Laurie Gilmer presents ‘Saving Energy in Unique Facilities: An R&D Case Study’
Energy consumption represents a significant portion of a building’s annual operational budget. It’s also one of the most controllable facility costs and presents the best opportunity to positively impact overall performance including saving money and reducing carbon footprint. For R&D and laboratory facilities, which typically are large consumers of energy, the opportunity is even greater. Additionally, jurisdictions across the country are beginning to require mandatory energy rating and labeling of buildings through the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager program, with disclosure required at time of sale or lease, or simply posted on a public website. These requirements are driven by the concept that making energy efficiency public, building owners will be more likely to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. At the same time, sustainability programs encourage benchmarking and goal setting based on energy performance. For unique facilities such as research & development and laboratories, benchmarking energy consumption can be a challenge since comparative data is not readily available.
Takeda San Francisco Inc., an affiliate of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Inc, whose facility is less than five years old successfully benchmarked their R&D facility’s energy consumption, identified over 25% annual savings largely through low-cost/no-cost measures, utilized ENERGY’s Portfolio Manager program to track progress, and further increased cost savings through utility incentives.
