State Energy Office Offers Assistance to Evaluate Buildings

The Montessori School of Maui is one of a handful of LEED certified school in Hawaii and the first on Maui. Photo by Ron Dahlquist.

By Sonia Isotov

The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s (DBEDT) State Energy Office is now offering commercial facilities the opportunity to evaluate their existing buildings for energy and resource efficiency.

This program will provide eligible building owners and facility managers with the technical assistance needed for evaluating their existing buildings using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (EB: O&M) scorecard.

Interested parties must submit an application to participate in this program. Applications will be
accepted on a first-come, first-served basis; and all applications will be evaluated to determine
eligibility.

At the conclusion of the program, participants will receive a LEED EB: O&M scorecard and summary notes indicating their potential to achieve credits under the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED EB: O&M program.

Applicants most likely to qualify possess the following characteristics:

1. Facility recently earned the ENERGY STAR award/certification.
2. Air conditioning system has been upgraded in the past seven years.
3. Lighting system has been upgraded in the past seven years.
4. Water heating system has been upgraded in the past five years.
5. For hotels, guestrooms have been renovated in the past five years.
6. Lobby has been renovated in the past five years.
7. All energy sources (electricity, gas, diesel, etc.) to the facility are metered.

The LEED and ENERGY STAR Building programs support the Hawai‘i Clean Energy Initiative, which sets a 70% clean energy goal by the year 2030: 30% from energy efficiency and 40% from renewable energy. Energy efficiency is one of the most cost-effective approaches for a facility to reduce its energy costs as well as its carbon footprint.

There are four buildings in the State of Hawai‘i that are LEED EB: O&M-certified, out of more than 50 LEED-certified and more than 60 ENERGY STAR buildings statewide.

Property owners and managers interested in applying for the LEED EB: O&M evaluation assistance may contact Gail Suzuki-Jones at gsuzuki@dbedt.hawaii.gov or (808) 587-3802.

Applications must be received by the State Energy Office by August 20, 2012. This program is being offered for a limited time due to funding limitations.

For more information on the USGBC and Green Building Certification Institute’s LEED programs, visit the website at www.usgbc.org and www.gbci.org.