City of Austin – Daniel Heras – 2013

Goals

Daniel Heras analyzed the City of Austin’s municipal building portfolio and energy efficiency practices. Heras created an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) Index for more than 200 City buildings, performed level-1 facility audits and conducted in-depth interviews with over 30 City employees who are key players in the City’s energy efficiency practices. All of his work was in alignment with the City’s Climate Protection Plan, which sets a goal of carbon neutral City operations by 2020.

Solutions

As a result of this work, Heras has recommended four system-level energy efficiency strategies designed to improve the implementation process of energy efficiency projects for City-owned buildings:

1. A robust Reporting and Communication strategy that tracks and reports building energy data;
2. A Capital, Finance and Budget strategy that highlights Life Cycle Cost analysis and Net Present Value of energy efficiency projects;
3. An Operation and Maintenance strategy that integrates stakeholder input and plans for ongoing training of building operators and
4. A proposed set of City-wide energy efficiency educational campaigns that would aim to reach all 12,000 City employees and promote more energy efficient behaviors.