In April, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer issued a challenge to the city’s building owners and managers — help move the city toward a national leadership position in sustainable building management. He wants to see 25 city buildings qualify as Energy Star Certified Buildings by the end of 2013.

That’s a big challenge and one that Alpha Energy Solutions is ready to help tackle. Alpha is a leader in the energy space, offering products that measure and analyze energy use and make recommendations that help building owners save time and energy.

“We believe that ‘Energy Solutions’ is a strategy to increase profitability and asset value by lowering both operating costs and carbon footprint.  Building owners and CFOs face rising operating costs and slowing rents.  We can provide an even greater economic value to our service customers because of our ability to solve energy problems and lower overall operating costs. And it all starts with just simply benchmarking your building,” says Dave Hellman, Director of Energy and Performance at Alpha.

Energy costs are the single largest controllable cost in most commercial buildings. Nationally, electric rates have increased by more than 20 percent during the past three years.  Utilities, including electricity, now represent, on average, 40-60 percent of a building’s total operating costs, so energy costs represent a significant problem for commercial buildings.

Alpha Energy Solutions, which has earned a reputation for managing HVAC systems in buildings of all sizes, offers programs that help control heating and cooling, representing 30 percent of operating costs in most buildings.

Mayor Fischer has announced 19 environmental goals for the city, and perhaps the biggest is to reduce the city’s per-capita energy use by 25 percent. Alpha Energy Solutions, working with its customers, is dedicated to helping achieve Fischer’s goals. And Alpha’s technology is available to customers throughout the Midwest, in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and parts of five other states.

“With Alpha Energy Solutions, the process of identifying energy savings opportunities and then taking the appropriate action to achieve those savings is now more straightforward,” Hellman said.

It all starts with evaluating a building’s energy use through a “benchmark,” a free service Alpha provides that identifies areas ripe for savings.