Tracking Energy, Water, and Waste with ENERGY STAR's Portfolio Manager
The free tool from EPA became even more useful to building managers starting Aug. 8, 2016.
EPA has great news for building managers who want to cut costs while supporting a healthy environment: Starting Aug. 8, 2016, EPA's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager allows managers to assess energy, water, and waste for a "tracking trifecta" in one tool. It's free to use, convenient, and secure, according to EPA.
Adding waste to Portfolio Manager's existing energy and water tracking capabilities helps building managers save money and improve their bottom line while reducing their environmental impact. The agency says manufacturing activities and commercial buildings currently are responsible for nearly half of the 150 million tons of waste that wind up in incinerators or landfills in the United States each year.
Improving this situation starts with knowing how much of a building's disposed materials could be eliminated by reducing waste, recycling, or repurposing materials for another use, and doing these also reduces waste disposal expenses. For instance:
- General Motors generates $1 billion in revenue each year through its recycling program.
- Toyota has achieved $1.3 million in net savings from waste management, largely due to its use of reusable packaging, which has saved wood and cardboard equivalent to more than 2.3 million trees.
Portfolio Manager is already used to track sustainability metrics in more than 450,000 U.S. buildings.
EPA created the online tool to help managers track energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. It can be used for any building: school, office, stadium, etc., and building designers can use it to set their energy use targets and see how their estimated design energy stacks up against similar existing buildings nationwide.
The Portfolio Manager Quick Start Guide is available here.