Energy conservation also yields: Capital, operations, recognition, and environmental benefits

Previous research indicates there are additional (often unreported) benefits from saving energy.1,2 This article identifies these additional benefits and describes how to calculate their value.3,4 In addition, we found that a high percentage of facility managers experienced some of these benefits. For example, in a recent survey 92% of facility managers experienced reduced maintenance material costs as a result of energy conservation (primarily because lights, filters, and other equipment lasted longer when operated less hours per year). Due to site-specific factors, not all facility managers will experience every benefit, however a high percentage of respondents (92%, 71%, and 63%) did experience three of the six additional benefits in the survey. Because facility managers do receive some of these additional benefits, we developed two approaches to quantify their value. When applicable, these benefits should yield a direct and verifiable dollar savings a majority of the time. Via a simple example, we calculated these benefits to be worth approximately 31% of additional value beyond the direct energy dollar savings (and that was only applying half of the possible benefits). There are other benefits that defy quantification, some of which we list at the end of the article for use in future research and when evaluating energy conservation projects and programs.