A guide for commercial building tenants to save energy

Introduction

Saving Energy in Leased Space is an online toolkit that provides commercial building owners, managers, and tenants with resources, training, and tools to save energy. The toolkit is organized into three areas that track the leasing process:

• Saving Energy in Existing Leases
• Saving Energy in New Leases
• Saving Energy during Tenant Improvement

Toolkit Elements

Each of the areas of focus includes three types of resources: a training module, tools and checklists, and a resource library.

Training modules are roughly one-hour courses that focus on areas where tenants can save energy (for tenants with existing leases and for those undertaking improvements) and on green leases (for new leases).

Tenants can use the interactive tools and checklists to inventory the energy used in their leased space, to estimate the energy that can be saved by eliminating or upgrading elements that use energy, and to analyze the financial benefits of green leases.

Each resource library contains a variety of documents derived from a range of public, private, and non-profit sources specific to the area of energy savings covered in the training module.

The Training Modules

Saving Energy in Existing Leases

This lesson outlines the incentives for saving energy during an existing lease, both for metered and sub-metered spaces. The training modules discuss specific actions and strategies, with an emphasis on the deepest energy savings from strategies involved with plug and process loads, lighting, and HVAC systems. The lessons provide energy savings methods with an associated cost, as well as low- or no-cost methods for all three areas of focus. The lesson concludes with the provision of a guide for tenants interested in utilizing these strategies, beginning with the initial idea and the formation of a project team and ending with implementation and project completion.

Saving Energy in New Leases

This lesson provides an overview of the Energy Aligned Clause (EAC), the New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability’s model lease language intended to solve the “split-incentive”  problem. The EAC is meant to benefit building owners, tenants, and the environment by fairly distributing the costs and financial benefits of energy savings that come from energy retrofits. This lesson describes the split incentive problem, outlines the goals and benefits of the EAC, explains the financial model within which the EAC operates, and discusses a number of money saving scenarios as potential outcomes of the Energy Aligned Clause in a new lease.

Saving Energy during Tenant Improvement

This lesson begins by providing a definition of the tenant improvement process, value propositions, and incentives for undergoing tenant improvement. Building-by-building case studies from major corporations and government institutions are used to demonstrate the primary foci of tenant improvement: HVAC systems, lighting, plug and process loads, and metering and monitoring of energy consumption. The lesson then moves into greater detail on how to make improvements and closes with a step-by-step walkthrough of the tenant improvement process as performed by Li & Fung USA in an existing office space.