What is a LEED Score, and how can you raise it?
LEED certifications are a great way to prove to your current and future tenants that you are serious about providing a safe, energy-efficient housing experience. Not only does it help save tenants money on utility bills, but it also attracts tenants to your property, helping lower vacancies and fill units.
Living in an environmentally friendly home is beneficial to both your tenant's health and the health of the planet. The U.S Green Building Council created a certification program called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). It is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building types, LEED provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. It enables your building to receive an energy rating based on its energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, and materials used in construction.
Here are simple ways to instantly improve your property's LEED score:
Opt for Energy Efficient Appliances
By investing in energy-efficient appliances, you are lowering the carbon footprint of your building as well as reducing utility bills for your tenants. To gain LEED points:
- Ensure that you use dishwashers with an Energy Star rating, along with energy-efficient washers and dryers. You can also increase points by using gas stoves or induction ranges instead of electric ones.
- Look for an Energy Star certified model that uses less electricity.
- Don’t forget about lighting; installing Energy Star qualified fluorescent lamps throughout your units will save money on electric bills while boosting LEED scores.
Improve the Insulation of your Property
You can raise your LEED score by strategically adding insulation into walls and ceilings, as well as wrapping ducts. This reduces energy loss and can save money on utility bills each month. Insulating is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase a property's LEED score. There are many home improvement options for increasing its insulating quality – from sealing air leaks to adding insulating layers between walls – so be sure to consult a contractor on what makes the most sense for your property.
Opting for Renewable Sources of Energy
Another way property owners can lower their tenant energy bills and boost their LEED score is by installing onsite solar panels that benefit tenant units and common areas. Investing in renewable energy will reduce your building's carbon footprint while simultaneously boosting your LEED score. Until now, it was challenging for property owners to install solar and make them pencil out financially. Thanks to Virtual Grid by Ivy Energy, it makes solar much more feasable and can help you create a new net operating income (NOI) by selling solar energy to your tenants. The Ivy Virtual Grid billing platform lets real estate owners become onsite solar energy hosts by offering intelligent, clean energy billing to their tenants. The first innovative billing solution of its kind that allows owners to generate a new income per unit while also guaranteeing monthly savings to tenants. Ivy Virtual Grid eliminates the complexities of distributing and billing solar energy across multiple units, ensuring a return on your solar investment.
Onsite Generation allows for direct Benefits to Tenants
Virtual Net Metering (VNM) allows multi-tenant building owners to install a single solar system onsite to cover the electricity load of both common and tenant areas connected at the same service delivery point. The electricity does not flow directly to any tenant meter, but instead feeds directly back onto the grid. The participating utility then allocates the kilowatt hours from the energy produced by the solar PV generating system to both the building owner's and tenants' individual utility accounts, based on a pre-arranged allocation agreement. The idea behind VNM is to help tenants receive the direct benefits of the building's solar system, rather than all of the benefits only going to the building owner.
What value does your LEED performance score hold? It helps you:
- Understand your carbon footprint.
- Attracts new tenants
- Reduce Costs
- Stand out amongst your competitors
- Enhance your building’s Reputation
Get started today
Every human being on the planet should have safe and healthy places to live, work, learn and play. Leading long and healthy lives is not a privilege, it’s a right for everyone. Shouldn’t the places where we spend 90% of our time support our health and wellbeing? Improved health and productivity benefits play a larger role than ever before in driving companies to invest in green building. Get in touch with Ivy today on our website or on our direct line (858)682-3489 to learn more about how Ivy can help you improve your property’s LEED score while also adding a new revenue stream.
Pioneering the Future of Multi-Tenant Solar Energy Management
2024 was a trailblazing year for Ivy Energy, where we shattered barriers, redefined possibilities, and delivered innovative solutions to address the multi-tenant solar split incentive challenge. By driving product advancements, forging impactful partnerships, and scaling operational processes, we empowered multi-tenant properties to embrace clean energy with confidence.
A Year of Growth and Market Expansion
Ivy has grown its active project pipeline 450% compared to 2023, with a line of sight to clear +600% in active projects by the end of the year. Our tech-enabled solutions empower more communities than ever. With $18M in Series A funding (Read more) and the strategic acquisition of Glow Energy (Read more), we are poised for unprecedented growth and impact. This investment enables us to enhance our technology, streamline operations, and expand our reach into new markets nationwide.
Entering new markets with increased resources allows us to address diverse energy challenges and deliver tailored solutions to property owners and tenants. Additionally, the launch of our consulting arm provides expert guidance for our clients and partners to save money and enhance ROI while navigating intricate solar investments.
Meaningful Operational Updates
At Ivy, innovation isn’t just about technology—it’s about creating digital tools that empower our clients and their tenants:
- PropTech Integrations: Partnered with RealPage, Entrata, and Yardi to automate rent roll syncing, move-in/move-out updates, and direct charge posting to resident ledgers. These integrations reduce monthly processing time by up to 2 hours per property while enhancing data accuracy and operational efficiency.
- NEM Credit Delay Optimization: The Utility Coordination team adopted the CPUC informal complaint process to reduce delays in NEM activation after PV solar system commissioning. This improvement cut the average resolution time for delayed NEM credits from 123 days in 2023 to 49 days in 2024, allowing property owners to see Net Operating Income over two months sooner on average.
Platform Advancements that Lead the Industry
Our engineering team broke new ground, ensuring our platform stays ahead of the curve:
- Migrated to a new infrastructure processing system for faster processing and further automation improvements across operational features.
- Introduced IvyDual in response to regulatory requirements in California, which allows us to enter new markets where consolidated billing is not viable.
- Achieved SOC 2 Compliance, reaffirming our commitment to data security. (Read more)
- Built initial public API for Conservice integration and new utility data access pathways, strengthening our platform’s versatility and reliability.
Empowering Positive Experiences with CX
At Ivy Energy, our customers rely on us as true partners in their clean energy journey, helping them achieve long-term NOI growth while providing exceptional support for property owners and tenants. We consistently deliver this experience by simplifying complex utility processes and offering our white-glove service that ensures our clients feel supported, informed, and empowered to succeed. This year, Ivy’s Customer Experience Team launched two significant platforms:
- Ivy Implementation Portal: A step-by-step, transparent portal that simplifies solar implementation for our clients and partners across multiple organizations. (Watch a walkthrough of the new portal here.)
- Resident Help Center: Educate tenants about the solar program with helpful resources and offer direct support online or by phone. (Explore the Help Center)
Shaping the Future Through Thought Leadership
In 2024, Ivy Energy reinforced its position as an industry leader; our Virtual Grid 3.0 impressed the judges and earned first place in Solar Power World’s “Best in Show” award for large-scale solar innovation. (Read more)
Leadership team members Alex Dogan, Tanya Kuhn, and Sean Nam were celebrated in San Diego Business Journal’s Leaders of Influence in Technology 2024 for their contributions to advancing sustainable energy. (Read more) Ivy was also featured in Alt Energy Magazine (Read more), San Diego Business Journal (Read more), and on Solar Academy. (Read more)
Logan Carter showcased Ivy’s groundbreaking innovations in a main stage speech at Cretech NY (Watch here), an engaging appearance on the IMN Podcast (Listen here), and a deep-dive interview with Chris Moreno, also known as “Mr. PropTech.” (Watch here) Ivy’s policy team further expanded its influence by authoring a Model VNEM Whitepaper, a critical guide to enabling multi-tenant solar models nationwide. (Read the Whitepaper).
Measurable Environmental Impact
This year, Ivy Energy amplified its environmental contributions, with contracted units in implementation set to offset an astounding 109 million pounds of CO2. Meanwhile, active units have already offset 9 million pounds of CO2, demonstrating our ongoing dedication to reducing carbon emissions.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we celebrate 2024’s successes, we are always looking to the future. In 2025, we’ll continue to push boundaries, deliver innovations that empower our clients, improve tenant experiences, and lead the multi-tenant housing sector toward a sustainable future.
A Message from Dover Janis, CEO of Ivy Energy
“2024 was a year of progress and adaptation. While utility-caused delays challenged our growing pipeline, our focus on agile problem-solving reduced their impact and kept the market moving forward. This is a testament not only to the dedication and focus of our team but also to the strong macro-level foundation that the onsite energy business model provides for real estate owners, even in the face of monopoly-driven resistance. With a large and expanding customer base and hundreds of projects, we have continued to validate the transformative potential of clean energy solutions for shared communities. I’m incredibly proud of our team—now among the most mature, knowledgeable, and experienced in the industry—as we trail blaze the path forward. The market is primed to grow and drive transformative change in local communities. I’m deeply grateful to our partners and customers, whom we have the privilege of serving every day as we continue to lead the way.”
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