ALEXANDRIA, Va.—ENERGY STAR day is next Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, and according to ENERGY STAR, the day is a “celebration of our collective efforts to bring the benefits of energy savings and climate protection to all—helping Americans save today, save tomorrow and save for good.”
ENERGY STAR encourages companies to raise awareness by offering opportunities consumers and other businesses can save energy. ENERGY STAR certified products can help companies save today through rebates and other offerings and save tomorrow through energy savings.
ENERGY STAR offers a 2021 ENERGY STAR Day toolkit to help businesses spread the word. NACS recently released the NACS Convenience Store Energy Use Survey, partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program to create the convenience retail industry’s first and only ENERGY STAR Score.
According to Patrick Loftus, survey research and data visualization manager at NACS, the energy use survey was released for two reasons. The first reason was because NACS wanted to understand the landscape of energy use in convenience retail to help retailers benchmark their energy consumption relative to similar stores. The second was to provide NACS members and the convenience industry with an understanding of the benefits of reducing energy costs.
“Really what it comes down to is that any reduction in [utility] expenses could result in substantial savings for the retailer’s business,” said Loftus on the episode. “If we reduced our energy expenses by just 10%, that could result in savings of about $5,400 per year, per store.”
The data that NACS collects from the energy use survey go into creating the first ENERGY STAR certification for convenience stores. ENERGY STAR certified buildings use about 35% less energy than non-ENERGY STAR certified buildings, and that 35% could result in savings of about $19,000 per store, per year, according to Loftus.
Be sure to check out the Convenience Matters podcast episode No. 301, “Score Big With Energy Savings,” which talks about how busy convenience store owners and executives can easily implement sustainability initiatives in their companies.