Commercial Building Partnerships Benefits and Project Information
On this page you will find more information about Commercial Building Partnerships, including the benefits of participating and how projects are evaluated. Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) actively supports. You can also read more about the companies involved and the process.
Benefits to Participants
CBP offers many benefits to the companies that join, including:
- State-of-the-art assistance from NREL and other DOE laboratories for
- energy modeling and strategy optimization
- integrated design processes that incorporate energy efficiency and renewables
- guidance procuring materials and equipment and assembling design teams
- energy performance verification of completed projects and documentation of lessons learned
- Cost reductions in high-efficiency building equipment achieved through combined purchases
- Participation in the process of raising energy efficiency standards in commercial buildings
- Reduced operating expenses
- Low-energy building designs that can be replicated across company portfolios
- Detailed documentation, including business case studies, of the process and results.
Commercial Building Partnerships Project Evaluation
DOE carefully evaluates the projects of potential companies. To participate in CBP, a company must:
- Have a building or buildings that are primarily retail, office, or warehouse facilities
- Have a reasonable expectation, based on preliminary modeling, that the project(s) will achieve the energy efficiency targets
- Demonstrate a commitment to sharing data and experiences
- Establish that the project, while typical of the building stock, is not identical to other projects involved in CBP
- Choose a project or projects that use design strategies and energy efficiency measures that are replicable in other commercial buildings from both a technology and business case point of view.
