Reduced energy costs can be real budget savers for public entities. But how do you know if your buildings are using too much energy? Benchmarking is a process that allows you to manage your building’s energy use and determine what buildings are a priority for lighting upgrades, HVAC retrofits, and larger overhauls.
As a GreenCorps member at the Clean Energy Resource Teams, I am tasked to assist local government across Minnesota start the benchmarking process in a program called Building Benchmarking and Beyond, or B3. Below read more about the B3 program from Trevor Drake, view my B3 primer presentation, and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about the process.
As it fits with the Local Government Energy Action series, EECBG funding recipients are all maintaining their building energy consumption data with the B3 public building benchmarking database by entering baseline data for the year prior to the grant agreements and at least three years after the energy efficiency improvements have been made. It’s a great idea for any local government serious about establishing a baseline and tracking their progress to do the same!
Sarah Steinman
CERTs & Minnesota GreenCorps
Energy Conservation Member
sarah@cleanenergyresourceteams.org
Minnesota’s B3 Benchmarking Helps Local Governments Go Green
By Trevor Drake, Metro CERT Organizer, Originally published on the MN2020 Hindsight Blog.
Minnesota cities spend a lot of tax money on energy costs. In a time of shrinking state funding from legislature, local communities are well served by state-level policies that encourage energy efficiency.
Minnesota’s B3 Benchmarking program is one such state-level initiative that does exactly that. At its core, B3 Benchmarking is simply a tool that makes use of something all cities have—energy bills. Cities enter data from their energy bills, and B3 spits out all sorts of useful information about how efficiently (or inefficiently) the city’s buildings are using energy. It even takes into account annual weather patterns. In other words, this tool can tell you as a citizen how much of your annual taxes are being wasted on inefficient buildings, instead of paying for your child’s education or snow removal on your street.
B3 stands for “Buildings, Benchmarks, and Beyond,” and it’s a program that was created to standardize more sustainable design for new buildings and renovations receiving state funding. Benchmarking is just one component of the greater program, but it’s perhaps the most useful—any city in the State of Minnesota can start an account for free and begin tracking energy use.
Tracking is just the beginning. B3 can rank buildings according to their performance, allowing cities to focus their investments on the best payback opportunities. After identifying its municipal ice arena as the local energy hog, the City of Rogers was able to invest in a building improvement that will save over $450,000 in energy expenses over the next 20 years and pay for itself in 4. That’s a payback that should pass in any almost any political context.
With a return this good, the environmental benefits don’t need to be argued, but they’re significant too. The ice arena project in Rogers alone will reduce annual CO2 emissions by 347,000 pounds. That’s almost 7 million pounds over 20 years. Most importantly, if anyone should question the success of this project, B3 Benchmarking will provide a venue for verifying the results (and finding new opportunities for savings) for years to come.
Presentation: Building Benchmarking with B3
By Sarah Steinman, CERTs Minnesota GreenCorps Energy Conservation Member
Overview: This presentation provides an introduction to building benchmarking with B3 in Minnesota. Topics include: Background; Why benchmark; Account creation; Data collection and entry; Data analysis.
About the Local Government Energy Action Series:
This year-long effort tells the stories of nearly 50 Minnesota municipalities, counties, and schools and the tangible results of their energy-saving efforts to inspire others to take their own actions.
Local Government Energy Action is brought to you by the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources.
