by Shane Henson — May 3, 2013—WegoWise, a building intelligence provider, recently announced that it is teaming up with the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC) to help reduce building energy use across 30 million square feet of Los Angeles buildings.
LABBC is one of the largest BBC programs (conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy) in the nation, and the first to offer the WegoWise platform to all participants free of charge, enabling building owners and managers to easily track utility data and accelerate progress towards the program goal of reducing energy use 20 percent by 2020.
According to WegoWise, municipal, commercial and multifamily buildings participating in the LABBC program can now use WegoWise’s platform to track and report energy consumption. Property owners and managers can also use WegoWise to identify the least efficient buildings for retrofits to maximize savings and verify that upgrades deliver energy savings as anticipated.
More than 60 projects representing nearly $20 million in investment are already underway as part of the LABBC, and these projects can now use WegoWise’s platform to track building performance and verify cost savings. LABBC participants using WegoWise will join more than 12,000 buildings representing 190,600 total units tracking energy usage in WegoWise, the company says.
According to the company, a key benefit its platform offers facilities managers is the ability to track and report energy usage easily and rapidly.
“WegoWise helps building owners meet LABBC reporting requirements in as little as five minutes,” explains Andrew Chen, CEO of WegoWise. “By automatically tracking utility use across large building portfolios, participants can also quickly identify their least efficient buildings where retrofits can deliver major energy reductions and help the LABBC program achieve its targets faster.”
The WegoWise platform automatically retrieves utility bill data in a simple interface much like Mint.com, seamlessly aggregating energy data and savings without extensive office work or cumbersome spreadsheets. After users provide key building characteristics, WegoWise retrieves utility data for buildings and portfolios automatically—no manual inputting required. WegoWise’s tracking and reporting functions can also help buildings comply with new energy disclosure laws like California’s A.B. 1103, enabling easy upload to compliance programs, the company says.
