Expert Columns

April 1, 2019 - By Better Buildings

REI's net zero distribution center

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Better Buildings Alliance partner REI for the energy productivity advances made in its Arizona distribution center located in Goodyear, Arizona. The center has achieved an annual energy savings of 18% and annual cost savings of $170,000 from the baseline in the first two years of operation. The goal is to have the facility be net-zero energy. How was this accomplished?

Energy Efficiency - March 22, 2019 - By Sukhjinder Singh

Energy and facility managers deserve access to modern technology

Why is it that many C&I energy or facility managers who want to find simple answers from their data seemingly can’t? In this column, Sukhjinder Singh of Pear.ai discusses how even hard-to-manage energy data can be tamed and optimized to provide the insights companies need to make informed energy decisions.

GHG Emissions - March 8, 2019 - By Daniel Hill, EDF Climate Corps

The secret behind Iron Mountain’s long-term strategy for setting a Science-Based Target? A phase-based approach.

Recently, Iron Mountain publicly shared its approved Science-Based Target (SBT). This column from EDF Climate Corps explores the strategy Iron Mountain put in place to both determine and meet these targets.

March 6, 2019 - By Tim Porter, Urjanet

Are You Still Manually Collecting Energy Data? Three Ways it Will Cost You

Despite the global explosion of cloud-based solutions and digital transformations across industries, many companies still rely on manual data entry to power their energy data collection programs. This column from Urjanet examines the costs of poor data quality, delayed information, and misused resources—and discusses steps towards a solution.

February 25, 2019 - By Mindy Lubber, Ceres

Can We Talk? Changing the Sustainability Conversation Between Investors and Companies

Many companies portray sustainability issues as good public relations — even as evidence is growing that they are material to strong financial performance. This column from Ceres shows that these failures to communicate the financial value of sustainability have real costs.

Energy Efficiency - February 13, 2019

Engaging Franchisees in Energy Management & Benchmarking

Wendy's Smart Family of Designs 2.0 promotes energy efficiency while targeting significant savings in development costs. This column from Better Buildings shares efforts made by the energy team at Wendy's to provide coaching on understanding potential costs and potential return on investments from energy upgrades.

GHG Emissions - February 11, 2019 - By Daniel Hill, EDF Climate Corps

Hershey aims to cut the carbon footprint of its chocolate with new Science-Based Target commitment

One of the world’s top chocolate companies shared new plans for reducing its impact on the planet – including committing to set Science-Based Targets. As this column from EDF Climate Corps notes, what sets Hershey apart from its peers is not this commitment. It’s the journey behind how it got here.

Sourcing Renewables - February 6, 2019 - By BloombergNEF

Corporate Clean Energy Buying Surged to New Record in 2018

Corporations bought a record amount of clean energy through PPAs, in 2018, shattering the previous record set in 2017, according to this column from BloombergNEF. Moving forward even at this accelerated rate, will RE100 companies meet their 2030 targets?

Solar - January 28, 2019 - By Amanda Corio, Google

Why we’re putting 1.6 million solar panels in Tennessee and Alabama

Hundreds of engineers, electricians, and construction workers are building two new, energy-efficient Google data center campuses in the Southeastern U.S.—one in Tennessee and another in northern Alabama. As this blog post from Google notes, they are not stopping there.

Energy Efficiency - January 14, 2019 - By Better Buildings

City of Boston's improved energy management process

With nearly 4,000 utility accounts across more than a dozen different municipal departments as well as a need to leverage more granular data, the City of Boston needed a plan to improve their energy management processes. This column from Better Buildings reviews Boston's programmatic overhaul to how energy data was collected, analyzed, and reported, leading to the creation of real-time energy meter dashboards and recovering over $1.2 million in identified utility billing errors.