The accelerating pace of climate change demands swift, bold action and we are rising to the challenge. To close the books on 2019, we’ve assembled this list of highlights. Together we made change happen!
benchmarking
Saint Paul Follows Best Practice of Tracking Building Energy Usage
Saint Paul’s Climate Action Plan identified that 62 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions come from building energy usage. We’re excited to see that the city is making moves to address this by considering more closely tracking energy usage in large buildings. We see as a first step toward addressing some of these emissions and ultimately reducing energy consumption.
Building energy footprints trending down
This week Minnesota Public Radio released a report describing how real estate company Madison Equities is overhauling three of their large downtown St. Paul buildings. The most visible upgrade will be the replacing the neon lighting on the iconic First National Bank Building with LED lighting. This is part of a comprehensive $12.5 million retrofit project resulting in a 40 percent reduction in energy use between the three properties. And while the end result of this project will mean big savings, it actually started with a small decision – to benchmark how much energy the buildings were using in the first place.
