ASHE''s Energy Efficiency Commitment (E2C) is a partnership between ASHE and ENERGY STAR, providing networking, education, and recognition opportunities to ASHE members that place value on enhancing the quality of patient care through the benefits of improved energy performance.

Healthcare facilities participating in ASHE E2C are recognized for improvements in energy performance of 10% or more over five years. This is equivalent to a score increase of about 10 points or more in the U.S. EPA''s free, online Portfolio Manager, which rates the efficiency of a facility relative to similar buildings nationwide.

Over one-third of U.S. hospitals have used the U.S. EPA''s Portfolio Manager to measure and track energy use, and to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities within a facility or portfolio. Nationwide, nearly 100 hospitals and medical office buildings have earned the ENERGY STAR for ranking among the top 25% of energy efficient facilities, and nearly 20 hospitals have been recognized by E2C for achieving improvements of 10% or greater.

All hospitals and medical office buildings that meet the EPA''s space classification criteria as either an acute care/childrens hospital or medical office building are eligible to benchmark energy performance and earn the ENERGY STAR for facilities rating a 75 or higher. All other healthcare facilities are encouraged to use Portfolio Manager to track and monitor their energy use over time and manage their percent energy reduction.

This hands-on interactive session will demonstrate and apply the latest advanced management features in the Portfolio Manager tool. We will cover how to enter energy and water use data, set energy performance goals and baselines, generate reports, download data, and set up portfolio-wide accounts among numerous users. Attendees will also learn how to share access to their benchmarks with the ASHE E2C account which is the first step to participating in E2C.

Immediately following this discussion, attendees will put lessons learned into practice by using the features discussed. Attendees will enter energy and water use data, set baselines and goals, download data, and generate management reports. Attendees will also practice how to grant someone access to their facility (such as internal team members).

Attendees are encouraged to bring their Portfolio Manager log-in information (if available), 12 months of energy data, and the aggregate square footage for the hospital campus (excluding parking). We will also help attendees create a Portfolio Manager account if they do not already have one, and provide sample data if actual energy consumption data is unavailable.