WegoScore: Efficiency rating for apartment buildings

WegoWise, a building intelligence provider, launched a new rating for apartment building performance: WegoScore. This simple numerical assessment provides a clear snapshot of a building's utility usage, enabling property owners to prioritize retrofits, better manage their portfolios and communicate building efficiency to tenants. "A WegoScore is the simplest useful indicator of building efficiency," said Barun Singh, WegoWise founder and chief technology officer. "It allows proactive building owners to showcase their efforts and, at a glance, raises broader awareness about building performance. WegoWise's mission has always been to provide clear and effective analysis tools that motivate meaningful improvements to the built environment. WegoScore is an extension of that founding mission." Building on the progress of LEED and other green certifications, WegoScore grades all aspects of buildings' ongoing utility performance rather than a building's design or construction. With the largest collection of multifamily building performance data in the world—including over 2.6M utility bills tracked to date—WegoWise has the unique capability to create an accurate efficiency rating. How WegoScore works: WegoWise assesses buildings for three separate WegoScores: energy, water and carbon. The scoring algorithm examines the normalized usages for buildings of a given type (highrise, lowrise, etc.) in a particular climate. A building is given a WegoScore from 1-100 based on where it falls in the resulting distribution. The WegoScore is a grade rather than a rank, capturing and reflecting the relative difference between buildings' performances. Buildings with exceptionally high scores receive certificates and decals to promote their achievement. "After tracking and benchmarking our buildings with WegoWise, we've targeted $2.5 million in 2014 retrofits alone, and expect to save 10-20 percent on related utility costs annually," said John Magee, assistant facilities director at Maloney Properties. "We've been looking for a way to clearly communicate the value of our buildings' improved efficiencies, so we are thrilled to hear about the launch of WegoScore." "In the midst of a severe drought in California, now more than ever, we need to be conscientious of our water use," said John Mimms, project manager at Community Corp.of Santa Monica. "Access to clear information about our water use, led us to targeted retrofits that generated significant savings. We look forward to displaying our WegoScore to inspire others to join us in combating the drought." "A WegoScore condenses numerous complex measurements of building performance into one number," said Andrew Chen, WegoWise chief executive officer. "It is a tool for the real estate industry to easily communicate efficiency efforts among owners, managers and occupants. It also can highlight superior asset management practices to the financial markets." WegoWise customers can access their WegoScore online through their standard account login. Customers including Peabody Properties, The Schochet Companies, Abode Communities, New Holland Residences and more across North America will receive WegoScore decals for their high-performing buildings.