Choosing the Right Financing 55Nevertheless, several financing vehicles do allow financing payments for
energy efficiency upgrades to be treated as operating expenses. (These
include operating leases, power purchase agreements, and tax-exempt
lease-purchase agreements; see the FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS section
below for more information.) Regardless of the type of financing vehicle
used, implementing energy efficiency projects is in the best financial in-
terests of your organization and helps protect the environment.
FINANCING TOOLS AND RESOURCES FROM ENERGY STAR
E PA’s ENERGY STAR program offers a proven strategy for superi-
or energy management, with tools and resources to help each step of the
way. Based on the successful practices of ENERGY STAR partners, EPA’s
“Guidelines for Energy Management” (available at http://www.energystar.gov/
guidelines*) illustrates how organizations can improve operations and
maintenance strategies to reduce energy use and maintain the cost sav-
ings that can be realized by financing energy efficiency projects. E PA has
sponsored hundreds of presentations (in person and on the internet) on
ENERGY STAR tools, resources, and best practices for organizations strug-
gling with the challenge of making their buildings more energy efficient.
One of the most common statements from participants, especially those in
the public sector, is “We don’t have the money needed to do the facility
upgrades; in fact, we don’t even have enough money to pay for the energy
audits needed to determine the size of the savings opportunity.” This sen-
timent is simply not true because the needed funds are currently sitting in
their utility operating budgets and being doled out every month to the local
utilities. Organizations merely require a way to capture and redirect these
“wasted energy” funds to pay for the energy efficiency projects, which will
in turn create real savings. For some readers, this may seem to be “circular
logic,” or what may be called a “Catch 22.”
Fortunately, ENERGY STAR has created a number of tools and re-
sources that, when properly used, will allow you to “break the circle”
and find a path toward the timely implementation of energy efficiency
projects. This section focuses on the tools that tie directly into financ-
ing such projects. These include the Guidelines to Energy Management,
*Information about ENERGY STAR’s tools and resources has been provided by US EPA
ENERGY STAR. For more information please refer to their website.