The Intersection of Sustainability and Utility Management

A proactive utility management solution always has its eye on the meter – giving property managers a firm grip on water, gas, and electric usage. Take the typical case last November of the maintenance technician who uncovered a water leak that might have permanently gone undetected if someone wasn’t comparing usage data -- at a cost of around $30,000 per year. Not long after completing the monthly billing cycle, RealPage Utility Management did its usual post-billing review of water consumption. But something didn’t look right. “Consumption was higher than the same month last year, so we compared what was happening with the weather,” said Mary Nitschke, Vice President of Sustainability and long-time expert on multifamily utility management and sustainability. “The weather was about the same, not different enough to explain the increase in water usage.” An alert within the utility management solution notified the property that consumption was suspiciously higher. And Nitschke’s team went through a checklist to identify potential issues, including verifying with the water provider that the meter was working properly. Check, check and check. RealPage reached out to the property to advise that someone take a look around. The maintenance technician got on it and a short time later discovered a leak at the bottom of the property’s hot water system. The water was running directly into a nearby drain, hiding the evidence. The culprit was a small gasket, probably costing a couple of bucks. It was a quick fix. “If the maintenance guy hadn’t been alerted to look for something that might explain the high consumption, I don’t know that the leak would have ever been caught,” says Nitschke, who is speaking at RealWorld 2021 July 11-13 in Nashville on how sustainability positively impacts NOI in the multifamily industry. Untreated, the leak would have increased the property’s water expense by $...