Energy Management: From the Tenant's Point of View

By Kristin Rock, VP, Client Services

Most of you reading this blog are owners, operators and managers of commercial real estate. You know the value of managing energy for your buildings, increasing ENERGY STAR scores, and simplifying operations, and you keep a close watch on those behaviors that you can control. But what are your tenants thinking about energy management?

When I was Corporate Energy Manager at Petco, we had over a thousand locations, from retail to offices to warehouses. Every one of these locations was leased, so I know what it’s like to try to manage operational costs as a tenant, and increasingly, the trend is that tenants are demanding visibility and insight into their energy consumption. Energy usage is a significant and manageable cost – one they would like to control if given the proper tools. Like you, your tenants have investors, customers and stakeholders who are interested in sustainability and environmental reporting. Providing your tenants access to their energy data can actually give you a competitive advantage in the leasing process.

Many of our customers have told us that during lease negotiations over the past year, tenants have rejected the idea of splitting utility bills with the perceived energy hogs in the rest of the building. They want to see their own load profiles, pay for exactly what they’ve used, and better manage their energy consumption through the application of advanced analytics. Of course the benefit to you is that engaged tenants can help significantly reduce overall operating costs and increase valuation. It’s a win-win!

I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a cross section of this industry and also have insights from the tenant perspective: I know for a fact that MACH Energy can help you give your tenants what they’re looking for. Regardless of the utility type (electric, steam, gas, chilled water) or data source (communicating submeters, manually read meters, calculated rates) we can make it easy for you to deliver more than just a utility bill. We can help you give your tenants a comprehensive picture of their energy consumption and insights for managing it.

The best part about all of this is that every step you take toward automating your tenant billing means that the whole process becomes easier, faster and more accurate for YOU. Regardless of your current infrastructure, we can help you chart a path to easy tenant billing and improved tenant satisfaction. What are you waiting for?