Shorenstein Properties – William Sapon – 2016

Goals

Shorenstein Properties has set aggressive portfolio performance targets for 2020, including a 20% reduction in energy use and a 20% reduction in carbon emissions. To help evaluate and present the business case for energy efficiency investments in the heating, ventilation and lighting system, EDF Climate Corps fellow William Sapon was welcomed to its One Oxford Centre. A portion of William’s time was needed to facilitate tenant engagement efforts in providing information and tools to help building occupants with their own sustainability efforts.

Solutions

Working alongside the property’s Chief Engineer, William compared various opportunities for energy efficiency projects. He identified a handful of recommendations, including replacing existing electric boilers with high efficiency gas-condensing boilers, replacing existing fluorescent tubes with LEDs and retrofitting the HVAC air supply/return fans with variable frequency drives (VFDs). To get the ball rolling on implementing these projects, William oversaw that the rebate applications and company engineering review forms were completed, and ensured all projects were budgeted for 2017. With these projects secure, William performed a preliminary feasibility study of installing a green roof, which included recommendations on how to best proceed. 

Potential Impact

After compiling detailed electrical energy end use information for the property, William recommended a heating system replacement strategy for reducing energy use by 6 million kWh annually, representing operating cost savings of over $500,000 per year. Switching from non-VFD to VFD could reduce the property’s energy use and carbon footprint by nearly 13% annually, with a simple payback period of 0.71 years. In addition, his work with Shorenstein’s signature “Flip the Switch” tenant engagement program should help reinforce and continue the realty company’s position as an innovator in sustainability programming for commercial office tenants.