More and more, retailers are looking to demonstrate their environmental commitment to customers and employees by adopting sustainable policies and practices. In fact, a recent survey shows that 45 percent of respondents from retailers across the country say that sustainability is a key component to their organizational strategy.[1] Retailers often turn first to “green” the products they sell, but it’s important to remember the environmental impacts of the buildings in which they sell those products. Retail buildings are the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions among commercial buildings, and emit more than 42 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. A reduction in building energy consumption not only saves money, but helps protect the environment.
But, how can you tell if your stores are energy efficient?
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program offers free tools and resources to help retailers measure, manage and recognize energy performance. Just like the ENERGY STAR label on consumer products, an energy efficient building can earn an ENERGY STAR. EPA’s free online benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager, allows retail store owners and operators to assess the energy performance of their buildings as compared to similar buildings nationwide. By entering specific information into Portfolio Manager, including basic building operating characteristics and at least one year of utility energy data, retail operators can receive an energy performance score on a 1-100 scale, where 1 indicates the lowest performance, 100 indicates the highest performance, and 50 indicates average performance. Buildings achieving a score of 75 or higher – indicating that they are in the top 25 percent of energy performers nationwide – are eligible to earn the prestigious ENERGY STAR label. On average, buildings earning the ENERGY STAR use 35 percent less energy than typical properties.
Since the 1-100 scale for retail buildings was released almost three years ago, nearly 19,000 retail buildings have started using Portfolio Manager to track energy use, demonstrating the commitment of the retail industry to manage building energy use and to improve environmental performance. Across the country, retailers including JC Penney Company, Kohl’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Staples, and Verizon Wireless have benchmarked their facilities and have earned ENERGY STAR labels for their stores. In fact, by using Portfolio Manager as the key component of corporate energy management strategies, and by actively promoting their partnership with ENERGY STAR, retailers can also attain national recognition for organization-wide excellence. Since 2007, JC Penney has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year (2007-08) and Sustained Excellence award winner (2009-10), and Kohl’s has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year (2010).
By entering data for an entire portfolio of buildings, retail organizations can analyze and compare the relative performance of all facilities. Because Portfolio Manager helps to identify high and low performing buildings, organizations can better set priorities for improved operations and maintenance, as well as equipment upgrades and retrofits across a portfolio. ENERGY STAR also offers automated benchmarking services, so if your organization uses a utility bill payment service or energy or carbon tracking software, the service provider may be able to directly upload utility data into your Portfolio Manager account, allowing organizations with a large portfolio of buildings to quickly and easily track energy consumption. By regularly updating Portfolio Manager with current energy consumption data, an operator can establish an energy performance baseline and then track and verify improvements over time.
Beyond ENERGY STAR recognition, the benefits of energy management are well within the reach of any retailer. ENERGY STAR estimates that every dollar saved on energy has an equivalent effect on operating income as an $18 increase in sales for the average retailer. From the perspective of environmental impacts, if the retail industry were to reduce energy consumption by just 10 percent, the savings would be equivalent to removing almost 810,000 cars from the road, or offsetting the annual electricity use of more than 510,000 homes. Whether from an environmental or a financial point of view, the importance of energy management in the retail sector cannot be overlooked.
[1] “Energy Management Strategy in Retail.” Prenova and Chain Store Age. June 2010.
ENERGY STAR Commercial and Industrial Buildings US Environmental Protection Agency