A free hands-on training session designed especially for acute care and children's hospitals, as well as medical office building managers who would like to improve energy usage will be held on January 30 in Philadelphia.

The session, co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Protection, will be held at 12:30 p.m. at EPA's Region 3 office building, 1650 Arch St. in Philadelphia.

The training will focus on the use of EPA's Portfolio Manager software, which helps evaluate the energy performance of facilities and compares them to similar operations across the nation.

The software provides information to assist managers in making decisions regarding investments in energy efficiency, development of energy management plans, and in measuring improvements over time.

Participants will learn more about the energy software, then spend the remaining time working on benchmarks for their individual facility with assistance from trained DEP and EPA staff. Participants should bring their specific facility data to the training to accomplish this task.

To register, visit the training session webpage. Parties will then receive additional material in preparation for the training. Questions should be directed to DEP Southeast Regional Energy Manager Heather Cowley at 484-250-5816.

1/4/2008