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BACKGROUND <br />The Go Green Initiative is a Pleasanton -based nonprofit organization focused on natural <br />resource conservation and environmental stewardship. Through grassroots efforts, the <br />Go Green Initiative seeks to mobilize citizens to create a culture of conservation within <br />their communities. The City has collaborated with the Go Green Initiative in the past, <br />most recently on education efforts related to compliance with green waste requirements <br />for Downtown businesses. <br />As part of their program, this year the Go Green Initiative established a summer intern <br />cohort of 32 Pleasanton -educated high school and college students. The interns worked <br />on a project to benchmark energy use in buildings owned by the City of Pleasanton and <br />the Pleasanton Unified School District, and have prepared the results of their <br />benchmarking of City facilities in a report and presentation to Council. <br />DISCUSSION <br />The Go Green Initiative Interns determined six findings in their benchmarking of 24 City <br />facilities, and have prepared the results in the attached report. The report defines <br />energy benchmarking as a practice used to measure a building's energy efficiency by <br />comparing it to similar buildings, and outlines the importance of benchmarking in <br />enabling better management of energy consumption and costs, as well as compliance <br />with energy-related regulations. The report contains short- and long-term <br />recommendations for the City to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy <br />expenditures. The report also includes a section on the alignment of the benchmarking <br />results and recommendations with the Pleasanton Climate Action Plan, which is <br />prioritized within the 2019-2020 City Council Work Plan. <br />Findings <br />1. Correlation between City buildings with installed solar panels and lower site <br />energy use intensity (EUI), indicating a favorable relationship between solar <br />panels and a lower EUI. <br />2. No correlation between the year the building was founded and the site's EUI. <br />3. The Aquatic Center and the Golf Course Clubhouse have the highest site EUI of <br />all City facilities studied, making them the most inefficient in terms of energy use <br />and the most expensive to power. <br />4. None of the buildings studied qualify for Energy Star Certification — 23 of the 24 <br />buildings studied do not qualify due to the property type (Energy Star scores <br />cannot be calculated). 123 Main Street is able to be calculated, but its low <br />Energy Star score of 34 makes it ineligible for certification (a score of 75 or <br />higher qualifies for Energy Star Certification). <br />5. During the measurement period of August 1, 2018 through July 31, 2019, the <br />energy cost across the facilities totaled $906,560. If the facilities operated at or <br />below the median cost per square foot of the studied buildings, the City would <br />experience lower energy costs, amounting to $274,406 in savings. <br />6. Ina 12 -month period, the 24 facilities studied emitted a total of 1,299 metric tons <br />of carbon dioxide equivalents. If the facilities operated at or below the median <br />emissions intensity of the studied buildings, the City would reduce emissions by <br />Page 2 of 3 <br />