Public Buildings Portfolio Management: Tacoma, WA

With help from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), the City of Tacoma took their commitment to public building energy efficiency to a new level. The NEEA project team partnered with the city and TPU to undertake a comprehensive approach to efficiency in the municipal portfolio. The team, including New Buildings Institute (NBI), EcoEdge, and Maalka, worked with city staff to engage multiple departments, policymakers, the utility, and other stakeholders in meaningful discussions about how to achieve energy goals in public buildings.

Over a series of facilitated meetings, key city staff created an action plan that consolidated the approaches into one working document. This group:
• Established an energy team
• Assigned staff to resource conservation management activities
• Set up a process to automate energy benchmarking
• Developed Energy Use Intensity (EUI) targets for different building types
• Established clear metrics to track energy performance and measure success

The team focused on ensuring the accuracy of benchmarking data and streamlining the data transfer process. The team developed strategies for engaging stakeholders and ensure that results were communicated back to decision makers in clear and understandable terms. This group was able to establish and strengthen a key cross-departmental relationship between sustainability and facilities.