ARCHIVED - Step 2: Compare With Other Facilities

Benchmarking is the practice of comparing your operation's energy consumption with that of similar facilities. Factors such as the building age and the number of “degree-days” in your region (a measurement of the energy required to heat or cool your facility to maintain a comfortable temperature) may differ. However, if you compare these figures with your calculations from Step 1, you should get a good idea of your energy performance.

Please note: Full-service hotels may have higher energy costs due to the energy-intensive nature of additional facilities such as restaurants and pools. Similarly, fast-food restaurants generally have higher energy costs than traditional restaurants because of larger meal numbers, different equipment types, higher lighting intensities and longer operating hours.

We can use the table on page 13 to compare the hotel example described in Step 1   a full-service, 12 000-m²facility that includes a restaurant, pool and 175 rooms. Its energy use was calculated at 2.1 GJ/m²per year or 147.1 GJ per room per year. The table shows that our example hotel is within the typical annual energy-consumption range, but is a slightly higher-than-average consumer of energy compared with similar hotels.

Typical energy costs in the hotel industry range from $15/m²to $50/m². For restaurants, the range is $50/m²to $275/m². Although it may be tempting to measure energy performance in dollars, utility prices can vary from day to day, and those used to calculate the national averages in the tables on page 13 likely differ from prices in your area. So while it is wise to track energy prices closely, the performance measure that truly responds to changes in technology, behaviour and procedures is consumption. When benchmarking, gigajoules   not dollars   really count.

* Benchmarking figures from Roche ltée based on various sources.

** The Commercial and Institutional Building Energy Use Survey (CIBEUS) was completed in 2002 and was the first national energy survey in these sectors. More information is available at oee.nrcan.gc.ca/neud. Gross average annual energy intensity is determined by dividing the sector's total energy use (GJ) by its total area (m²).

Real Examples

The following data describe a range of facilities across Canada. All are members of the Energy Innovators Initiative, a program within NRCan's OEE (see Take the Next Step: Join Us).

These Web sites will help you compare your hotel with facilities in other countries:

Hotel Benchmarking Web at www.benchmarkhotel.com

Environmental Protection Agency Benchmarking Tool for Hotels at 208.254.22.6/index.cfm?c=business.bus_index