Minneapolis latest to require energy disclosure

As a way to incentivise landlords to compete for lower operational costs, Minneapolis is the latest US city - and the first in the Midwest - to adopt an energy benchmarking and disclosure rule for commercial buildings.

Private commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet in Minneapolis must report energy and water use annually beginning in 2015. The policy - already adopted in Austin, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. - is meant to bolster market forces, rather than requiring building design mandates, and motivate owners and tenants to invest in energy efficiency improvements.

The city of Minneapolis and other public offices will lead by example and begin publicly disclosing energy and water use in buildings larger than 25,000 square feet starting this year. [Business Green]

MA company lowers energy bills 55% with LED lighting

Once thought to be too costly for commercial buildings, LED lighting is increasingly popping up in warehouses and commercial facilities as part of energy retrofit projects.

LED lighting lowers energy consumption 55% at Massachusetts company with upfront costs covered by Mass Save program.

Atlas Box received a number of incentives through Mass Save, including a finance program that covers 70 per cent of energy efficiency upgrade costs and an option to finance the remaining 30 per cent with no interest over the next two years.

[Business Green]

First Fuel: Finding no-cost energy efficiency opportunities

FirstFuel, a Lexington-based energy analytics startup, released a report revealing that 51 per cent of all energy efficiency opportunities could be achieved through low and no-cost operational improvements. They calculated the savings over the entire US commercial building market as a $17bn opportunity for operational improvements.