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Colliers International is slashing power bills and raising the environmental performance of its commercial properties with new energy-accounting software.

The Envirometrics platform is a property-centric version of CarbonSystems’ Energy and Carbon Intelligence System tailored to Colliers’ portfolio of commercial properties. The web-based platform provides real time access to a building’s environmental profile, including its energy, gas and water usage, and allows users to generate reports on-the-fly illustrated with highly descriptive charts and graphs.

“The platform allows our property managers and operations teams to track building performance and grasp trends and possible anomalies,” says Colliers International Head of Sustainability and National Director of Real Estate Management, Simon Cox. That was the scenario confronting a Colliers property manager who recently used Envirometrics to profile a major CBD asset.

The platform’s NABERS widget revealed that the property in question had a zero NABERS score – suggesting it was operating very inefficiently. However, the zero-rating didn’t tally with building’s low energy density ratio (kWh/NLA), prompting further investigation revealing anomalies in the building management system (BMS).

The BMS was running an undetected after-hours air-conditioning program that was attributing power usage to the base building, thereby dragging down the property’s NABERs rating. Envirometrics revealed that a tenant had been using air-conditioning continuously since moving in to the property. As a consequence Colliers’ client was able to recover more than $250,000 in electricity costs.

Common in large buildings, the job of a BMS is to manage a building’s environment by controlling factors such as temperature, carbon dioxide levels and humidity. Systems linked to a BMS typically account for 40 per cent of a building's energy usage, and if lighting is included this number can approach 70 per cent. Improperly configured BMS systems are believed to account for 20 per cent of a building’s typical energy usage.

Cox says Envirometrics meets a growing need in the property market, which is being transformed by stakeholder demands to improve the environmental performance of real estate assets. “Regulations governing performance standards for leased and owned premises, legislation such as mandatory disclosure of commercial office building energy efficiency, and tenant demand are driving property owners and managers to monitor and report environmental performance as a routine part of their responsibilities,” he says.

CarbonSystems Managing Director, David Solsky says Envirometrics allows property managers to monitor excessive energy use, and easily target opportunities for improvement. “The platform provides a performance-management framework for benchmarking real estate assets, and generates financial-grade data for evaluating the impact of energy-efficiency, carbon-abatement and environmental programs.

“For the first time, property owners now have the data they need to track and evaluate the payback period and return-on-investment of their efficiency and environmental initiatives,” says Solsky. “This is bringing real accountability to sustainability investment programs in the property sector.”

Colliers International started the rollout of Envirometrics from 1 July 2010 across buildings in its commercial properties portfolio with net lettable area of 2,000sq m or more. The company was the first in the property sector to be listed on the Corporate Responsibility Index and was an inaugural signatory to the Cityswitch Green Office program. The company was a founding member of the Green Building Council of Australia and the World Green Building Council.

Media contact: Dan Gaffney, CarbonSystems, +61 411 156 015