Your building is not a commodity: look at real estate differently.(COMMODITIES: ENERGY PRICES AND MARKET ISSUES)

You must decommoditize your building. Why? Because "the era of cheap, energy is over, as Jeff Sterba, CEO of the utility PNM, said speaking in April during GridWeek.

Estimates of energy wasted by the typical commercial building start at 20%. This ignores the potential, of course. A lot of sunshine hits your building; how much of that is being used for lighting or converted to electricity?

How We Got Here

How did your building get to be the way it is? Normal business processes. Energy waste was (undoubtedly) engineered into your building by the way things work. For instance, the owner of low-bid construction paid for by an organization that plans to flip the building is unlikely to ask the builder to pursue worthwhile energy-smart features.

Have you talked lately with an engineer or architect? They're under the gun. Forget about "evidence-based design." These people aren't given time to actually think before committing to an approach.

Speaking of thought, corporations traditionally don't give much of it to the buildings they own or lease on a long-term basis. Initial design and construction costs typically are on a 1-to-150 basis versus long-term building operating costs. Yet it's routine to beat up the construction and design people to drive down" construction costs.

Projects often get value engineered, with the value normally driven by the owner being first cost, not energy consumption (or anything else) once the building is occupied.