Energy Manager

Buildings are like people: To stay alive, they need energy. While people get their energy from food, however, buildings get theirs from electricity. If you’re an Energy Manager, that makes you a sort of Dietitian: Food or fuel, it’s your job as Energy Manager to make sure buildings’ energy sources are more nutritious and their energy usage more efficient.

To that end, Energy Managers are hired by organizations — including governments, universities, property management firms, and private companies — to plan, regulate, monitor, and improve energy use within their facilities.

Your job typically starts with an energy audit, which involves reviewing your facility’s utility bills in order to analyze its energy consumption and spending against established industry benchmarks. Based on your findings, you then set energy goals — for instance, reducing energy usage by a given percentage within a certain timeframe — and find ways to achieve them. For example, you inspect heating, cooling, and power equipment to make sure it’s working properly, and make upgrades and repairs when it isn’t. You also recommend and oversee the installation of renewable energy sources, such as solar panels; the execution of energy-efficient facility improvements, such as weatherproofing or window replacement; and the implementation of energy-efficient policies and procedures, such as the purchase of renewable energy credits.

As your facility’s energy guru, you’re also in charge of teaching energy-saving measures to building occupants, recommending energy-efficient technologies to Purchasing Agents, and negotiating rates with utilities.

In short, you’re an energy problem-solver, paid to simultaneously help the planet and profit margins by reducing energy use and lowering utility bills.