Today, landlords must compete for tenants among various alternative options, from co-working to work-from-home models and other hybrid options. Attracting tenants can be difficult in major metropolitan cities with high real estate values and limited space. That’s why appealing to tenants entails various techniques—and clean energy is a significant driver.
A building’s heating and cooling solution can influence tenant lease decisions and future commitments since energy drastically impacts cost, space availability, and sustainability. With district energy, building owners can free up additional amenity space, reduce energy expenses, and demonstrate sustainability benefits to potential tenants and the community.
Did you know that a 10% decrease in energy use could lead to a 1.5% increase in net operating income?
Large-scale projects call for impactful solutions
Commercial buildings and facilities have unique energy requirements. From ventilation, chilled and hot water, space temperature, and humidity requirements, commercial owners need high-quality, reliable thermal energy to support the tenants working in their spaces daily.
Disruptions in energy supply can result in financial setbacks and tenant dissatisfaction, which may affect tenant retention and jeopardize future development projects.
Commercial buildings have a significant opportunity to decarbonize their operations: they generate about 50% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and 30% of the energy consumed in commercial and industrial buildings is wasted.
Across the U.S., leading cities are enacting building performance standards that require buildings to reduce their carbon emissions, making low-carbon sustainable energy a non-negotiable requirement for commercial offices. Many commercial owners are partnering with district energy systems to meet looming carbon requirements and continue to appeal to eco-conscious tenants.
How Vicinity can help
Vicinity Energy currently provides steam, chilled water, and hot water to over 300 commercial office, retail, and mixed-use buildings nationwide, totaling nearly 115 million square feet of building space. Commercial property owners can access reliable and clean energy by connecting to Vicinity’s district energy systems. Still, a team of experts also supports them to ensure their property is always running smoothly and efficiently. Our specialists include experienced licensed engineers, operators, and financial professionals.
District energy systems are fuel agnostic, making them a powerful tool for building decarbonization. Vicinity is deploying new carbon reduction technologies and integrating renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro into our systems to decarbonize the buildings we serve by 2050 or sooner. With Vicinity, commercial landlords like Coretrust Capital Partners in Philadelphia, Metropolitan Partnership in Baltimore, and Clarendon Group in Boston know their energy systems are sustainable and reliable and contribute to a greener future.
“Our partnership with Vicinity Energy and access to its district energy system is a great option for us as it streamlines a number of facility and maintenance responsibilities, which allows us to spend more time focusing on the needs of our tenants. As an added bonus, the fact that Vicinity Energy’s services increase our overall efficiency creates great alignment with our goals to ensure that our properties are as environmentally sustainable as possible,” said Michael S. Beatty, President of H&S Properties Development Corp.
District energy for critical commercial real estate operations
Our energy solutions for the commercial real estate industry are reliable and green. They help advance the innovations that propel your properties and our communities forward and protect our world.
- Increased reliability and sustainability – Without the burden of onsite combustion or maintaining chillers or boilers, district energy is a safer and more sustainable alternative. We have a 99.99% reliability guarantee, allowing you to focus on your business while we ensure 24/7 energy delivery.
- Uninterrupted energy supply – Proper operations and maintenance (O&M) of energy infrastructure are essential to ensuring that commercial facilities can rely on a reliable and uninterrupted thermal energy supply.
- Remote monitoring – If your building needs energy O&M support by a qualified engineer but does not require someone full-time onsite, we can provide remote monitoring of your energy infrastructure at our innovative control centers.
- Energy efficiency and optimization – From efficiency assessments and investments to project implementation, our experts will create and provide a custom energy strategy to optimize your campus energy assets and deliver solutions that drive energy efficiency.
Get started with district energy today to decarbonize your buildings and access reliable, uninterrupted service.
