Expedience often leads to a divergence from blueprints, including the substitution of sub-optimal equipment, resulting in poor building performance. Once a building is completed , poor operation and maintenance often render efficiency measures useless. Prevailing leasing practices marginalize efficiency. Tenants and building operators, particular those paying flat energy bills, rarely are rewarded for energy savings. Landlords have no incentive to install upgrades that will benefit their tenants but not themselves.
Some landlords mark up tenant utility bills, creating an incentive to oppose efficiency.
And leasing agents don't use a building's energy efficiency as a selling point. To the contrary, higher rents fueled by higher energy bills can mean higher commissions. Fixing these problems is possible, practical, and rewarding. Doing all this requires a combination of education, incentives, and organization, based on an understanding of each of the actors and how they interact. What is really needed is no less than reinventing the building design process, and with it, many current real-estate practices.