Commercial Building Partnerships
The Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) program is a public/private, cost-shared initiative that is transforming the country's energy landscape by demonstrating the best ways to achieve dramatic energy savings in commercial buildings.
Through the program, companies and organizations (Partners) team with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) representatives, national laboratory staff, and private-sector technical experts to explore energy-saving ideas and strategies that could be too expensive or technologically challenging to tackle without the resources and technical expertise available through CBP. Appropriate strategies are applied to each Partner's specific building project(s).
Whole Foods Market's energy-efficiency measures can be readily duplicated in supermarkets nationwide.
Learn more in this CBP fact sheet or see a listing of current CBP projects in the High Performance Buildings Database.
The 42 CBP Partners represent many of the nation's largest and most influential commercial building owners and operators. Fifty-four new construction and retrofit projects are under way. These include such diverse building types as retail stores, grocery stores, university campus structures, housing developments, offices, and warehouse/storage facilities. Construction is complete on five projects: retail stores belonging to Best Buy Co., Inc., jcpenney, and Whole Foods Market, Inc.; a law office occupying property managed by CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc.; and a Prologis warehouse.
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From Innovation to Industry Standard
CBP presents a unique opportunity for the country to rapidly benefit from natural expansion of program successes. Partners have committed to reproducing low-energy technologies and strategies from their CBP projects throughout their building portfolios. Partner portfolios represent almost 4 billion square feet of commercial real estate.
Whole-building integrated design is an important factor in jcpenney's retrofit project.
Further expansion will occur as other companies and organizations seek to emulate the industry leaders participating in CBP and as private-sector technical experts incorporate CBP innovations into projects throughout the commercial building sector. CBP case studies and "CBP Toolkits," developed as the projects advance, will contain project data and a wide variety of resources. All materials will be made available to the public.
See CBP resources to date in the Commercial Buildings Resource Database.
CBP projects were competitively selected, with one round of selections in 2008 and another in 2010—the latter through a solicitation funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
While working on the projects, Partners extend their influence in the commercial building sector by participating in one of DOE's Commercial Building Energy Alliances and sharing best practices with peers.
Eight projects are in construction or about to enter the construction stage. All Partners have committed to ambitious energy-saving goals: New construction is designed to consume at least 50% less energy than ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004, and retrofits are designed to consume at least 30% less energy than either Standard 90.1-2004 or current consumption.
Common CBP Strategies for Multiple Building Types
- Upgraded fluorescent lamps and fixtures
- LED display lighting
- Daylighting
- Variable speed RTU supply fans
- Energy recovery
- Plug-load controls and efficient office equipment
- Outdoor air optimization (DCV)
Common CBP Strategies for Grocery Stores
- Evaporative condensing
- LED fixtures in low- and medium-temperature cases
- Doors on open medium-temperature cases
- ECM motors for evaporator fans
- Variable frequency drives for condensers
- Waste heat from refrigeration used for air- and service-water heating
- Efficient commercial kitchen equipment