FirstService
Residential, North America’s largest residential property management
company, is bringing the cost- and energy-saving initiatives of
affiliate FS
Energy to nearly 100 of its managed properties in Florida. This
pilot program, which initially targets FirstService Residential
properties from Miami to West Palm Beach, is expected to save
approximately $11 million in combined costs over the next year.
FS Energy, a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation and a leading
provider of energy solutions for multifamily properties, provides its
industry-leading energy benchmarking and management programs exclusively
to buildings in the FirstService Residential portfolio. One of FS
Energy’s signature solutions is its Energy Report Card program, which
benchmarks a building’s energy costs and usage against those of similar
buildings to identify solutions and opportunities for improvement.
Founded in 2010, FS Energy launched its benchmarking program the same
year in New York City, working with FirstService Residential’s New York
office to improve the energy usage and costs of more than 500 of its
managed high-rise buildings. To date, these programs have realized $19.3
million in cost savings and reduced these buildings’ carbon footprints
by 68,630 metric tons, or 15.6 percent.
“FS Energy was created with the intent of providing a value-driven
solution to our clients and a program that would also benefit the
greater good,” said David Kuperberg, chairman of FirstService
Residential in New York, who spearheaded the creation of FS Energy. “We
are more than halfway towards our program goals with our New York
portfolio, and we’re excited to see similar results as the FS Energy
program expands to other key markets.”
The Florida rollout of FS Energy follows the program’s introduction to
FirstService Residential’s Chicago portfolio earlier this summer. While
heating is the main driver of energy usage and costs in northern
markets, air conditioning is the primary cause of Florida’s energy
consumption, which ranks as the third highest in the nation according to
the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The Florida properties participating in the program have completed the
benchmarking process, which provides the foundation to develop a
customized energy management program for each building. This data is
used to create a proprietary Building Energy Rating Guide (BERG)
score card for properties. An analysis of a building’s energy
performance and typology is conducted and then compared against similar
buildings in the FS Energy Florida database to determine a BERG score on
a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best). The BERG score is used to identify
areas for improvement and reveal energy savings solutions that would be
cost effective for the building.
According to Chris Normandeau, Director of FS Energy in Florida, the
results have been surprising, proving that it was often the newer
buildings in the portfolio that had lower scores and needed improvement.
“The resurgence of South Florida’s condo construction boom is creating
many resort-style living communities and properties,” said Normandeau.
“The more grandiose the property, offering more amenities and onsite
services, such as resort-size pools, landscaping and water features, the
greater the operation and maintenance involved. This leads to higher
energy consumption, resulting in higher bills and greenhouse emissions.”
For more information on FS Energy, visit www.fsenergyservices.com.
About FS Energy
FS Energy is the energy management and advisory subsidiary of
FirstService Corporation. The company advises clients of FirstService
Residential in ways to reduce energy consumption, costs and emissions
while improving property values and quality of life.
About FirstService Residential
FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a
global leader in the rapidly growing real estate services sector, one of
the largest markets in the world. As the largest residential property
manager in North America, FirstService Residential oversees more than
6,000 properties and 1.5 million residential units across 21 U.S. states
and three provinces in Canada. The company has more than 12,000
employees driving local market expertise and managing in excess of $6
billion in budgets. For more information, visit www.fsresidential.com.
About FirstService Corporation
FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ: FSRV)(TSX: FSV) is a global leader in
the rapidly growing real estate services sector. As one of the largest
property managers in the world, FirstService manages more than 2.3
billion square feet of residential and commercial properties through its
industry-leading operating platforms in Commercial Real Estate Services,
delivered through Colliers International, one of the top global players
in commercial real estate; Residential Real Estate Services, delivered
through FirstService Residential, the largest provider of residential
property management services in North America; and Property Services,
delivered through FirstService Brands, a leading provider of essential
property services delivered through franchise systems and company-owned
operations.
FirstService generates over US$2.3 billion in annual revenues and has
more than 23,000 employees worldwide. More information about
FirstService is available at www.firstservice.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2013