Dear ASHRAE Member,
ASHRAE respectfully requests your help and voice.
It has often been said that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Data from the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) have important direct and indirect impacts on the building industry and U.S. economy. CBECS is a nationally representative survey of commercial building energy consumption and expenditures, and their energy-related characteristics in the United States.
The Survey is conducted about once every four years. “Commercial buildings” in the CBECS context include all buildings in which at least half of the floor space is used for a purpose that is not residential, industrial or agricultural, so they include building types that might not traditionally be considered “commercial,” such as schools, correctional institutions and buildings used for religious worship.
CBECS data are used by ASHRAE standards, and the Society’s Building Energy Quotient building labeling program. Without the current, comprehensive picture of building energy consumption in the United States that CBECS provides it would be harder to identify opportunities to increase efficiency and to assess progress towards energy efficiency goals.
Work on the 2011 CBECS was suspended due to a lack of priority in fiscal year 2011 for the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which oversees the Survey. The last edition of the Survey is from 2003, and if the 2011 Survey is not conducted, consulting engineers, manufacturers, building owners and operators, utilities, research and educational institutions, policymakers and others will be forced to rely on data that is nearly a decade old to help make their building energy efficiency-related decisions.
ASHRAE leadership strongly believes that having the up-to-date information on U.S. building energy consumption that the 2011 CBECS would provide is important. If you agree, we are asking you to please contact your U.S. Senators to ask them to support resumption of work on the 2011 CBECS.
For your convenience, ASHRAE has provided a suggested letter to send to your Senate members. ASHRAE has also included step-by-step instructions for identifying and contacting your Senators.
After sending letters to your Senators, I ask that you please send an email to washdc@ashrae.org, letting ASHRAE know that you have sent these letters. This will help ASHRAE leadership gauge member participation and whether the Society should send future requests for member participation.
Thank you in advance for your time and efforts to support building efficiency.
Sincerely,
Ronald E. Jarnagin
2011–12 ASHRAE President
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MODEL LETTER
Dear Senator:
As a constituent and member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE), I respectfully encourage you to support the prompt resumption of work on the 2011 edition of the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).
CBECS is a nationally representative survey of commercial building energy consumption and expenditures, and their energy-related characteristics in the United States. Work on the 2011 CBECS was suspended due to a lack of support for the U.S. Energy Information Administration in fiscal year 2011.
CBECS data have important direct and indirect impacts on the U.S. building industry and economy. Without an updated comprehensive picture of energy consumption in the U.S. it would be harder to identify opportunities to increase efficiency.
Retrofitting buildings to increase efficiency helps drive the manufacturing industry, which supplies more efficient building equipment and technologies. Greater building efficiency also helps reduce waste and conserve natural resources.
A 2009 McKinsey & Company study stated that energy efficiency retrofits could generate between 500,000 and 750,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs through 2020.
Thank you in advance for supporting efforts to increase building energy efficiency.
Personal regards,
[Your First and Last Name]
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STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR IDENTIFYING AND CONTACTING ASHRAE MEMBERS’ TWO U.S. SENATORS
Senate
Most people in the United States are represented by two Senators. To contact yours, follow these easy steps…
1) Visit http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
2) Select your state from the dropdown box
3) Click on the link next to “Web Form.” This will take you to a Webpage where you will be able to contact your Senator and will provide you with either an email address or a place where you can cut and paste the letter above and submit your letter to your Senator online
4) Remember to do this twice (for each of your Senators)
Sincerely,
Ronald E. Jarnagin
2011–12 ASHRAE President
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