February 2012 Archives

Anyone who owns or manages properties knows that the associated energy costs can add up quickly. So, how can you get a handle on your energy-related data and use it to reduce your costs?

“Portfolio Manager,” a free, online, interactive energy management tool from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), can help you manage water and energy consumption, benchmark energy performance, set investment priorities and earn EPA recognition that can increase the value of your properties.

Managing consumption

With Portfolio Manager, you can track and evaluate the energy and water consumption for both individual buildings and your entire portfolio of properties. More specifically, the tool lets you:

• Track multiple energy and water meters for each building,
• Customize meter names and key information,
• Benchmark properties according to past performance,
• Monitor energy and water costs,
• Estimate your buildings’ carbon footprints — or greenhouse gas emissions — for regulatory compliance,
• Share building data, and
• Enter operating characteristics for each space-use category within a building.

This allows you to set goals, assess progress and identify opportunities for savings and improvements.

Benchmarking results

Portfolio Manager also allows you to compare various buildings’ energy performance ratings with similar properties across the country. A building’s peer group is determined based on data gathered in the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).

The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration conducts the survey every four years, collecting information on building characteristics and energy use from buildings nationwide. A building’s peer group will comprise those buildings in the survey with similar building and operating characteristics.

The rating system takes into account the effect of weather variations and changes in key physical and operating characteristics in each building. A rating of 50 indicates that a building performs better than 50% of all similar buildings nationwide. Buildings with ratings of 75 or more might qualify for the EPA’s “Energy Star” label, given in recognition of superior energy performance.

Commercial buildings eligible to receive a rating via Portfolio Manager include financial institutions, hotels, medical offices, office buildings, retail stores, supermarkets and warehouses.

Even if you own a building that’s ineligible for a rating, you can evaluate its energy performance using the EPA’s reference list of energy performance targets, available on the Portfolio Manager web page or at energystar.gov.

The targets are based on the average energy use for various types of buildings, as derived from the CBECS, but they aren’t adjusted for climate or activities that may affect energy use.

Setting priorities and earning EPA recognition

Portfolio Manager allows you to consider the relative costs associated with a given level of performance, your cumulative investments in upgrades and your annual energy costs. Armed with that, you can better evaluate opportunities to invest in improvements across your portfolio. Moreover, the built-in financial tool makes it easy to compare savings across properties as well as calculate cost savings for specific projects.

You can also generate a Statement of Energy Performance for each building through Portfolio Manager.

Then use the statements to apply for the Energy Star label, satisfy Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements, facilitate mortgage, sale or lease transactions, and otherwise document your buildings’ energy performance.

Management matters

While many aspects of today’s tough real estate climate are beyond your control, energy performance isn’t one of them. Working with a CPA who understands how to compare utility costs, you can use Portfolio Manager to better track and manage your energy performance and costs.

EPA extends benchmarking to data centers

This past summer, the EPA expanded its Portfolio Manager (see main article) to rate the energy performance of data centers — that is, spaces housing high density computing equipment such as server racks. Data center energy performance is based largely on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). A data center’s PUE equals its total energy use (including all cooling, lighting and support infrastructure) divided by the energy consumption attributable solely to IT equipment. The PUE generally ranges from 1.25 to 3.0, with lower values correlated with greater efficiency.

In addition to PUE, the EPA also factors in energy output from a data center’s Uninterruptable Power Supply systems. Data centers that fall in the 75th percentile (or higher) are eligible to apply for the Energy Star label.

Love and marriage may go together like a horse and carriage, but taking a smart approach to money can help make the ride much smoother. Matrimony creates the potential for both great opportunities and difficult problems, depending on the approach taken. Here are three money-management tips that married couples should consider:

1. Balance and clarify your goals. Many couples have a tendency to tiptoe around financial issues because of the great potential for conflict. Yet, if you openly communicate about where you’d like to go, you’re more likely to get there.

Each spouse needs to talk about his or her individual financial goals and financial wishes for the marriage. Where do you share goals? Where do you differ? Ultimately, you want to balance your goals to put your household in the most secure, advantageous position while allowing each spouse a reasonable opportunity to pursue individual objectives.

2. Find ways to save. It’s a familiar refrain: He wants to save, she wants to save, yet, together, they just can’t do it. Granted, saving money isn’t easy — but, in today’s unpredictable economy, a healthy savings account is an absolute necessity to financial security. And, indeed, saving should play a prominent role in your monthly budget (which, in and of itself, is also a financial necessity).

How can you better ensure a percentage of your income gets earmarked “savings,” not “disposable”? Review your expenses regularly and take turns paying bills, so both parties have a clear grasp of how much money is available. In addition, require consensus on big-ticket purchases, such as vehicles and home electronics. Impulse buys can be devastating.

3. Understand the “marriage penalty.” Many people assume that, by getting married, they’ll save on federal income taxes — and sometimes that’s the case. Yet many taxpayers are subjected to the “marriage penalty,” a disparity under which married couples pay more in taxes than single filers.

One place the marriage penalty rears its ugly head is in the tax brackets. When one spouse doesn’t earn significantly more than the other, a married couple may be pushed into a higher tax bracket than if they could file as singles. This is because the thresholds for married filers to become subject to the 28%, 33% and 35% tax rates are less than double those for single filers.

And you can’t avoid the penalty by filing separately — these rates’ thresholds for separate filers are half those of joint filers, and thus also lower than those for single filers. So smart tax planning for married couples is especially important.

Contractors who juggle projects at multiple sites know it can be tricky to accurately track job data and employee activities. The good news is that there are now a wide variety of apps available for smartphones, tablet computers, laptops and construction vehicles that allow you to store and view data regarding labor hours, vehicle and equipment use, and daily job-site production. Here are three ways to get more from mobile technology.

1. Use wireless time cards

To accurately track labor costs, consider wireless time cards. By having employees clock in at job sites with their smartphones and a wireless time card app that verifies they’re on-site, you can avoid the risks of “time rounding” (when workers round their times up or down for their benefit) or outright time theft associated with paper time cards.

In addition, going paperless saves employees trips to the office, so they spend more time working. And in-office staff reduce the time they must spend performing data entry for payroll. Plus, understanding your true labor costs allows you to bid on new projects more accurately.

2. Try geo-fencing software

Contractors can cut back on physical site checks by equipping company vehicles with activity-monitoring software. For example, “geo-fencing” software alerts you or your fleet manager when a vehicle leaves a predefined area or when one is stopped when it shouldn’t be.

Geo-fencing software can also alert you when a vehicle is entering the monitored area so you know, say, when work crews or supplies are arriving. These programs allow you to update owners and other interested parties (architects, subcontractors) on the exact locations and estimated arrival times of pertinent assets, too.

3. Install global positioning systems

Slashing your fuel bill is as easy as installing a global positioning system (GPS) in your construction company’s trucks or on key employees’ smart phones. GPS capabilities allow workers to avoid traveling to the office to print directions and reduce wasted driving — a necessity while fuel prices are sky-high.

There are security benefits to GPS technology as well. Joy-riding employees will have nowhere to hide when you’re tracking a vehicle. And you’ll be able to assist the authorities in tracking down stolen equipment, potentially saving you thousands in losses.

Benefits of a boost

Implementing technology like this requires an investment of time, money and energy. But the benefits can pay off if you’re able to put these tools to good use. Work with your financial advisor to determine whether your construction business could benefit from a mobile boost and if you have the cash flow to make the investment.