Type of initiative: Green Buildings
Population: 150,000 city / 340,000 metropolitan area
Main economic sectors are education and manufacturing
Over 50 energy efficiency upgrade projects in municipal buildings have yielded a 20% decrease in energy use (108 kBTU or 31.7 kWh per square foot down to 80 kBTU or 23.4 kWh per square foot).
The City of Eugene, Oregon has been pursuing progressive energy-related initiatives since the mid-1990s. The most significant of these initiatives is the Energy Management Program in City-owned and occupied buildings, launched in 1995. The program started as an internal initiative of the City's Facility Management Division, which became interested in energy efficiency measures as a means to keep operating costs down in the face of rising energy prices. For the first few years, the program had little visibility, remaining largely unknown to the public and to the City's politicians. But in 2000, as sustainability and climate change came to the fore, Eugene's City Council passed a resolution which made the Energy Management Program an official City policy.
The Energy Management Program is built on four basic pillars: (1) implementing energy efficiency measures through the design and construction of new buildings and by retrofitting existing buildings; (2) rigorous building management and maintenance practices, to keep all equipment functioning optimally; (3) the use of energy management tools, to track energy consumption and identify opportunities for improvement; and (4) the education of City employees, to instil energy-conserving workplace practices. The City of Eugene has very strongly relied on the use of energy management tools, using them to identify priorities and to design targeted energy efficiency interventions. By using these tools, the City has avoided commissioning expensive energy efficiency studies with a low potential for savings. To date, the Facility Management Division has used a combination of loans and government incentives to fund energy efficiency measures. Loans are repaid with the savings that these measures generate.
The City of Eugene has carried out over 50 energy efficiency projects since the launch of the Energy Management Program. Energy consumption in City-owned and occupied facilities has decreased by 20%, from an annual average of 108 kBTU (31.7 kWh) per square foot to about 80 kBTU (23.4 kWh) per square foot. The program's success is attributed to rigorous tracking of energy consumption, improvements in building operations and maintenance procedures, and targeted retrofits and equipment upgrades. There has been less success with modifying workplace practices. Managers of the Energy Management Program believe employee behaviour to be one of the greatest barriers to further improving energy efficiency in City facilities.
Eugene is located in east-central Oregon, roughly 100 km from the Pacific coast, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. The City of Eugene is the second most populous municipality in Oregon, having an estimated 153,690 residents. The metropolitan population is the third largest in the state, at 340,000 residents; the Eugene metropolitan area had long occupied the second place position but was recently overtaken by the Salem, the state capital.
Eugene is the seat of the University of Oregon, a public university attended by over 20,000 students. Along with the City of Eugene and the Sacred Heart Medical Center, the university is one of Eugene's largest employers. Industry is of relatively modest importance to Eugene's economy, with the manufacturing sector employing roughly the same number of people as the education sector (US Department of Labor, 2008). Key industries are wood products manufacturing, recreational vehicle manufacturing, and food processing.
In the early 1990s, the City of Eugene was facing budgetary compression and at the same time rising operating costs, due in part to rising energy prices. On its own initiative, the City of Eugene Facility Management Division began exploring the idea of trimming operating expenses by implementing energy efficiency measures in City-owned facilities. The manager of the Operations and Maintenance section of the Facility Management Division championed the idea of retrofitting City facilities to improve energy efficiency, thereby cutting costs. The Energy Management Program was launched in 1995.
Thus, the Energy Management Program began as an internal initiative of the Facility Management Division; it was not sanctioned by the City Council. In fact, according to facility management staff, the City's politicians were unaware and seemingly uninterested in the program during the first few years of its existence. Only at the end of the 1990s, as sustainability and climate change became hot topics across North America, did Eugene's politicians and public begin to take interest in what the City was doing to cut energy use and emissions. In February of 2000, Eugene's City Council passed Resolution 4681, which defines the basic principles of sustainability and commits the City to upholding them (City of Eugene, 2000). Clause 2.2 of the resolution stipulates that “the City will lead by example” and commits the City to “developing strategies for implementing sustainable practices that address purchasing of products and services, maintenance, facility design, and municipal operations.”
The Energy Management Program in City-owned and occupied facilities is not Eugene's only progressive energy-related undertaking. Other notable projects include: the replacement of incandescent red and green traffic lights with LEDs, also initiated in 1995; and the installation of a methane-capture electric generator at the City's wastewater treatment facility in 1984. 1 More recently, the City has begun replacing its fleet of non-police cars with smaller vehicles or with hybrid gas-electric vehicles. As of last year, 25% of the electricity used by major City buildings was being purchased from wind power generators.
1 The wastewater facility serves the entire Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area. Methane-capture generation was installed originally in 1984 and upgraded in 1997. Both in 1984 and 1997, the generators were funded mostly with funding provided through the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Program, with only minor contributions from local municipalities including Eugene. The 800 kW generator presently in use provides around 55% of the wastewater facilities electricity. (Source: Robert Sprick, Wastewater Operations Supervisor)
Eugene's Energy Management Program is built on four basic pillars: (1) building design and construction; (2) rigorous building operations and maintenance; (3) use of energy management tools; and (4) modification of workplace practices.
The first pillar consists of in implementing cost-effective upgrades to existing buildings and to improve energy efficiency as well as to build new buildings that meet strict energy efficiency standards. Existing buildings with a history of high energy use per unit of area are targeted for major energy efficiency retrofit projects. Energy-efficiency upgrades are also to be introduced whenever building renovations (with a primary purpose other than improving energy efficiency) are undertaken. In terms of cost effectiveness, a key criterion for all energy efficiency-related capital improvements to buildings and all energy efficiency-related design features in new buildings is that they promise to pay for themselves within 10 years.
The second pillar consists of operating and maintaining buildings in a manner that optimizes energy efficiency without compromizing occupant comfort, functionality and ease of maintenance. The foundation of this pillar is (1) the use of a computerized maintenance management system to ensure ongoing preventive maintenance, thereby ensuring the optimal performance of existing equipment and systems; and (2) the use of Direct Digital Control (DDC) to track and optimize the performance of mechanical system, and identify malfunctions quickly. The Facility Management Division is commited to conducting periodic retro-commissioning2of existing facilities to ensure that all systems, including the DDC control systems, are functioning optimally. Failed equipment is to be replaced with higher-efficiency models whenever possible. Operations and maintenance staff are to be trained on an ongoing basis to further ensure the ongoing optimal performance of all systems and, therefore, optimal energy use.
The third pillar consists of providing accurate and timely information to support effective energy management decision making. A key element of this pillar is utility accounting, or the electronic tracking of electricity and fuel consumption across all City-owned and operated buildings. This information is used to perform energy analyses before and after the implementation of energy efficiency measures. The principal purpose of such analyses is to quickly identify equipment malfunctions or occupant oversights that are wasting energy, and correct them. Additionally, this information is used to quantify energy savings and to identify energy efficiency measures that meet cost-effectiveness criteria.
The fourth pillar consists of adopting energy-efficient practices in the workplace. Key elements include (1) educating employees about the impact of personal behavior on energy efficiency; and (2) improving employees' and the public's understanding of City's Energy Program and of energy-related issues in general.
Officials at the Facility Management Division strongly emphasize the importance of the third pillar: the use of energy management tools. Rigorous tracking of energy consumption in City facilities has consistently helped the Facility Management Division identify energy saving opportunities and to make targetted building retrofits and equipment upgrades while limiting the use of expensive studies.
Within the City of Eugene, there are three key administrative entities responsible for the implementation of the Energy Management Program: (1) the Facility Management Section, which coordinates the program; (2) the Operations and Maintenance Department, a subdivison of Facility Management, which is responsible for the installation and maintenance of energy-efficient equipment; and (3) the Design and Construction Section, a subdivision of Facility Management, which oversees the design and construction of new buildings and major renovations in existing buildings. Outside the municipal corporation, there is one key partner, the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) – the City's publicly-owned water and electricity utility, which has provided the three aforementionned City departments with ongoing technical assistance.
2 Retro-commissioning consists of comparing the actual performance of buildings and their systems to their intended (i.e., design-specified) performance.
The Energy Management Program started in 1994 as an internal initiative of the City of Eugene's Facility Management Division; the decision to undertake the program was not motivated by any official City policy or any directive from the City's politicians. Only later, in 2000, did the City Council pass Resolution 4681 (City of Eugene, 2000), which enshrined the pursuit of energy efficiency measures in City-owned facilities as an official policy. In July of 2006, City Council passed Resolution 4884 (City of Eugene, 2006), an amendment to Resolution 4681, which set the LEED Green Building Rating System for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) and LEED Green Building Rating System for New Construction (LEED-NC) as the performance benchmarks for existing and newly constructed buildings respectively. The City now officially claims the Energy Management Program as part of its effort to reduce green house gas emissions.
The City of Eugene's energy initiatives are largely independent of the efforts of other, surrounding municipalities. However, the Facility Management Division has received ongoing support from state and federal agencies. Oregon's Department of Energy supports the implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures through a system of low-interest loans and tax incentives. The City of Eugene has made ongoing use of the State's Business Energy Tax Credit Pass-trough program (see State of Oregon, 2007) to fund upgrades to City-owned buildings.
The Energy Management Program was initiated with a $2 million loan from the City's Fleet Fund. The loan monies were spent mostly on the design and implementation of energy-efficiency measures. For the management of the design process for energy efficiency measures, the Facility Management Division relied partly on its own Design and Construction Section. The City also relies on pro bono technical assistance from the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB).
To repay loans used to fund energy efficiency projects, the Facility Management Division pegged the so-called “facility occupancy charges”, which the various City departments pay the Facility Management Division to cover building maintenance and energy costs, at their 1995 levels. In principal, after energy-efficiency measures are implemented, operating costs go down. The difference between the 1995 level and the actual cost of running a department's facilities is used to repay loans. In order to guarantee timely repayment of loans, the Facility Management Division authorizes only energy efficiency measures that are expected to pay for themselves within 10 years of their implementation.
The Facility Management Division created one new position to help administrate the Energy Management Program. The new position is that of Energy Analyst; the person holding this position is responsible for maintaining a database and tracking the implementation of energy efficiency measures, monitoring energy use in City-owned facilities on an ongoing basis, assessing the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures and identifying problems or weaknesses in energy management.
Since all energy efficiency measures pay for themselves over time, the only ongoing costs of running the Energy Management Program consist of the Energy Analyst's salary, the cost of maintaining and upgrading energy-tracking software, and the cost of energy-efficiency certification for Operations and Maintenance staff. The latter is a relatively minor expenditure: currently, it cost $1,200 per person for initial training. The City aims to maintain around 10 certified Operations and Maintenance staff members; training of additional staff is needed only in the event of the departure of one of the already-trained staff members.
Eugene's energy-efficiency efforts have depended on financial support from various sources. A key source of funding and of ongoing technical support has been the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), a publicly-owned water and electricity utility. EWEB, which is chartered by the City but has its own governing board, has a program of energy conservation rebates to encourage the implementation of energy conservation measures in public and commercial buildings3. The City has also benefited from the Oregon Department of Energy Business Energy Tax Credit Pass-through program. The Energy Trust of Oregon, an association of investor-owned energy utilities, has supported natural gas efficiency projects through its Building Efficiency Program. For example, it has provided funding for numerous gas saving features in two new Fire Stations. The City has also benefited from grants from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a branch of the US Department of Energy.
3 EWEB's policy is to promote energy conservation in order to avoid building new power plants.
The key accomplishments of the Energy Management Program to date have included the implementation of an energy tracking and management program, energy audits of all major municipal facilities (completed in the mid 1990s), the implementation of numerous energy efficiency capital improvements across the City's building portfolio, and the adoption of several workplace policies intended to reduce energy use. Examples of energy efficiency capital improvements include the installation of energy-efficient lighting retrofits (started in 1995 and ongoing); the installation of occupancy sensors; upgrades to heating, cooling, ventilation and control system retrofits (started in 1998); installation of Energy Star roofing whenever roofs are replaced; and installation of solar water heating at the two community swimming pools and two fire stations beginning in 1999. Examples of energy efficiency workplace policies include a set of lights-out, computers-off-at-night and standard temperature policies; restrictions on the use of space heaters; swap out of incandescent desk lamps (started in 2002); and a ban on Halogen torchiere lamps.
To date, about 50 large and small energy efficiency projects in City-owned and occupied facilities have been carried out. 4 Altogether, the building Energy Management Program has reduced energy consumption per square foot in City facilities by approximately 20% compared to 1995 levels. The greatest reductions occurred between 1996 and 2000 (see Figure 1); in 1996, City buildings consumed an average of 108 kBTU (31.7 kWh) per square foot whereas by 2000 they consumed an average of only 80 kBTU (23.4 kWh) per square foot. The best year to date was 2003, during which consumption dropped just below 75 kBTU (22.0 kWh) per square foot; since then, however, energy use has been creeping upwards, reaching 84 (24.5 kWh) kBTU per square foot in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available. Aside from saving energy costs, the program has also yielded 5-8% operation and maintenance cost savings, thanks to early detection of malfunctions and equipment failures.
Figure 1 – Total Annual Energy Use in City-Owned and Occupied Buildings, 1997-2000
The accomplishments of the Energy Management Program were largely unknown to City politicians and the public until only a few years ago. In fact, according to Facility Management officials, when sustainability and climate change came to the fore, the public and the media began demanding to know what the City was doing about energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. There was some fallout as politicians were at a loss to answer, being largely unaware of the internal initiatives of several City departments, such as the Energy Management Program, the LED traffic light retrofit program, and methane capture generation at the wastewater treatment plant. The visibility of these programs has improved considerably and the public has expressed support.
4 A complete list of energy efficiency upgrades in buildings owned and occuied by the City of Eugene is avaialable at http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_70465_0_0_18/Energy_Project_List.pdf
Building retrofits and equipment upgrades as well as improvement in maintenance and operations practices have both yielded significant improvement in energy efficiency. However, officials at the Facility Management Division acknowledge that attempts to modify workplace practices and to instil more energy efficient behaviours among employees have thus far been less fruitful. There has been increasing resistance to certain energy efficiency measures, such as directives on thermostat settings and a restriction on the use of space heaters. The gradual upward creep in energy use that has been observed over the last couple of years is ascribed mostly to employee “push back” to energy efficient workplace practices.
Officials at the Facility Management Division attribute the program's overall success to several factors. Most importantly, they claim that rigorous and detailed tracking of information on energy use and building maintenance has allowed for highly targeted retrofits and maintenance interventions on buildings, yielding high payoffs in energy efficiency per dollar invested. Another important factor has been good communication and close collaboration between the Operations and Maintenance and the Design and Construction Sections, attributed to the fact that both are within the Facility Management Division. The feedback loop between the two sections has allowed both to learn from projects and to further optimize energy efficiency interventions on buildings. A third factor has been the training of the City's operations and maintenance tradespeople, allowing them to properly implement and maintain energy saving measures.
Going forward, Facility Management officials believe the greatest challenge to maintaining and improving upon their successes in reducing energy consumption in City buildings is employee behaviour. A sustained employee education campaign will most likely be needed to improve the visibility of the Energy Management Program and to further sensitize employee to energy efficiency issues. Another ongoing challenge for the program is limited funding, which restricts how fast further energy efficiency measures can be deployed. Better visibility for the program, particularly among the public and City politicians, could stimulate the City's administration to allot more internal funding, but new sources of external funding are also needed.
For the other cities attempting to undertake a similar program, Eugene's Facility Management staff's advice is to follow their basic mantra: to implement basic building management and energy use tracking systems first, to use them to identify opportunities for improvement, and then to proceed with making targeted improvements. They believe that having good building tracking systems allows for easy identification of opportunities for improvement, limiting the need for expensive studies. They also recommend acting inventory-wide rather than building-by-building. This means identifying an energy inefficient feature common to several buildings in the City's inventory and modifying that feature across all of the concerned buildings. This allows for economies of scale and, ultimately, tends to yield greater energy saving per dollar invested.
Many cities could undoubtedly follow Eugene's example. There are two ideas in particular worth retaining: (1) the implementation of rigorous and detailed building information tracking before jumping into expensive retrofits; and (2) repaying the loans for building retrofits and equipment upgrades with the cost savings that these interventions generate. According to an official at Facility Management, Eugene has a representative building portfolio, both in terms of diversity of types of facilities and in terms of age. For this reason, lessons taken from Eugene should be widely applicable.
A potential barrier for replicating certain elements of Eugene's Energy Management Program could be the structure of the administrative bodies that manage municipal facilities. One key success factors of Eugene's program is the close relationship between the Operations and Maintenance and the Design and Construction Sections, both of which are part of the same administrative unit. Other municipalities wishing to replicate Eugene's success may need to take special care to ensure that administrative units with the same functions collaborate as closely as those in Eugene.
The main preoccupation of the Facility Management Division is to bring City-owned buildings up to the LEED-EB standards. It intends to continue its policy of implementing energy-efficiency measures throughout the inventory. This entails assessing the entire building inventory and identifying deficiencies according to the LEED-EB standard, and then systematically acting to eliminate the most common deficiencies across the building inventory.
Another important next step is to perform retro-commissioning on the whole inventory. Retro-commissioning entails assessing how buildings are performing with respect to their own design criteria, verifying whether all systems are performing optimally, and making necessary modifications or repairs.
Other planned steps include:
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