Energy is the single largest operating expense for commercial buildings, says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but about 30 percent of building energy is used inefficiently or unnecessarily. For multifamily, it’s the third largest expense after debt service and salaries.

Coming down the pike, on the federal, state and local levels in cities around […]

What does going “green” mean anyway?” Is it only about conserving natural resources? Or is it about reducing our carbon footprint—whatever that is? It usually encompasses those and more, but from a business perspective the question is: What green concepts do I need to embrace that will benefit my residents, my bottom line, and […]

Simple strategies to simplify your budgeting process and generate ROI
Right now, busy multifamily executives and property management teams across the nation are in the throes of developing, forecasting and finalizing their 2012 operating budgets. Given that utilities are among the top three operating expenses at a multifamily community, it is critical that […]

Why haven’t we developed and adopted a rating system for measuring utility performance within the multifamily industry?

After all, we already evaluate our communities comparing metrics such as occupancy rates and rents.

ENERGY STAR has done an excellent job of creating rating systems for building types including the obvious commercial and data centers, hospitals […]

U.S. CTO challenges utilities: come up with a way for consumers to have instant online access to their energy usage

CTO Aneesh Chopra says he wants energy industry to create green button to provide access to online information.

The idea sounds simple enough: residents can go to their utility’s Website, click a […]

To effectively manage risk, you must manage information.

This begs the question, what are the inherent risks? In today’s environment, macro risk, at the economic and regulatory level, breed micro-level challenges for multifamily owners and operators who are particularly sensitive to changes in utility costs.

Micro-level risks, when understood, are far more […]