Tracking Carbon Emissions With GHG Management Software

Investors are increasingly putting pressure on companies to account for their greenhouse gas emissions. Aside from the physical threat of climate change, the business reasons for this are twofold; to prepare for future regulatory policies and to increase operational efficiency.

The first step that companies must take to account for GHG emissions is to establish a carbon baseline—typically by tracking all emissions for one year. The emissions baseline provides a point against which you can measure any changes in the amount of emissions due to projects or improvements. Just like financial accounting, or taking inventory of other resources, creating a carbon baseline allows companies to understand which departments or processes are driving their emissions budget. These areas will have the most potential for meaningful savings.

Your baseline should cover both direct and indirect emissions classified as Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. These scopes are defined by the EPA as:

• Scope 1: direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the Agency.

• Scope 2: indirect emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the Agency.

• Scope 3: from sources not owned or directly controlled by EPA but related to Agency activities.

Tracking these emissions and establishing a baseline is made easy using EEM Suite’s GHG Reporting module. The module contains a set of reports that enables you to assign emissions factors to meters, calculate, track, and compare your organization's GHG emissions over time. This will help to identify trends and assess your performance in meeting the requirements of any voluntary and mandatory GHG programs in which you participate.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration on GHG emissions tracking contact info@energyhippo.com.

References:

1. Building Organizational Emissions Baselines for GHG Management. SINAI Technologies. https://www.sinaitechnologies.com/post/building-organizational-emissions-baselines-for-ghg-management. Accessed Wednesday February 24 2021.

2. More Companies Are Tracking Carbon Emissions - Is It Helping? https://www.greenbiz.com/article/more-companies-are-tracking-carbon-emissions-it-helping . Accessed Wednesday February 24 2021.

3. Greenhouse Gases at EPA. https://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/greenhouse-gases-epa . Accessed Wednesday February 24 2021.

Energy Hippo Acquired by Univerus

SEATTLE, WA – (Jan 18, 2021) – Energy Hippo is excited to officially announce its acquisition by North American-based Univerus. Energy Hippo’s flagship software product enables customers to monitor, analyze and report on building energy and water usage. Univerus’ growing suite of energy and facility related software systems continue to expand to provide complementary software products across their customer base.

“This acquisition is a wonderful win for everyone,” said Brad Atchison, CEO of Univerus. “It’s a great opportunity for Energy Hippo to join a growing team and it better enables Univerus to serve our clients as trusted advisors on building systems, operations and energy efficiency. Importantly, this change will be valuable to Energy Hippo customers, who will benefit from Univerus’ size, resources and complimentary offerings”

Nitin Manchanda, CEO of Energy Hippo, said he is excited by the chance to integrate with the rest of the Univerus platform. “We see so many possibilities for our clients,” Manchanda said. “We’re eager to use our extensive industry experience to enrich the software’s capabilities and provide even more value to our clients in coming years.”

About Univerus

UNIVERUS’s mission is to add amazing people to our team, and proven solutions to our ecosystem. Representing a family of innovative technology brands, including fieldGO, MAIS, C2Logix, Compliance Science and SmartGridCIS. UNIVERUS’s centralized management approach means their suite of tech companies can focus on what they do best: providing customers with the best products in the marketplace.

About Energy Hippo

Energy Hippo’s enterprise energy management software (EEM Suite) has been one of the industry leaders for over 20 years. EEM Suite is an energy and financial software platform for end use customers that is secure, stable, and adaptable to different markets.

For more information please contact info@energyhippo.com.

Energy Hippo Releases EEM Suite V6.0 – Press Release

ENERGY HIPPO RELEASES EEM SUITE™ V6.0, AN ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH AN ENHANCED USER EXPERIENCE 

EEM Suite puts energy managers in control of utility consumption and expenses and empowers large energy users to create efficient billing practices and business operations.   

ALAMEDA, CA — January 15, 2021 — Building upon the rebuilt app deployed in EEM Suite v5.5, Energy Hippo today announced delivery of EEM Suite v6.0, an enterprise-class energy management app that provides real-time energy and facility monitoring, automated bill processing and verification, and advanced tenant rebilling capabilities.

Energy Hippo’s powerful EEM application suite integrates all energy and utility bill related data throughout an enterprise, including data from existing building control systems, meters, and energy-related databases in any number of facilities, regardless of location. EEM Suite delivers advanced corporate resource-planning and cost-management capabilities, while improving the efficiency of maintenance and operations staff.

This latest release of EEM Suite brings increased functionality to the suite and increased control and decision-making capabilities to Energy Hippo customers by adding enhanced data visualization and analysis capabilities, and new billing and data import applications — all available over a web browser.  These features bring a new level of command and control to facilities and energy systems managers, who must cost-effectively manage energy budgets in an environment of variable purchasing costs, multiple suppliers, and complex energy usage patterns.

Some of the enhanced features of the newly-released energy management system include:

• an entirely new reporting engine, report setup screen, report controls. Interactive displays built with the latest technology

• new administrative Hierarchy application to allow users to manage their organization from the enterprise to the meter level in one screen

• web based utility Bill Entry

• dashboarding capabilities; customize and share a screen showing a set of favorite reports

• user impersonation feature; available for administrators to provide better user support

• new real-time warehouse provides data updates to reports within one minute of data entry

• customizable user preferences to display more data on screen and to support ADA/WCAG software usability requirements

• strengthened security measures including requests made to our APIs

"EEM Suite continues to deliver on new energy management systems for the evolving market," said Nitin Manchanda, President and CEO of Energy Hippo.  "With all the uncertainty in the energy industry recently, energy managers and corporate executives are demanding sophisticated systems to understand and manage a very large utility cost in a post-COVID world. EEM Suite gives our customers a comprehensive business app that quickly and easily delivers timely, relevant, role-based information and actionable solutions to people throughout an organization."

EEM Suite v6.0 is available now.  For more information on EEM Suite, contact Energy Hippo at (415) 944-7769 or info@energyhippo.com, or visit Energy Hippo's website at https://energyhippo.com/  

About Energy Hippo

Energy Hippo Inc., formerly under the name Silicon Energy, was the first software firm to deliver a comprehensive suite of Enterprise Energy Management (EEM) solutions to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, colleges, and universities.  Developed in cooperation with energy managers, technology partners, and service providers, Energy Hippo’s suite of energy analysis apps are used to manage energy in more than 30,000 buildings worldwide to solve a wide variety of customer needs, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, multi-vendor equipment integration, large-scale energy monitoring, and quality assurance/regulatory compliance reporting.  Energy Hippo is a privately held technology company based in Alameda, California  and can be found at https://energyhippo.com.

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EEM Suite is a trademark of Energy Hippo Inc.

Bringing Energy Management to the C-Level

Energy consumption used to be viewed as a fixed cost and the domain of middle management but today’s rapidly changing business and energy landscape now requires attention at the C-level. Historically, leaders have viewed energy management as an endeavor that offered cost savings too small to impact the financial bottom line, but emerging technologies create potential for meaningful profitability in this common top-five corporate expense category. A strategic approach (or lack thereof) will impact a company’s cost structure, risk profile, and resilience.

Changing Landscape

Technological breakthroughs non-intrinsic to the energy industry such as big data analytics and connected devices provide heightened visibility and control over the performance of systems. Energy data is no longer limited to a monthly utility bill; real-time monitoring allows immediate insight into energy consumption and allows for action.

Beyond the broader trend towards improved monitoring, energy-specific technology has changed the industry in every aspect from production to consumption. First, the cost of renewables is decreasing and they are now easier to integrate both on and off-site. Incentivized financing means that companies can immediately start saving money by investing in renewable energy such as solar and wind. Energy markets are also evolving in substantial ways. Today there is increased flexibility in deregulated markets to negotiate with energy providers when procuring energy. In regulated markets, demand response programs, on-site generation, and storage technologies give customers options for when and how much energy to buy from the grid to avoid costly charges.

In addition to capitalizing on direct opportunities, there are also new risks introduced in the changing landscape which provide indirect business value if mitigated strategically. The rapid integration of renewables into the grid is driving structural changes in the baseload power mix, which can increase volatility in price and continuity. Improved data granularity allows utilities to offer new and more complex tariffs which may catch up to heavy users of energy during peak times. Alternatively, understanding these tariffs and shifting loads accordingly can provide cost savings especially when combined with new incentives and financing structures.

How to Respond

Acting on these changes requires a centralized data system that allows you to measure your current state and energy use patterns and seek opportunities to capitalize. Additionally, ownership of the energy strategy should be centralized and managed proactively just like every other major operational line item is managed. The strategy should be led at the C-level with common key performance metrics to create accountability and alignment between energy stakeholders such as operations, accounting, procurement, and sustainability. Achieving energy efficiency goals will require that each team has accurate data to make decisions and report progress across the enterprise.

Conclusion

Savvy organizations understand the value of energy and manage it proactively across the business from the top down. When a company is unified behind a common energy management strategy, they develop a competitive advantage to obtain higher profits, reduce risk, and heighten innovation capabilities. Those which see energy as just cost center are missing opportunities to improve performance and profit in the short, medium, and long terms.

For more information on how to strategize using an energy management system, contact info@energyhippo.com.

New York State Passes Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act

New York State will leverage the clean energy industry to help boost the economy after the COVID-19 crisis. On April 3rd, NY public authorities passed the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act to attract private investment into an industry with a proven track record for job creation that is significantly higher than the economic average as a whole (source: Dr. Ernest Moniz).

The Act will create a first in the nation siting office dedicated to renewable energy projects. The Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) will streamline the process for siting of large-scale (over 25 MW) renewable energy projects which will in turn expedite new private investment and job creation in the green economy. The Act also creates an incentives program that will prioritize the development of “Build-Ready” sites and provide a compelling package for private developers to begin renewable energy projects at the sites as soon as possible. To ensure that renewable power can be delivered to the consumer, the Act also facilitates an “aggressive and comprehensive approach” to drive investment into a reliable grid that can handle renewable energy transmission. The Act ensures benefit to the host communities by providing compensation such as utility bill discounts for the local residents.

While the State pursues its current top priority of protecting public health, these measures ensure that New York is poised to recover from the secondary effects of economic fallout from COVID-19 in a path aligned with their clean energy and climate goals.

Read the official announcement from NYSERDA here.

To hear more about clean energy investment as a key part of economic recovery, check out this Columbia Energy Exchange’s podcast with Dr. Ernest Moniz as referenced above.

Washington State Passes Clean Buildings Bill

Washington State Legislature has set a goal to reduce state carbon emissions to year 1990 levels by 2020. One clear obstacle to this goal is the fact that emissions from buildings alone has risen 50% since 1990, making them the second largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the state. As Washington makes strides towards reducing carbon emissions in the transportation and electricity sectors, the progress is offset by the nearly 20 million metric tons emitted from fossil fuel use in buildings in a single year.

To combat this, and help Washington achieve their emission reduction goals, the Washington State House of Representatives has passed the Clean Buildings for Washington Act. The act establishes energy efficiency standards for large commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet and for natural gas utilities. Together, these measures will reduce carbon emissions by 4.3 million metric tons by 2035.

Only 6% of buildings in Washington state are greater than 50,000 square feet, but they make a disproportionately large contribution to carbon emissions from the built environment. To ease the burden on building owners, energy efficiency upgrades will not be required unless the investment will pay for itself in decreased utility spending. Additionally, the Clean Buildings Act allocates $75 million in incentives to support the requisite up front financial investments for buildings that require major capital improvements.

Read more in a Seattle Times op-ed supporting passage.

If cutting carbon emissions is an objective for your organization, Energy Hippo can help. With EEM Suite’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting, Project Tracking, and ENERGY STAR Integration, we make it easy to stay on track towards meeting your efficiency goals. To learn more about these features, contact support@energyhippo.com.

IBM's Next Generation Goals, Powered by Energy Hippo

IBM has announced a fourth-generation GHG emissions reduction goal and a second-generation renewable electricity procurement goal. According to a post from IBM, these new goals “cover the energy consumption and corresponding CO₂ emissions associated with the company’s global business — from research, product development and manufacturing activities to [their] enterprise and cloud data center operations…”

The goals entail:

• Procure 55% of global electricity consumption from renewable supplies by 2025

• Reduce CO₂ emissions associated with energy consumption 40% by 2025

To increase their procurement of renewable electricity, IBM is working with their energy providers and collaborating with industry peers and nongovernmental organizations to increase the portion of renewable electricity incorporated into the grid. They plan to achieve their CO₂ emissions reductions goal through energy conservation and efficiency activities, combined with the migration to renewable electricity.

Since 1990, IBM's conservation actions have saved more than 7.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption, avoided 4.4 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions, and saved the company more than $616 million.

IBM tracks their progress using Energy Hippo’s software. EEM Suite™ Project Tracking module supports tracking actual energy projects of three types: (1) energy conservation; (2) cost avoidance; and (3) renewable energy projects. Projects have specific data entry requirements that allow for a robust record of energy conservation measure projects. Project reporting shows historical and predicted project performance, comparisons of energy conservation measures with actual energy usage and spend, supports aggregation of project types and site levels, and provides financial payback calculations.

EEM Suite™ also has the capacity to monitor energy produced by solar and wind systems. Users can access data related to production, savings generated, and ratio of renewable to non-renewable energy sources. Additionally, EEM Suite™ can measure and track greenhouse gas emissions for internal use or for reporting to third-party GHG registries.

Some of the largest energy users in the country use Energy Hippo's energy management software. To learn more about project and renewable tracking, contact support@energyhippo.com.

Energy Hippo Attends Event in Support of I-1631

Members of the Energy Hippo team attended a fundraising event in support of Initiative 1631—Washington State’s measure to put a price on carbon emissions. The event was held at EnergySavvy’s offices in downtown Seattle, and featured a panel discussion with leaders from the non-profit, utility, nature conservation, and venture capital sectors.

Initiative 1631 has won the competition for the most expensive ballot measure in Washington State history, largely due to $25 million in donations from just three out of state oil conglomerates. This amount pales in comparison to the $2.3 billion the initiative, if passed, would collect from petroleum companies and utilities in the first 5 years of implementation. The revenue will support transforming Washington’s economy into one that is fueled by clean energy.

Funding in support of the measure comes from individuals and organizations in the technology, engineering, and environmental sectors. Prominent figures such as Bill Gates, Gov. Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and organizations such as Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility are all in support of this measure.

Supporters say this tax will raise money for “transformative solutions” that already exist. Turning back the clock on greenhouse gas emissions is no longer physics or a chemistry problem, it is a political and economic problem—Washington needs capital to deploy projects that will protect our air and water for generations to come. Funding will also be invested back into the coal miners that will be directly affected by this economic shift to clean power. In fact, the solar industry has created ten times more jobs than reinvesting in coal; these jobs are not easily automated, so they are here to stay.

Today is the last day to get your ballot in to support I-1631! If you are interested in tracking your company’s carbon emissions, contact support@energyhippo.com to learn more.

PCAPPA Conference 2018

Energy Hippo is looking forward to attending and presenting at PCAPPA Conference 2018! Don’t miss our talk, “Campus Billing and Energy Management Systems” at 9:45am on Tuesday, October 2nd.

A core goal of PCAPPA is to “develop quality professional standards in the operation, planning and development of the facilities and utilities infrastructures used by educational institutions.” To contribute to this mission, Energy Hippo will be sharing our 15+ years of experience regarding best practices in the tenant utility billing process.

The campus utilities environment is invariably complex, with disparate forms of energy information coming from a mix of utility streams. Universities may not be accurately capturing energy costs and allocating them effectively, or doing this manually and working too hard on a problem that has already been solved by many other campuses. Whether you are starting from scratch or already have a system in place, we will help you plan and optimize each step of the process. Effectively capturing and managing your utility data can be used to support optimal energy management and recover several thousands of dollars in cost savings.

Will you be attending PCAPPA 2018? Leave us a comment below or email support@energyhippo.com to connect with us at the conference.

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Overview of the campus billing process