Pushing The Green Button

Are you ready to push the Green Button?

At the Association of Energy Services Professionals Summer Conference, that was held in Toronto  August 29-31, Julie-Ann Vincent, a senior consultant with Dunsky Energy Consulting, explained a program to measure the effectiveness of The Green Button.

But first, what is the Green Button?

Green Button is a standard by which energy usage and other data is converted into language and concepts that are easily understood by those using the data – residential and commercial consumers of energy.

Thirty-six utilities across the United States and 10+ in Ontario have committed to or have already implemented Green Button.

The question is: Is it worth it? The Ontario Ministry of Energy conducted a study to find out.

The costs are of course financial. There are up front set up and ongoing annual costs to maintain the program.

But here are the benefits:

• Increased Conservation: Green Button yields easier and more timely access to data so that customers are more likely to undertake energy efficiency actions
• Green Button provides a simplified process to comply with Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking for Large Buildings requirements (~18,000 buildings in Ontario will be required to annually report monthly energy and water consumption)
• And it leads to increased efficiencies in consumption, billing and generation data processes. Green Button replaces existing processes resulting in reduced efforts to collect and process utility bills and data, data validation, and quality control.

Vincent said the benefits clearly are outweighing the costs.

“Green Button should be considered as another tool in the energy efficiency toolbox,” she said.