Design
Whole Foods Receives EPA Recognition For Eco-Friendly Foggy Bottom Location
Nov 1st
Kathy Loftus and Mark Hughes, of Whole Foods, discuss their reasoning for joining the EPA’s Green Chill Partnership Program and the approach they took to lowering CO2 emissions on their Foggy Bottom store.
| Ben Lack: | Whole Foods has recently received recognition from the EPA for having eco-friendly refrigeration in your Foggy Bottom location in Washington, DC. I wanted to get your thoughts on why Whole Foods sees value in becoming part of the Green Chill Partnership Program and what steps did you have to take to meet those standards? |
| Kathy Loftus: | Back in 2007 we were already an EPA Energy Star partner and an EPA Green Power partner and we really enjoyed our work with those partnerships as we were able to network with other partners and get a lot of resources from the EPA consultants and a lot of information that helped us run our business more efficiently. But EPA came to us in 2007 and asked us if we would consider being a founding partner of a new program they have which is called the GreenChill Partnership Program and it was very intriguing to us because we all were aware, in the supermarket industry, that with the Montreal Protocol and the changing-out of some of the ozone depleting refrigerants that there were going to be some needs to test state of the art alternative refrigeration systems as well as figure out new refrigerants to use that would be lower ozone depleting. As well as trying to balance that with using refrigerants that didn’t have as high a global warming potential.So, we were excited to join on as a founding partner, I think we were the first partner to sign on actually and the goal for that was two-fold. Number 1, absolutely not build any new stores with ozone depleting refrigerants and when we were remodelling stores to change the refrigerant to a non ozone depleting refrigerant and then also assist the EPA by designing different refrigeration systems into our stores so that we could evaluate what other impacts those systems had. So, for example, we were looking at glycol systems for medium temperature instead of refrigerant. We were also looking at CO2 as a low temperature refrigerant and we were looking at distributed systems. But we were really trying to help get on the numbers, if you will, so that big industry could learn from our installations. So, those were the 2 goals, reduce ozone depleting substances and test and evaluate alternative refrigeration systems. So, we joined. |
| Ben Lack: | Mark, your turn. |
| Mark Hughes: | Basically, this was a very interesting project for us in the Foggy Bottom project. It was always slated by the city council to have a grocery store here and there were many other operators that were sitting at the table interested in coming to this location. Whole Foods was sitting at the table some 4 years ago and we helped foster the property and do some engineering to try and get the systems there. In the mean time, some of the other operators had advanced their negotiations and we weren’t at the table anymore. When we finally came back to the table we were extremely late in the game so we didn’t have as many options as we had in the beginning and distributed systems was the most practical means to achieve what we need.The distributed systems are basically placing the refrigeration racks very close to the loads and thereby reducing the refrigerant charge and then using water from a cooling tower to operate our condensing. We didn’t need big refrigerant loads to go to the roof. We used a cooling tower and water glycol system in a closed loop to achieve this lower refrigerant charge. It was basically coming to the dance late that pushed us to use the distributed systems and then we also tried to make use of taking the stranded heat generated by the refrigeration and turned around and helped the heat pumps operate in the winter time. So, we are using a combination of heat pumps and distributed refrigeration systems. |
| Ben Lack: | And what’s the impact of taking this type of approach to the facility? How has that helped you save in CO2? |
| Mark Hughes: | The distributed systems basically place the racks very close to the loads, so the freezer cases that you see downstairs could operate very quietly that just has enough refrigerant charge to run those cases. That’s the beauty of distributed systems in reducing the refrigerant charge. |
| Cathy Loftus: | One thing as Mark mentioned is having that system designed so that the refrigerant is close to the load is one thing, but also when you design a system that has a lower charge, there’s less of it to leak. We all know in the supermarket industry it’s unfortunate but there are a number of reasons why we may have small emissions of refrigerant over the course of the year except when the equipment is in service. So, when you design a store to have lower refrigerant charge and have those piping loops run closer to the load, there’s much less of a chance of a leak; there’s a lower leak rate as it is. So, that’s how you reduce your greenhouse gas emissions because the refrigerant that gets emitted contributes to greenhouse gases. |
| Ben Lack: | This strategy that you took in the Foggy Bottom store, is this the first time that you’ve taken this approach or has this approach worked in other stores as well? |
| Mark Hughes: | It’s definitely working in other stores, it’s a proven system. The protocol systems have been out there probably, I’m going to guess, 12 to 15 years. |
| Kathy Loftus: | Yes. What I would say though is what Mark did that’s unique and that we haven’t done in a lot of other stores or regions at least in Whole Foods’ market is, Mark utilized a plate to plate heat exchanger in that store’s design so the refrigeration and HVAC systems are somewhat coupled, so not only have we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by having a low charge refrigeration system, lower leak rate, we also have reduced greenhouse emissions because this system that he designed will save a ton of natural gas usage because we will be using waste heat from the compressors to operate heat pumps which are highly efficient most of the year in that region. So, the engineers estimate that we are going to be saving a lot of b.t.u. and a lot of natural gas that would otherwise have been required for heating for that store. |
| Ben Lack: | As you guys move forward and work on other locations, what’s next for you as you try to make these stores more sustainable and responsible about energy use? |
| Kathy Loftus: | There’s a lot of great things that we have done over the past couple of years with leaders like Mark who are willing to go out on a limb with new designs and new ways of designing the stores, not only for energy efficiency and reduced refrigerant but also for other green building attributes and zero waste initiatives. We’ve got electric vehicle charging stations, we’ve got solar on many stores, Mark’s team is one of the first ones to purchase outright a PD system for the Princeton store. But, we’ve got solar on almost 20 locations now.We’ve got fuel cells at 4 and we are just about to start operating a generator at our North Atlantic region commissary that will run off of waste cooking oil from the stores and commissary in that region and that cooking oil is not actually transferred into a biodiesel. It’s literally just filtered and used as a fuel for this generator that will be operating on-site providing all the stores both heat and power and backup power. It’s a win-win for that community because the utility was transmission constrained and was thinking about having to build new feeders and eventually new power plants.So, what we try to do is take the stake-holder model approach where green emissions have always been at our core but we want to continue to grow and lead in areas like having green building certification, so we’ve got many LEED certified stores we’ve got several gold at this point. We also have Green Globe certified stores and many of those have 3 Green Globes which is equivalent to LEED gold so lots of our stores are being built to either LEED or Green Globe standards even if they don’t go through with the certification. But we feel that what’s new on the horizon is really looking at what makes sense in each community, designing the stores in the back of the house to be as efficient as possible with respect to zero waste goals and efficiency and day-lighting. There’s been a lot more day-lighting in the back of house because it’s not only is saving on lighting energy but it’s actually really good for the folks that work back there for productivity and efficiency. We try to take this holistic approach where depending on where the building is located in the country. It may make sense to use the roof for day-lighting or solar or a combination of the 2. Or other types of analysis that we do to see what makes the most sense in that climate, in that region, what kinds of subsidies are available because often with the new technologies that are out there, it really makes sense for us to try those when there are some incentives. When the demand for that type of technology increases the costs will come down and then the incentives will no longer be available or necessary. But we do take this approach of really trying out lots of new technologies. In fact, we’ve just been presented with another one, a liquid desiccant HVAC retrofit option that we may test in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Lab and other tests for the labs out there like the University of California Davis. So, we really do try to work closely with all of our constituents and take this holistic model that really considers everything. |
| Ben Lack: | Why have you chosen to spend your time doing what you’re doing and why does this work mean so much to you? |
| Mark Hughes: | This is an unbelievably exciting area of technology and it’s changing everyday. There are so many different kinds of systems out there, it’s really interesting because you can get to choose and play with them and actually shift them around or mix them as a hybrid. So, you can take any number of approaches to the refrigeration HVAC and I don’t think there’s any other mark, even if it goes this way or that way, it’s wide open field and it’s pretty exciting. |
| Kathy Loftus: | Coupled with the fact that there’s so much more information technology out there today and the information is at your fingertips much more quickly with the internet and with some sophisticated modeling and tools. The thing that really grabbed my attention years ago was when I started working in the buildings field and engineering field 20 years ago and seeing how architects got the bulk of the dollars to design a building and when it came down to the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering, they were just really doing quick designs for cost reductions and not necessarily considering long term operating costs or what those energy or other impacts had on the environment.There are a couple of folks that I learned from early on that were willing to take and do some extra analysis and see what the long term benefits could be and just over the last 10 years has been leaps and bounds in being able to share that information and really start to look at how to design a building, not only for the lowest first cost but for the lowest long term operating costs and net impact on the environment. For me, it’s always been a passion about reducing resources that, waste kind of makes me crazy. I think Mark and I are cut from the same cloth in that respect. |
| Mark Hughes: | There are so many systems out there. Twice or three times I tried to do the geothermal systems and I still with this company, they allow you to mess around with this stuff as long as you stay within your budgets, they really allow you to be an entrepreneur. Mark my words one of these days I will put in whether it’s a hybrid or something, I will put in a geothermal system. It’s just interesting, very interesting and exciting. |
How Clean Tech Companies Choose A Manufacturing Site
Oct 11th
David Bergeron, a Partner at T3, discusses what clean tech companies are looking for when they search for that next manufacturing plant.
SMART Start, SMART Finish: Driving Energy Efficiency in New Construction
Oct 4th
In my last column for The Daily Energy Report, we looked at the prospects for driving energy efficiency in existing facilities, thereby reducing operational costs, through energy upgrades and retrofits. While existing buildings represent a large percentage of today’s green construction opportunity, new construction projects represent a different and exciting opportunity for the building industry, unlocking the potential of holistic building energy management, planned from the project’s inception. Innovations exist today to develop this kind of high performance, high efficiency building from the beginning, but are organizations taking full advantage of what’s at their disposal?
The construction industry, like many others, has faced setbacks as a result of the recent economic downturn. However, we are seeing glimpses of a re-emergence of new construction project opportunities in the U.S. According to a late-2010 study conducted by McGraw Hill Construction, the outlook for the U.S. construction market is slated for renewed growth in overall activity, after experiencing a 2 percent decline in 2010. Additionally, President Obama’s recently unveiled job-creation plan marks a total of $25 billion for new construction and modernization of school facilities.
With fluctuating energy costs and increased mandates and initiatives for efficiency in buildings in the public and private sector such as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) and President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, there is a growing impetus in the U.S. to create more efficient, intelligent and sustainable buildings.
Planning for optimal energy savings
When embarking on a new green construction project, there are several considerations for stakeholders across the building lifecycle to consider:
- Installing the most energy-efficient equipment is important, but this represents only one part of the process of creating a green building. In order to create an optimized, efficient facility that will sustain energy and cost savings over its lifespan, all of the building’s systems must work together. For example, a building could have the most efficient HVAC system on the market, but if the heating is running at the same time as the air conditioning, and the facility manager doesn’t have visibility into operations to identify this problem, there is potential for an enormous amount of energy waste and unnecessary operational expenditure. This scenario sounds unlikely, but you might be surprised to know that it happens every day.
- To achieve the most optimized operational model, building stakeholders should consider an integrated architecture that includes all the major domains of a building: power, IT, process and machines, and building and security management. By converging information from these systems, facility managers can have insight into the building’s energy use as well as manage and automate processes and energy from one common platform. Through this model, building stakeholders can achieve significant savings in capital expenses (CapEx), operational expenses (OpEx) and energy consumption across the entire enterprise.
- Buildings are typically designed by architects that then hand over plans to general contractors who focus on lowering upfront CapEx costs. In the CapEx reduction process, original designs are often modified, and those changes are not assessed for their impact on overall building OpEx costs, which are actually where 75 percent of a building’s life cycle costs are generated over many years. As a result of this scenario, many buildings’ stakeholders are opting to involve a green building expert in all phases of the new construction project to ensure that efficient technologies are integrated across all major domains, potential functional gaps are identified early and highly efficient operations are ensured from day one.
- Many green building experts will also provide training to building and facility managers once the construction is complete, so they can keep facilities running at peak operational efficiencies over the lifecycle.
Performance contracting for new construction
Expertise in the new construction process can also be helpful when undertaking an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC). As a quick refresh from my earlier column, an ESPC enables public sector buildings to receive energy-efficient retrofits and upgrades that pay for themselves over a guaranteed period of time through lower utility bills, and are often done in conjunction with an energy consultant. A performance contract for new construction guarantees energy savings over the lifecycle of a building, even if plans are still on the drawing board. An ESPC is a great option for funding a new construction project for public sector entities such as K-12 schools, colleges, universities and hospitals, most of which have been operating with reduced budgets over the past several years.
One such school district, Eudora Unified School District (USD) 491 in Eudora, Kansas, was experiencing steady growth and sought to expand its facilities to accommodate the changing needs of its student population of more than 1,500. In planning this expansion, the district was motivated to expand in a manner that would balance student needs with fiscal responsibility. Following completion of an ESPC on several existing facilities, the district partnered with Schneider Electric on a novel approach – a performance contract for new construction.
Prior to making any recommendations, a comprehensive lifecycle cost analysis of potential systems was conducted with consideration given to long-term operating, maintenance and energy costs to determine the optimal system for each new construction project. Since this was a new build, there was more involvement early on from Schneider Electric with architects, builders and the construction management group. This involvement early in the planning process enabled the inclusion of energy-efficient solutions into each building system.
Eudora USD 491’s new construction project enabled the district to lock in energy savings and to feel assured that all systems design, installation and commissioning would be executed properly the first time and every time afterward. Since Eudora USD 491 teamed with Schneider Electric on this project, the performance contract has outpaced the guaranteed annual savings and yielded significant environmental savings.
The future of energy-efficient new construction
Buildings are the largest consumers of energy in the world – and while technology breakthroughs in the past several years are helping create greener buildings, those technologies and processes must all work together to create truly efficient, high-performing buildings to reduce consumption and increase sustainability. As the new construction market continues to recover from the recent economic downturn, it will be important for everyone involved in creating the new building – from the stakeholders, architects, designers, contractors and green buildings experts – to be involved in the process to ensure that the building is as energy efficient as possible.
Written by James Potach, senior vice president, Energy Solutions, Schneider Electric; Potach is responsible for performance contracting and power management.
Funding Solutions for Energy Projects in a Post-Stimulus World
Aug 5th
Faced with a combination of ongoing municipal and state budget cuts, pressure from citizens to keep taxes low and the looming energy efficiency mandates that require a significant number of building upgrades, the public sector is consistently looking for ways to do more with less. In each case, facility managers are often forced to defer capital expenditures and maintenance to aging equipment in order to control costs.
Consider this: Buildings are the largest consumers of energy on the planet, currently accounting for 42 percent of energy usage worldwide and generating approximately 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts that buildings will account for up to 75 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, and McKinsey and Company estimates that increased efficiency in buildings would save the U.S. economy $130 billion per year. The question then arises, where do we go from here? How do publicly funded buildings achieve energy efficiency and meet mandates while addressing taxpayers’ concerns when their budgets are being cut?
With stimulus money from President Obama’s recovery plan already dispersed, public sector institutions are turning to innovative funding mechanisms that can significantly reduce, if not completely pay for, building upgrades. One such approach that also addresses the aforementioned energy challenges within public buildings is Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC), which enables public sector buildings to receive energy efficiency retrofits and upgrades that pay for themselves over a guaranteed period of time.
Energy Savings Performance Contracting
An ESPC is an agreement with an energy efficiency expert that identifies and evaluates savings opportunities within a building through an energy audit, and then recommends a number of energy equipment retrofits, such as replacement or redesign of older, inefficient HVAC systems or building controls and lighting, which will save energy through more efficient operations. The savings generated on utility bills from the newly installed, more efficient equipment ultimately reverts toward paying for the cost of the capital equipment over a specified number of years – minimizing the financial risk to the public institution.
With a performance contract, upgrades of interrelated systems are bundled together into one comprehensive project that provides a customized solution based on the specific needs of each building. This approach maximizes the savings possible and allows the cost of the improvements to be a manageable expense. Many times, a performance contract assures that annual savings will be achieved and if the guaranteed level of savings is not realized, the energy services company (ESCO) that implements the performance contract must write a check to cover the shortfall, reducing the facility owner’s risk while giving the ESCO the impetus to ensure the system runs as efficiently as possible.
Through ESPCs, organization leaders and the C-level are able to leverage existing non-strategic funds toward strategic capital improvement initiatives, reduce operational and capital expenses and meet environmental requirements, all while improving the comfort of building occupants and in some cases, productivity. In a study commissioned by the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), results showed that students’ performance in energy-efficient buildings increased by an average of 15 percent, and up to 30 percent with improved indoor climate conditions.
In addition, most ESPCs include the installation of active energy efficiency components such as building controls, which allow facilities’ staff to measure, monitor and better control their energy consumption. With these active energy management components, facility managers can collect and analyze data to identify inefficient usage patterns, and take steps to maintain equipment or correct the inefficient usage to further improve the building’s efficiency and sustainability.
Examples of Successful Performance Contracting Projects
In 2010, the city of Houston, Texas announced its participation in a $23 million performance contract as a continuation of its participation in the William J. Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative (CCI) Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, which is an effort to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings in major cities around the world.
Through this project, the city is implementing numerous energy conservation measures (ECMs) in seven city buildings. As a result of these retrofits, Houston is projected to save $1.8 million annually over the 15-year contract when the second phase of the project is completed in August 2011.The positive impact on the environment resulting from the city officials’ dedication to reducing energy consumption will include decreasing annual emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere by 5, 831 tons, which is equivalent to removing 1,166 cars from the roads for a year or planting 1,586 acres of trees to help restore the ecosystem balance.
In addition, numerous higher education institutions are also turning to performance contracting to meet the needs of growing student bodies, cutting both their energy costs and carbon footprints while upgrading their facilities to attract incoming talent. North Carolina State University is currently working on a $20 million performance contract to improve energy efficiency, and drive sustainable clean energy projects in 1.6 million square feet of building space across 13 campus facilities. Upon completion of the installation, the university will save more than 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 68,785 decatherms of natural gas annually, which is equivalent to planting 80,376 acres of trees or removing 43,158 cars from the roads over the next 15 years.
The future of Energy Savings Performance Contracting
As ESPC continues to gain momentum in the public sector, private sector companies are starting to mirror the practice to create operational energy savings and meet corporate sustainability goals. Through programs such as President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, which encourages commercial building owners to retrofit their facilities to curb emissions and energy costs, more private companies are being enticed to focus on energy efficiency. As a result, new financing mechanisms such as ESPC for the private sector are emerging and enabling organizations to meet their energy efficiency goals.
Written by James Potach, senior vice president, Energy Solutions, Schneider Electric and is responsible for performance contracting and power management.
Taking Account of Full Costs and Total Benefits in achieving a more efficient building sector: Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products
Feb 22nd
Simply put, Architecture 2030 (Ed Mazria) is among my favorite organizations.
Architecture 2030 has been developing and promoting well-thought through and practical concepts for shifting America’s built architecture toward a sustainable path. Concepts that have an impact on many, from aspiring architecture students to policy-makers to businessmen creating more energy efficient products. More >
Integrated Building Design Is Critical For Optimizing Energy Efficiency
Feb 21st
NZEB, ASHRAE 90.1, ASHRAE 189.1, IECC, IGCC, EISA, EO 13514 (1) – do you know what they are? If you are involved in building design and construction, you should know them. If you design the site, fenestration and building envelope, mechanical and electrical systems, and building systems controls, you have to know them. Why? Public laws, building codes, industry standards, and, yes, even the green building rating systems LEED and GreenGlobes will require a significant reduction in the use of fossil fuel-based energy over the next two decades, to the point of net zero energy use by 2030. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), buildings account for 39 percent of the energy use and 68 percent of the total electricity use in the United States. The challenge is this – we cannot achieve these stringent energy conservation goals by continuing to design buildings and systems the way we did in the past where the architect, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer independently, in isolation from each other, designed their part of the building using long standing rules of thumb. More >
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