Colleen Costa, IREM Boston

There is good news for all commercial owners and managers.

In April of this year, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 was signed into law. What this law does is establish a voluntary program, which is much like the Residential Energy Star program, which promotes energy efficiency in leased commercial spaces.

The goal of the program is to give commercial owners and tenants the incentive to implement energy efficient measures in the rehab process and or purchase process. There are recent studies completed by the Department of Energy, which say commercial tenants account for 50% of the energy used in a building. When the owner introduces the tenant to cost savings especially if it is a triple net lease, both owner and tenant win. Start with retro fit light fixture first!

The Department of Energy has set up a three-phase approach for introducing this act. The first phase is to gather information. A Request for Information (RFI) link has been set up on their website. I urge everyone to be part of this valuable process. This first phase will include the design and construction of the space. The second phase will be gathering data to set the benchmarks. The third phase will spell out the possible benefits to the program.

In the late 1990s I had the pleasure of working for Kevin Fitzgerald managing a high-rise property, which is located in Quincy. Kevin was way ahead of the times when he converted the building to gas and retrofitted the building with new state of the art Veissman boiler. I remember the process very well because the cost savings on the heat that year was over $90,000.  This cost savings funded the oil tank removal and most of the environmental process required by the state at that time. Previously to this project, Kevin requested all units be retro fitted with water saver devices. The costs savings on the water at that time was over 10% of the water budget numbers.

An owner on Longwood Ave. is already on board with new energy savings costs. In Boston, the sidewalks are the owner’s responsibility in snow removal. Last winter was the worst winter in many years in Boston for snow removal. This owner is having the efficient heating installed to help keep the area clean of snow and ice during the winter.

Therefore, this being the budget time of year, sharpen your pencils and buy into this process. As I have stated previously, lights are the easiest place to start. Graduate to windows, doors, and then check the payback on the boiler. Check out the available rebates for this type of work on Mass. Save. The available rebates for this type of work on Mass. Save for 2016 should be available by the beginning of February 2016.

Colleen Costa, CPM, ARM, is the 2015 IREM Boston president and president and principal of CPC Management, LLC, Kingston, Mass.