Free Energy-Saving Resources Can Help Cool Down Utility Expenses

With sweltering weather across the country, now’s the time to look at how you can save money via energy efficiency.

July 26, 2023

With much of the U.S. facing scorching temperatures that drive up utility costs, convenience retailers have free resources that can help them reduce these costs.

Utilities are one of the highest operating expenses in the convenience and fuel retailing industry. Over the past four years, NACS has partnered with ENERGY STAR®, a voluntary program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to create convenience store-specific resources designed to help the industry reduce energy use and costs.

One key resource for convenience stores is the NACS-ENERGY STAR Treasure Map for Convenience Stores which provides convenience stores with an easy-to-use checklist covering major energy-use areas including lighting, HVAC, refrigeration and foodservice. This Treasure Map provides quick (and low-cost) ways to save energy—designed specifically for convenience stores.

In May, EPA hosted a free webinar to show convenience retailers how they can become ENERGY STAR certified under a new program that launched last quarter. Retailers can access a recording of the webinar, which introduces the new 1-100 ENERGY STAR score developed for convenience stores and outlines the process for how stores can use the tool.

Retailers can also use EPA’s voluntary ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, a free online tool to set baseline energy use and track facility performance based on utility billing data and other key factors. The tool can help benchmark the performance of one building or a whole portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. EPA reports that nearly 25% of U.S. commercial building space is already actively benchmarking in Portfolio Manager, making it the leading benchmarking tool available for commercial real estate.

NACS and ENERGY STAR also launched the NACS Energy Use Survey in 2020 to capture convenience store data necessary for measuring store energy use in these areas:

General store characteristics such as total square footage, operating hours, store age and store services provided
The number of energy-using store equipment such as refrigeration units, beverage dispensers and prepared food appliances
Energy use from utility bills in standardized measurements for electricity and natural gas as well as water use

Findings from that survey are available in the free Convenience Retail Energy Use Report | NACS.