Commercial buildings used nearly 20 percent of total energy in the United States—more than half of which is consumed by small and medium buildings under 100,000 square feet, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. For small businesses that rent space in commercial buildings, energy is a top cost, often ranking behind only labor and … Continued
IMT and the U.S Department of Energy’s Better Buildings have developed this resource guide on rooftop unit (RTU) best practices for retail leases. This document provides lease clauses to facilitate RTU efficiency in retail leases for both retail tenants and commercial real estate landlords. This document recommends insertion of clause language into standard commercial leases … Continued
IMT, the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA), and the Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing introduce the Roof and Wall Thermal Design Guide: Applying the Prescriptive Insulation Standards of the 2015 I-Codes. This non-proprietary I-Codes Design Guide provides building designers helpful information regarding the prescriptive thermal value tables in the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code … Continued
Many of today’s businesses have realized the value of promoting sustainable operational practices. They know that exercising good environmental stewardship also makes long-term economic sense. In fact, an Accenture survey of 1,000 CEOs found that 93 percent see sustainability as important to the future success of their businesses. The top reasons to go green were … Continued
Moving a business to a new location provides a clean slate to explore sustainable design solutions that offer a host of benefits. For a business leader, it’s important to align a company’s economic, environmental, and social goals—an energy-efficient office space can help achieve this. As businesses think about moving to new space, it’s important to … Continued
Worldwide, commercial building energy benchmarking and disclosure mandates are becoming more common as policymakers target the building sector in energy and climate protection policies. As such, policymakers are becoming more attuned to building energy performance mandates. These mandates are primarily aimed at existing buildings, which comprise the vast majority of the building stock and present … Continued
In July 2012, a working group comprised of local utilities, utility regulators, building owners, and experts from the real estate, academic, and energy efficiency fields came together to examine utility efforts to provide building operators with better access to energy consumption data for their buildings. A product of the working group, this report identifies best … Continued
Requirements for building owners to benchmark energy performance and disclose that information to the market have been passed in a number of U.S. cities and states in recent years. To help increase awareness of and compliance with these new laws, cities are conducting broad outreach, education, and training activities aimed at supporting building owners, managers, … Continued