Greenhouse Gas Savings from Commercial Buildings

In my last post, I introduced this graphic* (from a McKinsey report that shows the estimated cost for CO₂ abatement using various technologies).  Today, I’m looking at one of the largest opportunities for “low hanging” emissions reductions: the commercial building sector.

The U.S. commercial sector spends $108 billion/year on building energy bills, with more than $20 billion spent on office building energy costs alone.  Typically, a 50,000-square-foot office building of average operating efficiency can reduce costs by $40,000 per year just through no-cost and low-cost efficiency upgrades.

EDF has a program called Climate Corps that places MBA students at host companies for a summer to “run the numbers” on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions –and the results are almost always astounding.  Here are a few examples to give you a sense of the range of savings to be had:

• An intern at the IT services company SunGard uncovered lighting timer errors that, when fixed, will save the company nearly $20,000/year.

• An intern for Houston-based property management firm Crescent Real Estate identified efficiency upgrades at key properties that would cut electricity costs by $400,000 annually.

• An intern at grocery company Ahold (owner Stop'n Shop and Giant) calculated that if skylights were installed at just a third of stores, they'd save over 13,000 tons CO₂ per year with a 5 year NPV nearing $30 million.

We’re recruiting now for companies to participate in the Climate Corps program next summer – join us!

*The vertical axis shows cost per ton of emission reductions.  And all the blocks hanging below the horizon represent things we can do now that have “negative cost” – in other words, we save more money than we spend.

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