Northrop Grumman
At a Glance
Industry
Industrial Goods and Manufacturing
Project Types
Commercial Energy Efficiency, Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year
2017
Location
Falls Church, VA
Net Present Value:
$11,000,000
Annual CO2 Reductions:
5,800 metric tons
Summary
Grace Lange performed an analysis of Northrop Grumman’s office building performance and recommended ways to incentivize investments in energy efficiency in leased buildings.
Goals
Northrop Grumman Corporation, a leading global security company, has a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal of 30% from 2010 levels by 2020. The company is in the process of constructing new buildings and is exploring ways of minimizing the environmental footprint of its real-estate through green building practices. The company also is further focusing on how to reduce energy use in its more than 15 million square feet of leased floor space. EDF Climate Corps fellow Grace Lange was enlisted to assess green buildings and their effectiveness in meeting environmental sustainability goals, as well as evaluate how to better address energy efficiency in the company’s leased building portfolio.
Solutions
After collecting and analyzing energy use data from office buildings across Northrop Grumman’s portfolio and interviewing facilities and real estate staff, Lange learned that pursuing green certified buildings alone (e.g., LEED, ENERGY STAR) may not necessarily optimize energy performance, especially in office buildings containing energy intensive systems such as labs or server rooms. She reviewed the green attributes of the company’s LEED buildings and made recommendations on how to further align the LEED building design with its environmental sustainability goals, including incentivizing continuing green building development.
Northrop Grumman has a large leased building portfolio with a split incentive for energy efficiency—in some scenarios the landlord funds capital improvements while the tenant realizes any cost savings through reduced energy utility bills. Since this may disincentivize the landlord to invest in energy efficiency improvements, Lange researched best practices for green leasing language and made recommendations for new green leasing terms that would support the tenant’s sustainability goals.
Potential Impact
Strengthening the alignment of new building construction with Northrop Grumman’s sustainability goals will provide additional electricity savings and GHG emissions reductions. By including green leasing language in its leasing contracts and by working with landlords to implement energy efficiency measures, Northrop Grumman could save an estimated $11 million in net electricity costs and reduce its GHG emissions by 5,800 metric tons. With this project, Northrop Grumman will be better positioned to further reduce energy costs, minimize its energy consumption and meet its 2020 GHG reduction goal.