USGBC Partner WegoWise Makes Utility Tracking a Breeze
WegoWise provides a simple and inexpensive solution to understand water and energy use within your portfolio. The company has even garnered the interest of the USGBC and has partnered with the organization's LEED for Homes initiative.
Michael Ratliff, Associate Editor
The focus on sustainable development that has taken hold in both the single and multifamily sectors in recent decades has made it imperative to track and understand building energy and resource use. There is no use spending the resources to develop an extremely efficient property only to have something as simple as leaking toilets eat away at your bottom line.
The problem is that it is both extremely complicated and expensive to track building energy and water use in real time. While there are a plethora of companies that will come in and install sensors to ensure that your LEED assets are performing up to standards, this blind approach will prove costly in a large portfolio that may only have a handful of buildings are operating inefficiently.
This is where WegoWise comes in. The company, whose name is an acronym for “Water Electric Gas Oil” has developed an online tool for monitoring and analyzing the water and energy use in both single and multifamily homes. Starting at just $5 a month (per building), WegoWise tracks utility use through your utility company and distills the data into useful, actionable information for owners and property managers. The software even allows users to compare the water and energy use between all buildings in their portfolio, and against similar buildings that also use the software.
WegoWise Benchmark ComparisonsFounded in 2010, the company has already developed the world’s largest multifamily utility database, covering 10,000 buildings representing 150,000 residential units and 500,000 utility bills over more than 135 million square feet of space.
The success of the program, and its value to both renters and homeowners, has certainty been validated by the USGBC, which has partnered with WegoWise on the LEED for Homes initiative. The USGBC will now offer complimentary yearlong access to WegoWise for its nearly 23,000 certified LEED for Homes residential units, with an additional 86,000 registered projects in the pipeline.
“Participants in LEED for Homes are already making sustainable decisions, and by presenting actionable data we help them extend the value of their investments,” says Brun Singh, founder & chief technology officer at WegoWise. “Providing this tool to LEED-certified projects will give project owners and managers an easy way to visualize their building’s utility performance and get the most out of every energy efficiency dollar.”
WegoWise Portfolio SummaryFor more information on WegoWise, or to have a look at more of their innovative info graphics, be sure to check out www.wegowise.com.
