St. Louis releases inaugural energy benchmarking report for buildings
Published: October 16 2019 Source: Smart Cities Dive Author: Cailin Crowe
Dive Brief:
The City of St. Louis released its first energy benchmarking report for municipal buildings and privately owned buildings that are over 50,000 square feet. More efficient building performance would reduce the city's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 11%, saving more than $65 million in annual energy costs.
Energy consumption in the city's residential, commercial and industrial buildings constitutes 77% of St. Louis' GHG emissions. Initial findings from the report revealed that offices, hotels, multifamily housing and hospitals were the top energy consuming buildings.
The city also created an energy efficiency checklist that provides a set of recommended steps for saving energy in buildings and investing in building maintenance staff. The steps include low-cost and no-cost solutions like turning off lights or heating and cooling systems, Cliff Majersik, the director of market transformation at the Institute for Market Transformation, told Smart Cities Dive.