Several NMHC/NAA member firms were invited to the White House last
week for a roundtable discussion with representatives from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the White House Council
on Environmental Quality to discuss extending the Obama Administration’s
Better Building Challenge (BBC) to the multifamily sector.
Apartment firms that choose to join the BBC partnership, which is
already underway in the commercial and industrial sectors, are required
to develop an organization-wide plan with a schedule and milestones for
achieving a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption across their
portfolios in a decade; participants also would showcase how they
improved energy performance on a particular property and commit to
periodic reporting and information sharing with other participants.
At the meeting, industry participants agreed that energy conservation and utility management are key elements of property management, although participants raised several concerns. Chief among them were the inability to obtain whole building consumption data in most areas of the country, the fact that portfolios are not static for a decade, the lack of effective educational tools to improve resident/consumer awareness of energy efficient behaviors and concern that the 20 percent increment may not be feasible as an across-the-board target based on the specific technical building considerations and an owner’s ability to access capital for this purpose.
This meeting was the first in what is expected to be an ongoing dialogue with the Obama Administration. Members who are interested in learning more about the program or participating can find additional information at http://www4.eere.energy.gov/challenge/home.
Related Articles
- House Energy Commerce Committee Introduce CLEAN Future Act, Laying Marker for Ambitious Climate Goals
- Sustainability – A 21st Century Definition and Approach
- Sustainability Drives Value Creation
- ENERGY STAR Publishes New Marketing Materials for Apartment Owners
- Sustainability As a Core Business Strategy