Energy consumption in commercial buildings is dominated by a small number of systems, and a surprising proportion of waste requires no investment to eliminate. HVAC typically accounts for 50 to 60% of consumption in an air-conditioned commercial building in North India. The highest-return interventions are operational rather than capital. Chilled water temperature set at 7°C when 9°C would suffice. Air handling units running at full capacity in partially occupied zones. Chiller sequencing that runs two machines at 40% load where one at 80% would be more efficient. Fresh air intake unadjusted for actual occupancy. Lighting is the second major load and the most visible. LED retrofits have largely been completed at most commercial sites, which shifts the opportunity to controls. Occupancy sensing in low-traffic areas such as service corridors, basements, staircases and storerooms, and daylight-linked dimming in perimeter zones, address lighting that operates when nobody benefits. The largest single source of avoidable consumption is schedule drift. Systems configured for a 9 to 7 occupancy continue running to 11 PM because nobody adjusted the BMS after a schedule change two years ago. An audit of actual run hours against actual occupancy hours is the cheapest diagnostic available. Power factor correction and transformer loading affect billing rather than consumption but produce real savings where neglected. Metering determines what can be managed. A building with a single incoming meter can measure total consumption and nothing else. Sub-metering by floor, by tenant and by system converts energy from a fixed cost into a managed one. An audit that produces a list of capital proposals without first identifying operational waste has usually missed the easier savings.