getting them implemented can be hard. While franchisors typically supply business knowledge, architectural designs and equipment, franchise agreements and business models are not often designed to make it simple for franchisees to capture energy efficiency opportunities as they arise. In this webinar Better Buildings partners Ford Motor Company, Dunkin Brands and InterContinental Hotels Group shared the programs and tools they use to bridge this gap and motivate franchisees to save energy and reduce their environmental impact.

Whole Foods Market, Houston, TX, and General Motors each described how they have collaborated with utilities to bring big energy savings to their portfolios and help reduce the overall peak electricity demand for the utility. Presenters offered recommendations for working with utilities to create innovative energy savings opportunities customized to your portfolio type.

Webinar attendees learned how the Department of Energy prioritizes high impact technologies (HITs) to advance energy efficiency. A Better Buildings program participant spoke about her experience working with Department staff to test promising technologies in buildings. Find out what they are finding and how you can get involved.

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is a vehicle to pay for energy efficiency improvements or renewable energy installations on private property. Local or state governments or other entities fund the upfront costs of the improvements which are paid back over time through property assessments added to the owner’s property tax bills. In this webinar, Better Buildings Challenge partners described their successful experiences with PACE financing as program developers, city administrators, and property owners.

In hospitality facilities, past efforts to reduce lighting energy use have mostly consisted of implementing compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). CFLs offer reduced energy consumption, higher efficacy, and much longer lifetimes than incandescent and halogen lamps, but they also have drawbacks. LEDs improve upon many of these drawbacks and offer an attractive combination of additional energy savings, longer lifetimes, and other lighting and control benefits. The Hilton Columbus Downtown hotel installed more than 3700 dimmable LED downlights in guest rooms at 450,000 square foot facility, which opened in October 2012. Why did they choose LED and not CFL? Do the LEDs deliver the light levels and color quality needed? How did they make sure the dimming and controls would work properly? Are they saving energy? Did they pay more initially? Would they do it again, and what would they change?

Re-tuning is a low-cost process to identify and correct building operational problems that lead to energy waste. To expand the practice of re-tuning, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed a curricula focused on retuning both large (with a building automation system, or BAS) and small (without a BAS) commercial buildings. Hear from Better Buildings Challenge Partners who have employed retuning training to improve building performance and learn about opportunities to participate in trainings in your area.

Time, money, and expertise are often barriers to a robust energy management program. Better Buildings Challenge Partners Shorenstein and Allegheny College described solutions that helped them jump these hurdles to develop a culture of sustainability within their organizations—and a track record of successful energy efficiency projects. Jaxon Love detailed Shorenstein’s experience bringing on energy management fellows for summer appointments, building the case for a full-time sustainability position at the company. Kelly Boulton outlined how she and campus professors worked together to engage students to develop and present the business case for campus energy efficiency projects to administrators. Renee Lefrenz also profiled the Alliance to Save Energy's PowerSave Campus program, a student internship supporting energy efficiency efforts in schools.

Deep energy retrofits take a whole building approach to achieve dramatic energy savings. Upgrades to multiple building systems can be made all at once or in a planned sequence over a number of years, and can sometimes reap energy savings of 50% or more. In this webinar, Better Buildings Alliance member Carlos Santamaria discussed Glenborough’s experience implementing deep energy retrofits. Cara Carmichael of the Rocky Mountain Institute also shared best practices gleaned supporting numerous deep energy retrofit projects across the country. Could deep energy retrofits be right for your buildings?

Getting approval for energy efficiency measures can sometimes be the most challenging aspect of the project. Better Buildings Challenge Partners USAA Real Estate Company; University of California, Irvine; and Kohl's shared their best practices for communicating the value of building energy efficiency projects and working with financial decision-makers to make those projects happen.

A presentation on the underlying barriers to energy data access. Learn about solutions underway across the country, including a successful collaboration between building owners, utilities, regulators, and policymakers in Philadelphia who worked together to provide access to whole-building energy use data. The session will also highlight new resources to help you replicate this model in your community.