HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 Building Performance ReportBoulderBuildingPerformance.com
BOULDER BUILDING
PERFORMANCE
2015/2016 Report
PROGRAM
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
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CONTENTS
I. Executive Summary ................................................................. 2
II. Introduction............................................................................... 4
III. Building Performance Ordinance ........................................... 7
Building Performance Program .............................................. 9
IV. Rating & Reporting Results ..................................................... 11
Compliance ............................................................................. 12
Commercial & Industrial Reporting ....................................... 13
Large Industrial Campus Reporting ....................................... 27
How Does Boulder Compare? ................................................ 29
Savings Potential .................................................................... 32
V. Next Steps ................................................................................. 35
Building Report Cards ............................................................ 35
Data Publication ..................................................................... 35
Reporting Timeline .................................................................. 35
VI. Acknowledgments .................................................................... 37
VII. Glossary .................................................................................... 38
Appendix A .............................................................................................. 39
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Energy consumption from the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector accounts for
over 50 percent of the City of Boulder’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint.
Boulder City Council adopted the Building Performance Ordinance in October 2015
to require actions that reduce energy use and emissions in the C&I sector and
improve the quality of Boulder’s C&I building stock. The ordinance was adopted with
the objectives of increasing awareness of building energy performance, realizing
cost effective energy savings, informing design of future programs and driving
market transformation. Further, the ordinance is a key initiative toward achieving the
community’s recently adopted Climate Commitment goal of an 80 percent reduction
in GHG emissions by 2050.
In 2016, the first year of the Boulder Building Performance Program,
Boulder achieved an unprecedented 100 percent compliance rate,
collected energy use data on its largest C&I buildings and identified
energy and cost savings potential throughout the C&I sector.
This report presents the program results for the 2016 reporting year,
which covers energy data for calendar year 2015.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.comRATING & REPORTING
Compliance
representing over 16 million square
feet (sf), were subject to the Building
Performance Ordinance in 2016.
165
buildings
These buildings represent nearly
50% of the total city-owned and
private commercial and industrial
square footage in Boulder.
50%
represented
the remaining 160 were
required to report calendar year
2015 energy data to the city.
The program achieved 100% compliance in 2016.
Energy & Emissions
After exemptions and data
cleaning, as well as the removal
of large industrial campuses,1
analysis was conducted on
143 building energy reports,
representing a total of just under 12
million sf.
The median energy use intensity
(EUI) of 83 kBTU/sf-year and the
median ENERGY STAR® score of 70
indicate Boulder’s largest buildings
are performing similar to other
leading cities, such as Chicago,
Seattle and Cambridge.
The total emissions reported by the
143 buildings represent 23% of the
C&I footprint and 12 % of the overall
community footprint based on the
2015 community greenhouse
gas inventory.
Based on analysis of 2015 energy data reported, potential savings opportunities of 467,000 MMBTU
exist in the largest buildings of the C&I sector. Capturing these savings would require approximately
$25 million in energy efficiency investments, and could result in $10 million in energy cost savings
annually, a reduction of 94,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e) and the creation
of over 120 jobs.
HIGHLIGHTS
143 83 Boulder
Median
EUI (kBTU/sf)23% of C&I
Emissions
building energy
reports
1 Large industrial campuses were not included in data analysis due to their custom rating and reporting requirements.
5
buildings received
exemptions;
Median
ENERGY
STAR® score70
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
2 Prior to the adoption of the Building Performance Ordinance, city staff conducted substantial outreach efforts including stake-
holder engagement and working groups within the community. Please see bouldercolorado.gov/lead/boulder-building-perfor-
mance-background for more information.
3 Note – not all of the C&I buildings in Boulder are subject to the BPO as municipal ordinances do not apply to county, state, or
federally owned properties.
II. INTRODUCTION
The City of Boulder, CO is located approximately 30 miles northwest of
Denver, at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Home to the flagship
campus of the University of Colorado and 14 federal labs, the city’s
population of approximately 107,000 is civically engaged and highly
supportive of sustainability initiatives.
The city is home to a thriving private sector, defined by a high concentration of
start-up companies as well as longstanding companies including Ball Aerospace
and IBM. The city’s key industry clusters include clean tech, aerospace,
biosciences, natural and organic foods and outdoor recreation companies.
Boulder has long understood the importance of local climate action. Boulder’s
residents and businesses were among the first in the country to implement
programs like the Climate Action Plan Tax (CAP Tax) and a host of other energy
efficiency and conservation programs. Further, City Council recently adopted
ambitious community climate commitment goals.
In support of these community energy and climate goals, the Boulder City Council
adopted the Boulder Building Performance Ordinance (BPO) in October 2015.2
These commercial and industrial (C&I) building rating and reporting and energy
efficiency requirements move beyond the current voluntary programs to require
actions that reduce energy use and improve the quality of Boulder’s building stock.
As identified in the community’s 2015 greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, the city’s
more than 3,700 C&I buildings represent over half of the community’s
emissions footprint.3
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51%
OF BOULDER’S
GREENHOUSE GAS
EMISSIONS IN 2015.
COMMERCIAL AND
INDUSTRIAL (C&I)
BUILDING ENERGY USE
ACCOUNTED FOR
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
4 As of January 2017, per tracking from Buildingrating.org.
5 Any commercial or industrial building for which an initial building permit was issued on or after Jan. 31, 2014.
The city anticipates that the Boulder Building Performance Ordinance will generate
significant long-term emissions and economic benefits for our community. In
addition to these high-level community benefits, the city anticipates a number of
direct benefits to C&I business owners and tenants, including:
• Saving money on utility bills through cost-effective efficiency measures;
• Helping building owners understand and manage their buildings’
energy use;
• Educating tenants and real estate professionals about building
energy performance;
• Informing future energy programs and services for the C&I sector;
• Reducing GHG emissions; and
• Improving the quality of Boulder’s C&I building stock.
Boulder is one of nearly 20 cities4 in the country to adopt such
a policy. Though many of the elements of Boulder’s policy are
similar to those implemented by other cities, Boulder’s policy
is one of a select few that moves beyond building energy
performance awareness and requires efficiency actions to
achieve building performance improvement.
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OF BOULDER’S
GREENHOUSE GAS
EMISSIONS IN 2015.
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
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CITY OF BOULDER’S
CLIMATE COMMITMENT
On Dec. 6, 2016, Boulder City Council unanimously adopted a
community emissions reduction goal of 80 percent reduction
in GHG emissions below 2005 levels by 2050.
The Building Performance Ordinance plays a significant role in
the community’s efforts to meet this goal. More information on
this goal, and other community climate goals, is available at:
BOULDERCLIMATE.COM
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
The Boulder Building Performance Ordinance affects privately-owned C&I buildings
20,000 square feet (sf) and larger, newly constructed C&I buildings 10,000 sf and
larger and city-owned buildings 5,000 sf and larger.
Large industrial or manufacturing campuses where multiple buildings are served by
a central plant or single utility meter are also subject to the Building Performance
Ordinance. However, due to their unique nature, these campuses are subject to the
following custom requirements:
• Annually provide a publicly-disclosed written narrative on campus energy
and emissions reduction goals and activities;
• Annually provide an oral report to city staff on energy use and energy sav-
ings achieved in the reporting year compared to the previous year.
• Perform energy assessments every 10 years and implement cost effective
EA measures within one year of the assessment; and
• Perform one-time lighting upgrades.
III. BUILDING
PERFORMANCE ORDINANCE
6 The ENERGY STAR® tools approved by the City of Boulder for compliance are Portfolio Manager or the Energy Tracking Tool (for
manufacturing facilities only).
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The ordinance requires affected building owners to
carry out the following actions:
1. Use an approved ENERGY STAR® tracking tool to annually rate and report (R&R)
building energy use, which will be publicly disclosed after a grace period;
2. Perform energy assessments (EA) every 10 years;
3. Perform retrocommissioning (RCx) every 10 years and implement cost effective
RCx measures within two years of the study; and
4. Perform one-time lighting upgrades.
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
The Building Performance Ordinance requirements are phased in based
on building size as shown in the compliance timeline in Figure 1.
Ordinance
Requirement
City Buildings
≥ 5,000 sf
Existing Buildings
≥ 50,000 sf
New Buildings
≥ 10,000 sf
Existing
Buildings
≥ 30,000 sf
Existing
Buildings
≥ 20,000 sf
Large Industrial
Campuses
Rating & Reporting 2016 2016 2018 2020 2016
Public Disclosure 2019 2019 2021 2023 2016
Energy Assessments 2019 2019 2021 2023 2019
Lighting Upgrades 2021 2021 2023 2025 2025
Retro-commissioning 2021 2021 2023 2025 N/A
Implement Cost
Effective Measures 2023 2023 2025 2027 2021
FIGURE 1. ORDINANCE COMPLIANCE TIMELINE
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The city chose to phase in the requirements to allow time to fine tune systems
and procedures, while providing building owners time to plan for upcoming
requirements. Phasing in the largest buildings first kept the first year of the
program manageable given the limited number of buildings, but also ensured that
a large amount of the floor area would be impacted.
Starting with city-owned buildings 5,000 sf and larger and privately-owned
buildings 50,000 sf and larger impacts almost 50 percent of the city-owned and
privately-owned combined C&I floor area, but only about nine percent ofthe total
number of city-owned and privately-owned buildings.
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Building Performance Program
To help building owners comply with these ordinance requirements, the City of
Boulder created the Building Performance Program. This program supports affected
building owners by offering services and resources to increase awareness and
understanding of the ordinance, while also providing assistance with
compliance efforts.
As part of the Building Performance Program, the city developed a central web
location for affected building owners, service providers and the community to find
information relevant to the requirements: BoulderBuildingPerformance.com. The
website hosts all program-related materials, including detailed how-to guides,
timelines, rebates and resources. In addition to the website, the city and its partners
offer a range of services, resources and guidance. Those offered throughout the first
year of the program are detailed below.
Outreach
In October 2015, the city issued notification letters to all
affected building owners and launched an online “Claim your
Building” form. This claim form allowed affected building
owners to identify a key contact person for the purposes of
compliance, as well as correct any building information listed
on the public list of affected buildings, such as incorrect square
footage. Following the completion of the claim form, which
nearly all building owners submitted by the end of the year, the
city created an email listserve that kept owners and building
contacts up to date on upcoming trainings, new resources and
deadlines. The city also created a subscription-based monthly
newsletter to provide program updates to building owners,
service providers and interested community members.
Training & Support
Two in-person trainings were held in Spring 2016 to provide building owners hands-
on assistance with understanding the rating and reporting requirements. The city
also partnered with Boulder County’s Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE)7 and
the local utility, Xcel Energy, during these trainings to provide additional information
to affected building owners about current rebate program offerings, guidance on
accessing energy data and a demonstration of ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager
(ESPM). The city also hosted a public webinar to explain the ordinance requirements,
timelines, exemptions and available resources.
OVER 90
building owners and
program stakeholders
participated in the
trainings and webinar.
7 Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE) provides FREE expert advisor services, financial incentives and a certification program
to help businesses in the City of Boulder and Boulder County measure and gain recognition for their energy, waste, water and
transportation achievements. http://www.pacepartners.com/
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
PACE Business Sustainability Advisors were available to provide one-on-
one support to affected building owners, specifically on using ESPM. The
city also funded the Colorado Industrial Energy Challenge, managed by
the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, to provide individual assistance
to manufacturing facilities, particularly those electing to use the Energy
Tracking Tool for rating and reporting.
Energy Data Access
The Building Performance Ordinance requires affected building owners
to report whole-building energy data – including electricity and natural
gas – to the city annually using ESPM or the Energy Tracking Tool. Both
tools require building owners to enter monthly energy data. This can be
an onerous task for building owners, particularly for owners of multi-
tenant buildings, given the stringent data privacy rules enacted by the
Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
To meet customer needs, Xcel Energy developed an energy
benchmarking service that provides a direct feed of whole-building
energy usage data from Xcel Energy’s metered data repository into the
building owners’ ESPM account. After completing the initial connection
steps, Xcel Energy automatically uploads whole-building energy data in
the ESPM account on a monthly basis. This automatic service is a key
attempt to ease the data collection burden on affected building owners,
with the majority opting to use this service in the first year.
Service Providers
Building owners are not required to use a service provider to complete
rating and reporting, but must use a qualified service provider to
complete the energy assessment and retro-commissioning requirements
of the ordinance. Therefore, the city developed a training for service
providers and published a list of qualified service providers to ensure
affected building owners could easily find an appropriate provider to
implement these efficiency requirements for compliance purposes.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
In 2016, 165 buildings were required to rate and report on 2015
calendar year energy data, representing over 16.8 million square feet.
These 165 buildings included 50 city-owned municipal buildings, 111
privately-owned commercial and industrial buildings and four large
industrial campuses. These affected buildings were categorized into nine
major building types for analysis.
As shown in Figure 2, privately-owned commercial and industrial
buildings represent the majority of the square footage affected by the
ordinance requirements in 2016. However, the four large industrial
campuses combined represent 20 percent of the total square footage
IV. RATING &
REPORTING RESULTS
COMMERCIAL &
INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
50 MUNICIPAL
BUILDINGS
4 LARGE INDUSTRAIL
CAMPUSES
20 40 60 80 100 120
111
Percentage of total square footage
represented (16.8 million sf)
Number of Buildings
17%
20%
64%
FIGURE 2. BUILDING CHARACTERISITCS
8 "Other" building type includes fitness/health centers, libraries, fire stations, museums, worship facilities, etc.
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Building Type:
Healthcare
Industrial/Manufacturing
Lodging
Office
Other8
Parking Garage
Retail
Supermarket
Warehouse/Distribution
Center
BUILDING TYPES
FOR ANALYSIS
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Compliance
The deadlines that applied to the affected buildings in 2016 are shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2. 2016 REPORTING DEADLINES
Excluding the four large industrial campuses, which must comply with custom reporting
requirements, Figure 3 shows office buildings make up the largest portion of the affected
building square footage, with 46 office buildings representing 3.2 million square feet. This
is followed by other, industrial/manufacturing, lodging and retail to round out the top five
building types reporting energy data in 2016.
FIGURE 3. BUILDING TYPE BREAKOUT BY PERCENT OF SQUARE FOOTAGE
Office
Other
Industrial/Manufacturing
Lodging
Retail
Parking Garage
Healthcare
Supermarket
Warehouse/Distribution Center
Building Group Building Group Reporting Deadline
City-owned buildings (5,000 sf and larger)May 1, 2016
Large Industrial Campuses June 1, 2016
Privately-owned C&I buildings (50,000 sf and larger)Aug. 1, 2016
24%
16%
13%
2%
6%
7%
8%
11%
13%
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
As 2016 was the first year of reporting in Boulder, effort was made to
extend deadlines and provide program resources and individual support
to as many building owners as possible.
Of the 165 buildings required to rate and report in 2016, five were
granted exemptions. The city allows few exemptions from rating and
reporting, but those accepted include having less than one year of
energy data available based on the initial certificate of occupancy date,
demolitions or other extenuating circumstances.
Of the remaining 160 private and city-owned buildings, all submitted
the required 2015 energy reports to the city, resulting in 100 percent
compliance for the Building Performance Program’s first year.
Commercial & Industrial Reporting
For the 160 buildings required to report 2015 energy use, eight percent of the
building energy reports received were excluded from analysis for various data
quality reasons, including data errors or missing data, or were submitted after the
analysis deadline. Further, the four large industrial campuses were not included
in the energy analysis because of the custom requirements that apply to those
sites. Therefore, the following rating and reporting analysis presented in this report
represents calendar year 2015 energy consumption from 143 buildings and 11.9
million sf.9
Energy Use Intensities
When rating a building’s energy use, one of the primary metrics
is energy use intensity (EUI). This metric expresses a building’s
energy consumption as a function of its floor area (square
footage). This is similar to a vehicle’s miles-per-gallon rating. EUI
is often expressed in total energy consumed in a reporting year (in
thousand British thermal units or kBTU) divided by the gross floor
area of the building (kBTU/sf-year).10
This EUI metric is automatically calculated in the rating and
reporting tools offered by ENERGY STAR®, most notably Portfolio
Manager. Of the 143 buildings reporting in 2016, 141 used
Portfolio Manager.11
9 Additional detail on the energy performance analysis and methodologies is listed in VIII. Appendix A.
10 Site EUI was used for analysis purposes, which represents the annual amount of all the energy the property consumes onsite,
as reported on utility bills.
11 The remaining two used the ENERGY STAR® Energy Tracking Tool, which caters to energy-intensive manufacturing facilities.
EUI
is the annual
energy used per
square foot of
gross floor area.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
A low EUI generally signifies good energy performance in a building. However,
certain property types, such as manufacturing, are highly energy intensive and will
always have higher EUIs than other property types, such as offices. Therefore, it is
important when comparing EUIs to do so after normalizing by building types and
by climate. Fortunately, Portfolio Manager normalizes this data automatically to
provide a more accurate comparison to like buildings.
The median12 site EUI of all reporting buildings was just over 83 kBTU/sf-year, as
shown in Figure 4. The average site EUI for all reporting buildings was 108 kBTU/
sf-year.
FIGURE 4. EUI DISTRIBUTION FOR ALL BUILDING TYPES
12 Per ENERGY STAR®, “The median value is the middle of the national population – half of buildings use more energy, half use
less. The median works better than the mean (arithmetic average) for comparing relative energy performance, because it more
accurately reflects the midpoint of energy use for most property types.” The City of Boulder has chosen to show both median and
average values as relevant to align with other reporting cities as well as city Climate Commitment goals.
ENERGY STAR® PORTFOLIO MANAGER
Portfolio Manager is a free, online, industry best practice tool used to measure and track building
energy and water performance. The tool calculates over 100 metrics to assess building
performance, including EUI. More information is available at:
energystar.gov/buildings/facility-owners-and-managers/existing-buildings/use-portfolio-manager
34
55
23
7
12
6 3 1 0 2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Number of BuildingsSite EUI (kBTU/sf-year)
n=143
buildings
Median EUI: 83 kBTU/sf-year
Average EUI: 108 kBTU/sf-year
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
When looking at the median and average EUI by building type (Figure 5), we see
the most energy intensive building types overall are supermarkets, followed by
healthcare and industrial/manufacturing facilities. The least energy-intensive
building types, as expected, were warehouses and parking garages.
FIGURE 5. EUI BY BUILDING TYPE
Lodging
Office
Supermarket Retail
Warehouse /
Distribution Center
Other
Industrial /
Manufacturing
Healthcare
50
100
150
200
250
MedianAverage
Parking
Garage
245
209 223
170
133
82
113
79
93
111
97
5665
75
9 10
85
112
n=143 buildingsSite EUI (kBTU/sf-year)‒ 15 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
CASE STUDY
CROSSROADS GARDEN
OFFICE BUILDING — 1800 30TH ST.
Rating and reporting energy use provides insight into tenant use
and efficiency opportunities
Constructed in 1972, Crossroads Garden
opened as a tennis and sports center complex
and was later converted to an office building.
Over the years, the building has undergone
several renovations, including a partial LED
lighting upgrade for parking and common use
areas, and additional LED upgrades are planned.
In partnership with the city’s Boulder Building
Performance program (BBP), the owner of
Crossroads Garden received support to interpret
the energy metrics, such as energy-use intensity
(EUI), derived during the rating and reporting
(R&R) process and to identify no- and low-cost
efficiency measures based on building energy
use data.
Review of the R&R results and monthly energy
data revealed that, although recent LED lighting
upgrades had lowered energy use, Crossroads
Garden had higher than usual baseline electric
use as compared to other buildings of similar
type, size and use. The report also revealed that
a single tenant accounted for more than one-
third of the building’s energy use.
Review of the building energy use data identified
opportunities for no- and low-cost energy
efficiency measures such as occupancy sensors
and adjusting, fixing or upgrading inoperable
or missing common space energy controls to
improve scheduling. The most energy-intensive
tenant has committed to working with the
building owner to improve energy efficiency
moving forward.
Planned lighting upgrades and implementation
of the recommended measures are estimated
to increase Crossroads Garden’s ENERGY STAR®
score from its current 67 to a 78. In addition
to cost savings from improved efficiency, a
score of 78 would be high enough to apply for
ENERGY STAR® certification and would result
in an exemption from the remaining ordinance
requirements. A complete list of recommended
no- and low-cost efficiency measures, as well as
their anticipated results are reflected on
the right.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
CASE STUDY
CROSSROADS GARDEN
OFFICE BUILDING — 1800 30TH ST.
53,971
square feet (sf)
Gross floor area
78
kBTU/sf-year
Site EUI
67.3
kBTU/sf-year
National median EUI
Over 50
Tenants
67
ENERGY STAR® score
BUILDING DATA
BENCHMARK ANALYSIS
• ENERGY STAR® score indicates opportunity to save energy
• Monthly energy data correlation to Boulder climate shows higher than
usual electric baseline – leading to identification of high-use tenant
• Rating and reporting results combined with building walkthrough
identified potential lighting and schedule control measures
RECOMMENDED MEASURES
• Add or include lighting occupancy sensors for meeting rooms, restrooms
and other intermittent use spaces
• Convert analog thermostats to digital programmable thermostats with
scheduling capability
• Vending machine energy controller
• Continued engagement with city business sustainability advisors
• Adjust, fix or upgrade common space energy controls to improve
scheduling
• Special attention to high-use tenant space to find additional savings
Office
Building type
ANTICIPATED RESULTS
• Current electric use: 840,000 kWh/year
• Estimated energy savings: 76,500 kWh/year
• Estimated savings percent: 9%
• Estimated cost savings: $9,200
• Estimated measure cost: $11,000
• Simple payback: 1.2 years
• ENERGY STAR® score: 78
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
ENERGY STAR® Scores
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager assigns a score from 1 to 100 for
those building types where a large enough national dataset is available
to set scores (a higher score represents a high performing, energy
efficient building). Currently 21 building types can earn scores.13 This
score compares a building’s performance to similar buildings nationwide,
normalizing for type and climate. A score of 50 means your building
is performing better than 50 percent of like buildings. Buildings that
receive a score of 75 or higher (i.e. perform better than 75 percent of
like buildings) may be eligible for ENERGY STAR® certification.
ENERGY STAR® Certification
A building receiving an ENERGY STAR® score 75 or higher may be eligible for
ENERGY STAR® certification. Receiving certification would also exempt the
building from the Building Performance Ordinance efficiency requirements.
More information on scores and certification are available at:
www.energystar.gov/buildings/about-us/energy-star-certification
13 For the list of building types eligible for ENERGY STAR® score, see: https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/facility-own-
ers-and-managers/existing-buildings/use-portfolio-manager/identify-your-property-type-0
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Number of BuildingsEligible for
ENERGY STAR® Certification
Average score: 62
Median score: 70
Of the 143 buildings in this analysis, 64 received ENERGY STAR® scores. The median ENERGY
STAR ® score for Boulder was 70 and the average score was 62. Of these 64 buildings, 30
received scores that are eligible for certification,14 as shown in Figure 6.
FIGURE 6. ENERGY STAR® SCORE BY BUILDING TYPE
5 5 7 7
10
18
12
0-14 15-19 30-44 45-59 60-74 75-89 90-100
n=64 buildingsENERGY STAR® Score
5
10
15
20
14 Though some buildings subject to the Building Performance Ordinance may have received ENERGY STAR® certification in previ-
ous years, none had received 2015 certification at the time of ordinance compliance.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
The median and average scores by building type are shown in Figure 7. This data
indicates that Boulder’s healthcare and lodging facilities received the lowest scores
and therefore have the largest opportunity for savings of all the building types
receiving scores.
FIGURE 7. ENERGY STAR® SCORE BY BUILDING TYPE
Supermarket
Warehouse /
Distribution Center
Retail Lodging
HealthcareOther
Office
Industrial/
Manufactoring
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
88 87
76 76
65
73
63
69
61 64 64 64 64
45
32 29ENERGY STAR® ScoreMedianAverage
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
CASE STUDY
KING SOOPERS — 1650 30TH ST.
Rating and reporting reveals no-and low-cost path to high
performance
King Soopers supermarket at 1650 30th St.
has undergone several renovations since it
was originally constructed in 1982, including
enclosing the atrium area near the front
entrance, upgrading all interior lighting to more
efficient T8s and retrofitting refrigeration case
lighting to LED technology. The store has central
refrigeration and recycles much of the excess
energy to condition the surrounding space.
In partnership with the city’s Boulder Building
Performance Program (BBP), King Soopers
received support to interpret the energy metrics,
such as energy-use intensity (EUI), derived
during the rating and reporting (R&R) process
and to identify no- and low-cost efficiency
measures based on building energy use data.
Review of the R&R results revealed the hours of
operation were not accounted for correctly in the
reporting tool, ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager.
Emphasizing the importance of accurate data
entry, simply correcting the operating hours
entered to reflect true operating hours increased
the building’s ENERGY STAR® score from
59 to 66.
Review of the energy metrics also revealed
a peak in winter electric use and a building
walkthrough identified opportunities for no- and
low-cost energy efficiency improvements. The
improvements include heater controls, cooler
case doors and retro-commissioning, which
could be paid for in part by incentives provided
by the current utility provider Xcel Energy. The
impact of implementing these measures is
estimated to increase King Soopers’ ENERGY
STAR ® score to 72.
A list of these recommended no- and low-cost
efficiency measures, as well as their anticipated
results, is reflected on the right.
Additional opportunities for upgrading interior
and exterior lighting to LEDs, which King Soopers
has expressed interest in, could further raise
the building ENERGY STAR® score up to 85. In
addition to cost savings from improved efficiency,
a score of 85 would be high enough to apply for
ENERGY STAR® certification and would result in
an exemption from the remaining BBP ordinance
requirements.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
CASE STUDY
KING SOOPERS — 1650 30TH ST.
RECOMMENDED MEASURES
• HVAC retro-commissioning to identify cause of electricity increase in winter
and identify other operational savings such as better control of infrared
heating elements on mezzanine
• Retrofit of open multi-deck cooler cases with solid glass doors
61,317
square feet (sf)
Gross floor area
187.1
kBTU/sf-year
Site EUI
209.2
kBTU/sf-year
National median EUI
Supermarket/
Grocery Store
Building type
66
ENERGY STAR® score
BUILDING DATA
BENCHMARK ANALYSIS
• ENERGY STAR® score indicates opportunity to save energy
• Monthly energy data correlation to Boulder climate shows high base
electric energy use and peak in winter – leading to search for causes
• Quick building walkthrough identified other recommended measures
listed below
ANTICIPATED RESULTS
• Current electric use: 2,770,000 kWh/year
• Estimated energy savings: 91,600 kWh/year
• Estimated savings percent: 3.3%
• Estimated cost savings: $7,300
• Estimated measure cost: $27,000
• Simple payback: 3.6 years
• ENERGY STAR®72
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to building operation are determined by
the total fuel consumption of the building and are largely influenced by the fuel
type consumed. In Boulder, the main fuel source is electricity, as seen in Figure 8.
Though the use of electricity in a building does not in itself emit greenhouse gases,
the combustion of fuels – largely coal and natural gas – at power plants to
generate this electricity produce significant amounts of GHGs.
The total GHG emissions generated by the 143 reporting buildings is 217,000 metric
tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (MT CO2e). This is approximately 23 percent of the
C&I sector and 12 percent of the overall community footprint based on the City of
Boulder’s 2015 community GHG inventory. Not surprisingly, office buildings are the
largest emitters of the reporting buildings, which is in line with their share of total
square footage.
60%40%
Electricity Natural Gas
15%6%
SupermarketParking
Garage
Warehouse /
Distribution Center
Retail
Lodging
Healthcare
Other Office
Industrial/
Manufactoring
7%1%3%24%11%11%22%
n = 143
FIGURE 8. REPORTED FUEL MIX
FIGURE 9. EMISSIONS BY BUILDING TYPE
‒ 24 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Healthcare
Lodging
Office Supermarket
Warehouse /
Distribution Center
Retail
Other
Industrial/
Manufactoring
5%
0%
10%
15%
20%
25%
% of square footage% of GHG emissions
Parking
Garage
However, gross floor area does not always correlate to the emissions footprint of a
building, as seen in Figure 10. Industrial and manufacturing building types, as well
as healthcare and supermarkets, all have higher median EUIs due to the energy
intensive nature of the work done in those buildings.
24%
20%
21%
15%15%
18%
13%
11%
9%
7%
11%
7%6%
3%
6%
3%
9%
1
FIGURE 10. 2015 EMISSIONS AND SQUARE FOOTAGE BY BUILDING TYPE
‒ 25 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Private C&I Office
Average Score: 63
Municipal Office
Average Score: 72
Office buildings represent nearly one-quarter of
the total square footage rated and reported in
2016. In 2016, 46 office buildings representing
3.2 million square feet were subject to the
Building Performance Ordinance. The GHG
emissions reported by these office buildings
equates to 24 percent of the total GHG
emissions reported by all ordinance-affected
buildings and 3 percent of the total community
GHG footprint in 2015.
When looking at the average values for reporting
offices in 2016, municipal office buildings have
a slightly lower average EUI and higher ENERGY
STAR ® score compared to privately-owned
buildings.
This difference may be attributable to privately-
owned office buildings being more likely to have
secondary space uses included in their energy
use that are more energy intensive, such as
restaurants and retail space.
SECTOR SNAPSHOT –
OFFICE BUILDINGS
Sixteen office buildings are eligible for ENERGY STAR® Certification based on
2016 rating and reporting results. The most energy-intensive office buildings
used nearly 24 times more energy per square foot than the least energy-
intensive office buildings, representing a significant opportunity for the
sector to improve performance and reduce energy cost. More information
on savings potential can be found in section IV.E. Savings Potential.
Private C&I Office Average
EUI: 110 kBTU/sf-year
Municipal Office Average
EUI: 71 kBTU/sf-year
Private C&I Office
Average Score: 63
Average Office
ENERGY STAR®
Score:
65
Average
Office EUI:
110
kBTU/sf-year
Municipal Office
Average Score: 72
‒ 26 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Large Industrial Campus Reporting
As discussed above, large industrial campuses were subject to the following
custom rating and reporting requirements: submitting a written report on campus
energy and emissions reduction goals and activities, and providing an oral report
to city staff on energy use and energy savings achieved in the reporting year, as
compared to the previous year.
In 2016, four large industrial campuses were subject to these rating and reporting
requirements. These four large industrial campuses represented 3.3 million square
feet of commercial and industrial building area, or about 20 percent of the total
square footage required to rate and report in 2016. A variety of space uses and
activities are conducted on these campuses, including engineering, research, office
use, distribution warehousing and manufacturing.
Given the energy-intensive activities occurring at these large
industrial campuses, all four campuses have taken action to improve
efficiencies and reduce energy consumption in 2015. These actions
have included:
• Lighting upgrades and controls, such replacement to LEDs;
• Equipment replacements such as higher efficiency motors;
• Optimization of existing processes and systems, such as chilled
water plants.
Large industrial campus-specific actions can be reviewed in each
narrative linked below.
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BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
IBM
FIGURE 11. LARGE INDUSTRIAL CAMPUS NARRATIVES
"IBM has a long history of driving energy conservation and sustainability
through all parts of our business and has been recognized by numerous
outside organizations for achieving significant results.'
"IBM Boulder maintains a very aggressive local energy goal of achieving 5
percent energy conservation year-on-year, which is in excess of the cor-
porate-level goal. IBM’s Boulder campus achieved this ambitious goal in
2015 and is currently on track to do the same in 2016."
6300 Diagonal Hwy.
"Corden Pharma Colorado participates in a variety of federal, state, local
and industry-wide initiatives that set challenging pollution prevention
standards...Corden Pharma Colorado continues to identify, evaluate and
implement energy reduction measures."
"From 2010 to 2015, the company reduced electricity consumption by
20 percent and natural gas consumption by 2 percent. Overall, energy
consumption at Corden Pharma Colorado decreased by 13 percent from
2010 to 2015 and by 25 percent since 2005 when the company’s original
energy goals were set."
2075 N 55th St.
"Ball’s corporate sustainability priorities are innovation, operations, talent
management, recycling, supply chain and community. Ball has been recog-
nized globally for our sustainability efforts and achievements."
"In fact, our energy consumption per square foot has continually de-
creased since 2010. For the reporting year of 2015, Ball Aerospace imple-
mented many energy sustainability projects within its Colorado portfolio."
5001 Arapahoe Ave. 1600 Commerce St.
‒ 28 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
City Total Square
Footage Affected
Number of Buildings
Affected
Compliance Rate
(First Year)
Boulder 16.8 million 165 100% (2016)
Seattle 281 million 3,216 99% (2013)
Cambridge 72.5 million 980 95% (2015)
Chicago 214.8 million*277 92% (2014)
Philadelphia 250 million 1,700 86% (2013)
Boston 189 million 984 84% (2014)
Portland 55 million*413 82% (2015)
New York City 2.6 billion 24,000 75% (2012)
* Represents square footage included in analysis; not total square footage affected.
How Does Boulder Compare?
Boulder is one of the smallest cities implementing a rating and reporting
requirement, which allows staff the opportunity to provide substantial compliance
assistance to building owners and property managers. This assistance, combined
with significant outreach efforts, resulted in 100 percent compliance in the
program’s first year – making Boulder the first city to achieve 100 percent
compliance. (See Table 3).
TABLE 3. FIRST YEAR COMPLIANCE COMPARISON
‒ 29 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Despite the differences in square footage represented in Boulder compared to
many other reporting cities, Boulder’s largest building stock is performing similarly
to these other cities.
City Median Site EUI
(kBTU/sf)
Median ENERGY
STAR ® Score
Most Recent
Report Year
Boulder 83 70 2016
Cambridge 88 61 2015
Portland -67 2015
Chicago 85 59 2016
Philadelphia 100* 59 2015
Seattle -68 2013
National 80**75****2012***
* Weather-normalized site EUI.
** Average EUI (sum of major fuel consumption per total square foot) in kBTU (2012 CBECS, Table C4).
*** 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey: Energy Usage Summary.
**** The national median value is expected to be higher than results from mandatory city reporting because the national
data source is based on voluntary reported data, which largely represents high-performing buildings.
To better understand how Boulder buildings are performing, the overall EUI by
building type15 was compared to the most recently calculated national EUI by
building type, for the Boulder climate region. These national EUIs were calculated
by the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)16 , which is a
national sample survey that collects information on the U.S. commercial
building stock.
TABLE 4. MEDIAN METRIC COMPARISON
Boulder’s largest buildings, though a bit less efficient than national
values, has a lower overall median EUI and higher overall median
ENERGY STAR® score than other reporting cities based on most
recently reported performance data.
15 EUI by building type was calculated by summing all energy consumed by each building type and dividing by the summed
square footage of that building type.
16 Table C10. “Consumption and gross energy intensity by climate region for sum of major fuels, 2012.” Released May 2016.
Column: “Energy intensity for sum of major fuels (thousand Btu/square foot).” Region: “Very cold/cold.” https://www.eia.gov/
consumption/commercial/reports/2012/energyusage/
‒ 30 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
As shown in Figure 12, Boulder’s largest buildings are performing less efficiently than
national EUIs for building types supermarket, healthcare, office, retail and warehouse/
distribution center. However, the building types of industrial/manufacturing, lodging and
other are performing slightly more efficiently than national.
FIGURE 12. BOULDER AND NATIONAL EUI COMPARISON BY BUILDING TYPE17
17 National comparison is not provided for Parking Garage space type as no equivalent data set was available.
‒ 31 ‒
245
223
133 111 113 93 80 65
9
212
167
137 115
85 96 74
38
-
50
100
150
200
250
300 EUI (kBTU/sf-year)Boulder EUI National EUI
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Savings Potential
Commercial buildings waste an average of 30 percent of the energy consumed,
according to ENERGY STAR® findings. Rating and reporting results can help identify
and size that potential energy savings for the City of Boulder.
Analysis of the reported 2015 energy data shows a wide range of energy intensities.
The highest EUIs range from 2 to 23 times higher compared to the lowest intensity
buildings by type within the city. These ranges are evident in Figure 13.
FIGURE 13. SITE EUI RANGES BY BUILDING TYPE
‒ 32 ‒
50
0
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Site EUI (kBTU/sf-year)OtherOffice
Warehouse /
Distribution Center Parking
Garage
Industrial/
Manufactoring
Healthcare
Lodging Supermarket
Retail
X = average EUI
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
Buildings that reported an EUI below the building type median or an ENERGY
STAR ® score lower than the national median of 50 are likely to have the greatest
opportunities to improve energy performance.
Figure 13 shows the EUI range, including the four quartiles, the median, and
the average EUI for each building type. Based on analysis, a potential savings
opportunity of 467,000 MMBTU was identified, if the building EUIs in the lowest
quartiles could achieve a median rating.
Capturing these savings represents approximately $25 million in
energy efficiency investments, and could result in $10 million in
energy cost savings annually, a reduction of 94,000 MT CO2e and
creation of over 120 jobs.
‒ 33 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
CAPTURING ENERGY
EFFICIENCY
• Educate clients on the value of energy efficiency.
• Review tenant energy consumption and building consumption
at the time of lease renewal and building sales.
• Encourage use of green leases.
Property Owners
& Managers
• Create an energy team or designate an energy champion
that is responsible for developing and implementing energy
conservation measures.
• Engage with tenants through energy transparency such as
providing an energy dashboard in the building to show real-time
energy use.
• Educate tenants about good energy conservation habits (turning
off computer at night, turning off switchable lights when not in
use, etc.).
Facility Managers
• Perform energy assessments and retro-commissioning studies
and implement recommended energy conservation measures.
• Ensure operation and maintenance protocols and practices fully
optimize building systems.
• Confirm all sensors are calibrated.
• Identify rebate offerings and tax incentives.
• Work with property owners and managers on tenant build-out
guidelines that involve energy conservation measures.
• Collaborate with property management on green leases
opportunities.
• Review energy performance with the property manager.
• Encourage good energy habits by employees.
Tenants
Real Estate
Professionals
How can these potential energy savings opportunities be captured? Property
owners, manager, tenants, and even real estate professionals can all play a role by
implementing the following recommendations and best practices.
‒ 34 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
V. NEXT STEPS
Building Report Cards
Following completion of data quality control and analysis,
the City of Boulder issued customized report cards to all
building owners. These report cards included a comparison
of building EUI to the average City of Boulder EUI and the
local building type EUI as well as energy costs and financial
savings potential. The report cards also included the
ENERGY STAR® score, next steps, and a list of resources.
Data Publication
Concurrent with this report, the City of Boulder is
launching an online compliance that provides building-
specific compliance and energy information, available on
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com. Because the City of
Boulder has elected to publicly disclose building-specific
energy metrics following a two-year grace period, the
energy data reported by affected buildings will not be publicly
disclosed until 2018 reporting. However, the city is currently disclosing
building-specific metrics for all municipal facilities as well as compliance
status for all affected buildings within the compliance map.
Reporting Timeline
Rating and reporting is an annual requirement. All buildings that reported
in 2016 will be required to continue reporting calendar year energy use
each year moving forward. Every two years, the next group of commercial
and industrial buildings will begin this compliance schedule, starting with
rating and reporting for buildings 30,000 sf to 50,000 sf in 2018 and for
buildings 20,000 sf to 30,000 sf in 2020.
In addition, these buildings must follow a compliance schedule where an
efficiency requirement must be met every two or three years following the
start of rating and reporting.
BUILDING REPORT CARD
2015 rating and reporting results
March 2017
Thank you for rating and r
e
p
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your building’s energy use
w
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City of Boulder. This report card shows how your building is
p
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year-to-year and how it c
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to similar buildings. Our g
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energy performance and t
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Questions?
www.BoulderBuildingPerf
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Kimberlee Rankin
Program Administrator
RankinK@bouldercolorado
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You currently spend $XXXXX per year on energy.You could save $XX,XXX per year by reducing your building’s EUI 15%.
Get Started!
ADDRESS
REPORTING ID
SQUARE FT
Your building’s 2015 EUI1:XX.X
107.83 100.64
How your building compares
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Boulder Average EUI
Building Type Average EU
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ENERGY SPENDING2
‒ 35 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
2016
COMPLIANCE SCHEDULE
2018
2020
Buildings > 50,000 sf
New Buildings > 10,000 sf
City Buildings > 5,000 sf
Large Industrial Campuses
Buildings > 30,000 sf
Buildings > 20,000 sf
3 yrs
2 yrs
2 yrs
Rating & Reporting
Energy Assessments
Lighting and RCx
Implement Cost Effective
RCx Measures
‒ 36 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
The City of Boulder thanks the property owners and
managers, partner organizations, utility and supporting
individuals that have helped successfully develop and
implement the Boulder Building Performance Ordinance.
To the building owners, property managers, tenants, service
providers and other stakeholders who collected data, set up
accounts, reported usage and complied this year – thank you
for your collaboration and efforts. The city appreciates your
partnership in achieving our community energy and
climate goals.
The Building Performance Program’s success would not be
possible without the Boulder County Partners for a Clean
Environment (PACE) team, who provided significant outreach
and assistance to building owners and supported help
desk efforts.
Special thanks to Xcel Energy and its Energy Benchmarking
services team for making aggregated building energy data
accessible and facilitating their customer’s rating and
reporting efforts.
The City of Boulder thanks the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency for its ongoing, critical support for the ENERGY STAR®
Portfolio Manager tool, as well as the support for customized
energy tracking, training and rating and reporting support.
The Boulder Building Performance Program Report was
created with input, analysis and other support from the
following:
• Boulder County Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE)
• Xcel Energy
• Southwest Energy Efficiency Project - Colorado Industrial
Energy Challenge
• NORESCO
• Nexant
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Institute for Market Transformation
• Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)
• Building Performance Ordinance Working Groups
• City of Boulder Environmental Advisory Board
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
City Staff
Jane S. Brautigam,
City Manager
David Gehr,
Interim Executive Director of Planning,
Housing + Sustainability
Tom Carr,
City Attorney
Carey Markel,
Senior Assistant City Attorney
Sarah Huntley,
Deputy Director of Communications
Kendra Tupper,
Energy Services Manager
Elizabeth Vasatka,
Sustainability Coordinator
Kimberlee Rankin,
Sustainability Coordinator
Alexis Bullen,
Sustainability Communications
Specialist II
Emily Sandoval,
Communication Coordinator
Dylan Greenleaf,
Sustainability Data Analyst
For more information about
the Building Performance
Ordinance, please visit
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
April 2017
‒ 37 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
VII. GLOSSARY
Disclosure: The process of disseminating the
reported energy use information to the public.
ENERGY STAR® Score: A 1 to 100 rating
calculated by Portfolio Manager to assess a
property’s overall energy performance, based on
national data to control for differences among
building uses and operations. Twenty-one property
types are currently eligible for an ENERGY STAR®
score. A score of 50 represents the national
median, while 100 represents a top performer; a
score of at least 75 may make buildings eligible
for ENERGY STAR® Certification.
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager (ESPM): Free,
online software developed by the U.S. EPA to help
buildings benchmark, verify and report energy use
and property information (www.EnergyStar.gov/
PortfolioManager).
Energy Use Intensity (EUI): The total annual
energy used per square foot of gross floor area. It
is expressed in units of kBTUs (thousand British
thermal units) per square foot per year.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: Carbon
dioxide (CO2) and other gases released as a
result of energy generation, transmission, and
consumption. GHG emissions contribute to
climate change and are expressed in metric
tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). GHG
emissions are also released due to other activities
in buildings, such as refrigeration and cooling, but
those emissions are not calculated from energy
benchmarking.
Gross Floor Area (GFA): Total interior floor space
between the outside surfaces of a building’s
enclosing walls, expressed in square feet. This
includes tenant space, common areas, stairwells,
basements, storage and interior parking.
International Energy Conservation Code
(IECC): This comprehensive energy conservation
code establishes minimum regulations for
energy-efficient buildings using prescriptive and
performance-related provisions.
Median EUI: The median EUI is the middle of the
population – half of buildings use more energy,
half use less. The median works better than the
mean (arithmetic average) for comparing relative
energy performance, because it more accurately
reflects the midpoint of energy use for most
property types.
Rating: (also known as benchmarking) is the
process of measuring and comparing energy
performance metrics (such as the normalized
energy use of a building) to other similar
buildings.
Reporting: providing the energy use and
associated metrics and ratings to the parties
required by the proposed ordinance (e.g. the city
and tenants of the building).
Retro-commissioning (RCx): A process that
improves a building's operations and maintenance
(O&M) procedures to enhance overall building
performance. Retro-commissioning is designed
to improve the efficiency of existing building
operations by “tuning up” and calibrating existing
functional systems to run as efficiently as possible
through low- or no-cost improvements.
Site Energy Use: Energy consumed on-site
at a building, as measured by utility bills, and
expressed in kBTU.
Source Energy Use: Energy required to operate a
property, including on-site consumption, as well as
energy used for energy generation, transmission
and distribution; expressed in kBTU.
‒ 38 ‒
BoulderBuildingPerformance.com
APPENDIX A
The analysis presented in this report is based on data submitted as of Oct. 14, 2016. As of this date,
the city received 146 unique energy reports (“buildings”). 143 buildings are included in this analysis
after conducting quality control on submitted energy reports. The quality control methodology
implemented was as follows:
Sampling Criteria
• Review all submitted entries to identify outliers.
• Sample 10 percent of the population of buildings.
• Select unreasonably high and low ENERY STAR® scores
• Include highest and lowest EUI properties.
• Categorize by building type. Sample should have at least five different building types.
QC Criteria
• Does the EUI appear to be reasonable for the building type? What could be causing it to be
extremely high (or low)?
• Review natural gas units – is reported usage reasonable or may there be a conversion error?
• Confirm gas and electricity usage per building area are reasonable for that building type.
• Review high and low ENERGY STAR® scores – is the reported data reasonable to support those
scores?
• Are the operating hours appropriate for the building and space types?
• Do gas and electricity units appear to be correct?
• Is metering for the whole building, or are there separate meters?
• Is the building categorized correctly?
• Does occupancy seem reasonable for the building type? Could some be part-time?
• Is there a data center, restaurant or other special use that could be input incorrectly (or not at
all? Confirm input areas and operating hours for these types of areas.
• Are there any alerts noted? Was the data quality checker run without errors?
• Is there on-site electricity generation that could be affecting the EUI?
• Is there varied use in the building (such as a strip mall) that could be affecting the score?
• Review CBECs data (EUI) for that type of building for comparison and evaluation. The “National
Median” and/or the “percent Difference from National Median” columns in the data set
supplement review here.
All potential quality control issues found in the sampled buildings were then taken to the property
owners to verify and/or correct. Any outstanding issues that could not be verified resulted in those
buildings removed from analysis, which occurred for three buildings.
‒ 39 ‒