It is often the small steps that can add up to big changes – and rewards. Verdani client, CommonWealth Partners, was recently recognized for their notable efforts in energy efficiency across their office portfolio by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the 2018 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award.
Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500—rely on their partnership with the U.S. EPA to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Together, since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped save American families and businesses over $450 billion and over 3.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity while also achieving broad emissions reductions—all through voluntary action.
This notable recognition comes from several sustainability programs and progress in their energy and carbon reduction targets. CommonWealth Partners’ major accomplishments in 2017 included:
Reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, well before its 2020 target date
Cutting electricity use across the portfolio by 2,745 megawatt hours
Earning the ENERGY STAR label for 80% of the CalPERS/CommonWealth Partners’ portfolio
Earning an average ENERGY STAR score of 88 on the benchmarked properties
Achieving LEED Certification for 99.5% of the portfolio including three Platinum and 10 Gold certifications
Reducing annual CO2 emissions by 2,252 tons, equivalent to removing 437 passenger vehicles from the road for one year
Establishing an award-winning tenant engagement campaign
What did it take to achieve such positive impacts in their portfolio? At Verdani Partners, we like to explain to our clients that big results first come from taking small steps in sustainability and ESG management across their portfolio. For example, education comes at the forefront of their initiatives and keeping tenants aware of the annual programs held at each property. Encouraging tenant participation with friendly competitions on how to reduce overall energy usage has shown an impact. With Verdani's tenant engagement program in place, it assisted in keeping Property Managers ready to distribute the next monthly event to keep ENERGY STAR programs as a focal point at each property.
CommonWealth Partners’ demonstrated its leadership and dedication to the ENERGY STAR program by putting energy efficiency at the heart of its portfolio’s operational priorities. We believe that the most successful sustainability programs come from such a mindset – one that inherently believes that what can be good for investors can also be good for the planet, and consequently ready to invest in the improvements necessary to achieve this win-win situation.
We applaud CommonWealth Partners on their recent award, and we are proud to have contributed to their success in sustainable buildings.