Building Energy Exchange & Bright Power Turn Data Into Action

At SPARK 2019, the Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex) and Bright Power were honored with an award as Leaders in Community Engagement. The award recognizes innovation using data to support and expand adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency.

BE-Ex and Bright Power did all that and more with their report: Turning Data Into Action. Published together with Sustainable Energy Partnerships, the award-winning report analyzes 16,000 datasets in New York City to produce measurable impact on climate action.

A critical time for NYC

Making building energy data available and actionable has never been more important, especially for NYC. The New York City Council recently passed the Climate Mobilization Act, an ambitious set of legislation aimed at reducing emissions from existing buildings – responsible for nearly 70 percent of the city’s greenhouse gases.

“The Climate Mobilization Act is a down payment on the future of New York City.”

Dubbed the city’s own Green New Deal, the Act will require buildings over 25,000 square feet to cut emissions 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. Achieving this target will need large-scale – but worthwhile – investment; as council member Costa Constantinides said: “The Climate Mobilization Act is a down payment on the future of New York City.”

Building Energy Exchange & Bright Power take action

To help building owners tackle this massive undertaking, BE-Ex and Bright Power built a comprehensive analysis of nearly 16,000 datasets from NYC building energy audits. Breaking down data on energy usage and auditor recommendations into digestible packages, the report enables building decision-makers – with or without a building science background – to better understand their options and opportunities for savings.

Implementing recommended efficiency retrofits will immediately reduce multifamily energy use in NYC by 11%.

The study found that implementing recommended efficiency retrofits would immediately reduce multifamily energy use in NYC by 11 percent, with a simple payback of less than six years. By turning overwhelming datasets into actionable knowledge, BE-Ex and Bright Power exemplified true leadership and empowered critical climate action across the city.

A community of leaders

BE-Ex and Bright Power aren’t the only ones taking action. EnergyCAP, a finalist for the SPARK Award, helped Riverside County in California calculate and allocate more than $710,000 in savings from a single solar installation. Finalist Sustainable Tulsa partnered with THG Energy Solutions to create an interactive Scor3card program, helping CityPlex Towers reduce peak demand by 900 kW in the last 12 months.

Innovative ideas turn into collective action when organizations put the power of accurate, accessible data to use. Read the full report from Building Energy Exchange and Bright Power here, and check out the other SPARK Award winners in our announcement.

You might also be interested in:

• SPARK 2019: Energy & Sustainability Presentations
• THG Energy Solutions Improves Data Quality and Accuracy with Urjanet
• Citywide Impacts of Building Energy Ratings

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