Maximum Energy Professionals Earns 2017 Energy Star® Partner Of The Year Award

Maximum Energy Professionals

Torrance, CA, 4/6/17– Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP” has been named a 2017 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Service and Product Provider Award winner for its outstanding efforts to increase energy efficiency within commercial, institutional, and industrial markets. MEP’s accomplishments will be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. on April 26, 2017.

MEP, an ENERGY STAR partner since 2001, will be honored for outstanding efforts in integrating the ENERGY STAR program into every facet of its energy conservation consulting and engineering design firm. MEP is thrilled to be honored as ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for the second year in a row!

“ENERGY STAR’S benchmark is the first way to find out where you are. You can’t make improvements if you haven’t measured where you are”, says Glenn Tanner, Principal Engineer, in 3/1/17 Huffington Post article.

Article Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-energy-star_us_58c2e96be4b0ed71826c70ef?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

In 2015 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners saved American businesses and consumers 503 billion kilowatt hours and $34 billion dollars on their energy bills, while achieving broad emission reductions.

For a complete list of 2017 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit www.energystar.gov/awardwinners.

About Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP”
MEP is a nimble, responsive, Torrance, CA based energy conservation consulting and engineering design firm that helps building owners and managers optimize energy efficiency through energy audits, LEED, ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification, property condition assessments, and innovative mechanical-electrical-plumbing design.

About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR has 16,000 partners working to protect the environment through greater energy efficiency, including manufacturers, retailers, public schools, hospitals, real estate companies, and home builders. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have saved American families and businesses $430 billion on their energy bills and 4.6 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy, while achieving broad emissions reductions—including 2.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

About Blog Post
This Blog article has been posted by Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP”, a mechanical engineering firm located in Torrance, CA. For information on Sustainability Services including: ENERGY STAR utility benchmarking and award certification, California AB802 Compliance, City of Los Angeles EBEWE Compliance, ASHRAE energy audits, LEED, and energy conservation/green Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing systems and equipment design, please give us a call at 310-782-1410 or visit our website at www.mep-llc.com.

Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP” in the News!

Glenn Tanner PE, Principal Engineer at Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP” was interviewed by the Huffington Post regarding potential changes in the ENERGY STAR program.

“There are three stages of a project: Where are you now? Where do you want to be? And what steps do you have to take to get there?” said Glenn Tanner, principal engineer at a Torrance, California-based green engineering design firm called MEP. “Energy Star’s benchmark is the first way to find out where you are. You can’t make improvements if you haven’t measured where you are.”

Please read the entire Huffington Post article at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-energy-star_us_58c2e96be4b0ed71826c70ef?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

This Blog article has been posted by Maximum Energy Professionals “MEP”, a mechanical engineering firm located in Torrance, CA. For information on Sustainability Services including: ENERGY STAR utility benchmarking and award certification, California AB802 Compliance, City of Los Angeles EBEWE Compliance, ASHRAE energy audits, LEED, and energy conservation/green Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing systems and equipment design, please give us a call at 310-782-1410 or visit our website at www.mep-llc.com.

Energy Star Is Cheap, Popular And Saves Billions Of Dollars. Trump Wants To Gut It

Privatizing the $57 million program could upend entire industries and kneecap cities’ efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the past 25 years, the federal government’s Energy Star program has become a valuable marker for all kinds of industries. Real estate agents upsell buildings that have been Energy Star-certified as energy efficient. Homeowners seek out its blue logo on electricity-guzzling appliances and devices.

But the White House has proposed eliminating funding for Energy Star and instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to “begin developing legislative options and associated groundwork for transferring ownership and implementation of Energy Star to a non-governmental entity,” according to a draft budget the energy news service E&E News obtained this week.

The cuts come as part of President Donald Trump administration’s effort to channel federal spending away from a variety of other programs and toward a $54 billion military buildup. But Energy Star helps save even more than the $57 million that the federal government spends on it each year, according to more than a dozen business executives, building consultants and energy advocates The Huffington Post interviewed this week.

 Energy Star is a voluntary initiative that has a number of different aspects. It includes a certification program for appliances, electronics and lighting; an evaluation system for rating the efficiency of homes and buildings; a program that trains engineers in energy efficiency; and an award series for eco-friendly small businesses. Nine major cities and a handful of states require landlords to report energy and water efficiency per Energy Star standards as part of their building codes.

 

Energy Star has slashed $430 billion off utility bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7 billion tons since its inception, according to 2015 estimates.

“It’s such a win for our economy and such a huge return on investment of federal dollars,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy. “It’s penny wise and pound foolish to look at reducing funding, let alone defunding the program or stopping it completely.”

For builders, Energy Star provides a standard to measure the energy efficiency of their properties. For landlords and building managers, free Portfolio Manager software launched under the initiative helps monitor energy and water use and shave hundreds off utility bills. For engineers, the program offers guidelines on indoor lighting, plumbing, ventilation, heating and cooling, ensuring that their structures waste as little electricity, heating gas and water as possible.

“There are three stages of a project: Where are you now? Where do you want to be? And what steps do you have to take to get there?” said Glenn Tanner, principal engineer at a Torrance, California-based green engineering design firm called MEP. “Energy Star’s benchmark is the first way to find out where you are. You can’t make improvements if you haven’t measured where you are.”

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-energy-star_us_58c2e96be4b0ed71826c70ef?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 via @HuffPostPol

This Blog article has been posted by Maximum Energy Professionals, a mechanical engineering firm located in Torrance, CA. For information on Sustainability Services including: ENERGY STAR utility benchmarking and award certification, California AB802 Compliance, ASHRAE energy audits, LEED, and energy conservation/green Mechanical-Electrical- Plumbing systems and equipment design, please give us a call at 310–782- 1410 or visit our website at www.mep-llc.com.

 

AB 802, ENERGY STAR and YOUR Building

Since CA AB 802 requires participants to use the same online tool to report building gas and electric energy use as ENERGY STAR, it is likely that we will see a further increase in the number of buildings applying for ENERGY STAR PE award certification. AB 802 requires commercial building owners to benchmark their properties using Portfolio Manager, so the buildings will already be halfway done with their certification process if they are at or above the 75-point threshold.

The new mandate, AB 802, is also expected to enable more accurate, efficient, and timely energy efficiency measures. The Assembly Bill (AB 802) will do this by breaking down the barriers between building owners and operators and their full-building utility data. AB 802 requires utility providers to respond to requests for full building utility data within 4 weeks. The gathering of utility data for Multi-tenant buildings has been problematic both for ENERGY STAR certification and for AB 802’s predecessor benchmarking law, AB 1103, due to the frequent difficulties posed by obtaining a year of bills from however many tenants occupy the building. AB 802 should go beyond enabling easier benchmarking, and in addition will open the door to an easier ENERGY STAR certification process for managers in buildings that suffer from this problem.

AB 802 is also likely to prompt energy efficiency retrofits as managers and owners will now be competing against other buildings on this new level with energy efficiency transparency in California’s real estate market. Once owners become engaged in their energy use they begin thinking of ways to save and often make changes to building operations. Hopefully, once property owners have benchmarked for the first time the result will be the similar to building owners’ reactions to ENERGY STAR.

75% of ENERGY STAR participants stated that they would recommend the program to others. ENERGY STAR certified buildings use on average 35% less energy than non-certified buildings of a similar type. Additionally, an EPA study found that benchmarked buildings reduced their energy use by about 2.4% every year. This means ENERGY STAR certified buildings cost less to operate than their non-certified counterparts. On top of this ENERGY STAR certified buildings often have higher rent rates and tenant satisfaction.

California AB 802 is creating accountability and transparency in conjunction with ENERGY STAR’s recognition and reward. Together the two will change California’s approach to energy efficiency, minimize waste, and spread awareness and engagement with our energy infrastructure.

MEP has performed ENERGY STAR certification on thousands of buildings. In 2016 MEP was named Energy Star Partner of the Year with over 240 buildings certified. MEP also regularly performs building benchmarks. Contact MEP today for benchmarking assistance be it mandatory or voluntary, and for more information on our Utility Data Management Software program, ENERGY STAR, LEED, Energy Audits, and Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing energy efficiency engineering design at http://www.mep-llc.com or call us at 310-782-1410.