Practical Applications of ASTM’s Building Energy Performance Assessment (BEPA) Standard E 2797-11

Building on my previous post, consider some potential practical applications of the ASTM’s new “BEPA” standard:

• Use with projects in connection with Arkansas’s Sustainable Buildings Design and Sustainable Energy-Efficient Buildings Design programs;
• Use by developers, lenders, borrowers, and investors as part of the due diligence into a commercial real estate deal;
• Use in connection with state and local laws that either mandate energy-efficiency performance or require disclosure of energy-efficiency performance information;
• Use in combination with energy audits (i.e., ASHRAE Level I) and other energy efficiency benchmarking efforts;
• Use by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) for projects designed to improve the energy efficiency and maintenance costs of commercial buildings;
• Use in connection with loans or other financing for energy-efficiency projects and improvements;
• Use in connection with regulatory disclosure requirements for energy-use;
• Use in comparing similarly situated buildings in connection with the asset management of a portfolio or to evaluate potential investments;
• Use to identify potential energy efficiency retrofit opportunities to improve return on investment and to increase the value of commercial real estate;
• Use by lenders to evaluate a borrower’s ability to repay financing based on lower operating expenses due to improved energy efficiency, and to evaluate increases in the value of collateral due to energy efficiency improvements;
• Use in connection with governmental incentive programs linked to energy efficiency improvements and performance.

BEPA “best practices” will undoubtedly emerge. Stay tuned.

(Department of Credit Where Credit is Due: This list is largely drawn from a January 2011 presentation by Anthony j. Buonicore, the Chairman of the ASTM BEPA Task Group.)