Energy Management
Energy management programs can work to make improve the energy efficiency of a business and lower its operating costs. The articles in this section discuss the importance of such programs and how to implement them into your business.
Pennsylvania’s Act 129 Impact: Can Utilities Meet The State’s Energy Goals
Feb 9th
Kevin R. Evans, Vice President & General Manager of Demand Response Services at Johnson Controls, shares his insights on the state of Pennsylvania’s Act 129 and how Johnson Controls’ EnergyConnect integrated demand-side management services are contributing to help the state meet its overall energy goals.
Lower Energy Use For The Poudre School District; How & Why?
Jan 16th
John Little, Stu Reeve, and Pete Hall, of the Poudre School District talk about why they are participating in the Better Buildings Challenge.
Insulation: A Key Factor In Sustainable Schools
Dec 13th
Schools are where children – bright, energetic, and ready to learn and grow – first see society at work. It’s where they learn how to write, solve problems, socialize, relate to others and the world around them, and it’s where they build foundations for the future.
But what kind of foundations are schools providing?
Sadly, many children attending public schools in America are actually spending their days in inefficient and even deteriorating classrooms, which can negatively affect their well-being and overall ability to learn.
So what’s the solution?
Designing, building or upgrading schools so that they are sustainable and energy-efficient learning environments is certainly part of the solution. But it goes beyond an initial concept.
From the preliminary design stages and initial construction to maintenance years down the road, there are many ongoing factors that contribute to a green school. All of these factors combined are part of the “green schools” solution.
What makes a school green?
The design of the school does not simply come down to the architects and contractors. Rather, the building should be as integrated as possible so the facility can operate with maximum efficiency. The physical materials that go into the school are major components that can help solve the problems plaguing children’s well being and ability to learn. Some of the simplest changes that could greatly contribute to improved occupant well being include increased day-lighting, improved insulation and incorporating furnishings, fixtures and equipment that are in alignment with the green integrity of the facility.
Many classrooms have insufficient natural light – or no windows whatsoever – which has a direct impact on students’ ability to stay focused and comprehend new material. A report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory states that natural light in schools may significantly increase students’ test scores and promote better health and physical development – and can be attained without an increase in school construction or maintenance costs.
Measures include orienting the building to maximize day-lighting potential and minimize undesired heat gain. Other features, such as tall windows and slanted roofs, which allow light to “bounce” in, can also add natural light to a classroom.
Poor ventilation, mold and other hazards cause an alarming number of classrooms to be reported as substandard or even dangerous. Ensuring a building is insulated with the right materials is also critical to increase student comfort for a more conducive learning environment.
According to “Sustainable School Architecture” by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) accredited professional architects Lisa Gelfand and Eric Corey Freed, no other green building feature has greater impact for less cost than insulation. Insulation materials, a good sealing package and proper HVAC ductwork can provide thermal control and create good air flow, all being integral to increasing efficiency and reducing operation costs, when used together properly.
The outside temperature can affect learning within the classroom when a building is poorly insulated. And it isn’t uncommon, for schools lacking air conditioning and properly insulated classrooms to dismiss students early because of the soaring heat. For schools that do have functioning HVAC systems, the equipment works much harder if walls and ceilings are poorly insulated, thereby increasing energy and operation costs.
Proper insulation can also contribute to the acoustics of a room, as well. Disruptive sound can come from outside activities, noisy HVAC equipment and even conversations from across the room or adjacent classes. Loud learning environments can increase stress levels in students and teachers alike, resulting in misunderstanding and lost classroom time. However, proper insulation is designed to control noise transmission between rooms and absorb sound vibrations, which may improve the learning environment.
Finally, the classroom furnishings, fixtures and other equipment also have an impact on the school’s overhead costs. No- or low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, recycled flooring, cleaning products and energy-efficient lighting are a few examples of ways to improve a classroom.
Green schools in action
The urgency to conserve and sustain our environment is increasing. It might be a bit of work for us to change our habits now, but we can instill the ideals of sustainability in our children – in schools.
Part of building the foundation for young students today includes teaching them about sustainability to ensure their well-being in the future. One organization, The Green Schoolhouse Series, is doing just that.
A unique collaboration that brings together communities, school districts, corporations and volunteers, The Green Schoolhouse Series replaces uninspired and outdated portable classrooms at low-income public schools with sustainable “Green Schoolhouses.”
“The Green Schoolhouses will be built using donated top-of-the-line, green, sustainable products and state-of-the-art technologies,” explained Marshall G. Zotara, Co-founder and Senior Managing Partner of CAUSE AND EFFECT Evolutions. “Not only will the students benefit from learning in a more energy efficient classroom setting, the Green Schoolhouses will also serve as integral, hands-on teaching tools.”
The schoolhouses address many of the problems that impact students’ learning abilities. The inaugural Safari Schoolhouse in Phoenix, AZ, for instance, is aiming for LEED® Platinum certification. Stantec Architecture designed the building to utilize maximum day-lighting, Owens Corning will provide insulation, while the paint, flooring, lighting and furnishings are all sustainable products donated by green-minded companies.
Because of companies such as the ones contributing to The Green Schoolhouse Series, it’s possible to improve children’s learning environments – the foundations on which they build their knowledge, habits and perception of society.
Written by James Hou. James Hou is Director of strategic marketing for the Engineered Insulations Systems segment for the Building Materials Group at Owens Corning where he is responsible for creating and optimizing go-to-market strategies and plans.
Market Disruption Driving Creative Strategies in the Demand-Side Management Space
Dec 9th
Wrenching transformation and consolidation is sweeping across the once stable and conservative lighting industry. New technologies such as LEDs, digital networks and wireless communications are displacing legacy products. Component companies such as CREE are acquiring fixture manufacturers and thereby creating new lighting conglomerates. And, lighting is no longer about discrete applications – lighting is now a citizen in a broader energy intelligent enterprise. Similar change is taking place in other energy efficiency product categories – from HVAC to compressed air – with mature and well understood products being replaced by intelligent and complex technologies requiring significantly more solution design, customer support and hand holding. Moreover, these new energy efficient technologies are increasingly factoring into smart grid and demand management strategies deployed by utilities and grid operators, layering-in both additional opportunity and complexity.
New clean, intelligent and energy efficient technologies have re-set market lifecycles in many traditional product categories. Product categories that were in the late maturity phase a few years ago are now categories back in the early adoption phase. This has tremendous impact on go-to-market strategies. The technical and engineering knowledge and processes required to sell, deploy and support these new technologies are dramatically different. Late maturity is typically characterized by high sales velocity, low cost of sales and broad distribution through highly efficient, high-turn channel partners. In contrast, early adoption requires more consultative, hands-on sales processes across an elongated sales cycle – usually executed by well-trained, high cost direct sales forces and specialized channel partners.
This reset is forcing manufacturers to move quickly to find new strategies and paths-to-market. Channel participants are scrambling to remake their business models and to up-level their competencies. This disruption has caused new channel models, innovative go-to-market strategies, and novel industry partnerships to emerge. Here are some examples:
CHANNELS HARNESSING THE POWER OF INFORMATION
The rear-view mirror days of relying on utility bills to understand energy consumption are gone. Real-time information is the new gold standard in the energy management business. The smarter channel players have figured this out and have reworked their business models and solution offerings. Two such companies that are leveraging data and analytics to differentiate are McKinstry, a larger company in the Pacific Northwest, and Groom Energy, a smaller company based in Boston. McKinstry has evolved over time from a traditional mechanical contractor into an integrated Design-Build-Operate-Maintain firm that offers facility and energy management services in addition to engineering and construction services. However, what distinguishes McKinstry is how it leverages information. McKinstry recognized early the power of information and has invested heavily in its state-of-the-art operations center. This operations center enables McKinstry to leverage real-time building energy and operating data to “tune” buildings to operate at peak efficiencies at all times. By acting as its clients’ “eyes and ears,” McKinstry is able to anticipate breakdowns and dispatch service teams before costly disruptions occur. Similarly, Groom Energy, recognizing the power of information, has successfully transformed its business from lighting retrofitter to a full service energy management company that helps its clients capitalize on what they’ve coined the Enterprise Smart Grid. Groom competes against larger, slower moving competitors by helping clients become more energy intelligent. Groom not only helps its customers evaluate the myriad of software and analytical tools available, it goes further to integrate the submeters, sensors and software technologies to make it happen and also acts on the information coming back to design and implement solutions. The good news for McKinstry, Groom and other forward thinking companies is that they are the exception rather than the rule. There are still far too many companies in the energy management space that are living in an analog world and driving blind. These laggards will need to adapt quickly or risk obsolescence.
MANUFACTURERS PIONEERING NEW PATHS TO MARKET
Manufacturers of demand-side management technologies are also rethinking their paths to market. These companies are realizing that sales strategies centered on traditional dealer networks and broad-line distributors may no longer be the most relevant. Let’s take a look at Ice Energy, a newer player in the HVAC space. Ice Energy has developed an innovative thermal energy storage technology – branded the Ice Bear — that enables customers to use low cost off-peak power to meet cooling demand during costly peak hours. The technology is a great compliment to traditional HVAC units manufactured by companies such as Carrier and Trane and Ice Energy has fostered partnerships with these companies. However, Ice Energy is not content to surrender its destiny to these partners and wait for sell-through by channels it doesn’t control or influence. Instead, Ice Energy decided to drive sell-through with its own unique strategy. Ice Energy recognized that aggregating its units and deploying them at scale offers utilities megawatts of clean, peak power capacity at less cost than constructing new peaking plants. Putting rubber to the road, Ice Energy cut an innovative deal with Southern California Public Power Authority deploying Ice Bear units across 1,500 distributed sites in the utility’s service territory to offer 53 megawatts of stored capacity. Many of these units will coincide with rooftop unit replacements, enabling Trane and Carrier to realize sizable sell-through as a result of Ice Energy’s innovative thinking. A win for all involved, including ratepayers!
NOVEL INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS
The shifting industry landscape is also resulting in some interesting partnerships. One such partnership is between Redwood Systems and Anixter. Redwood Systems, an innovative venture funded upstart is looking to shake-up the lighting industry with its DC-based power, networking and controls technology, has aligned with Anixter, an established structured cabling distributor that hasn’t historically played in the lighting space. A few years ago it would have been laughable to think that structured cabling professionals could become significant players in lighting. Now some smart people are betting on it. However, before too much high-fiving takes place it is important to realize that the business world is littered with distribution agreements that never gained traction. What’s tricky about this deal is that Redwood’s new-to-world technology is supposed to be sold by mature structuring cabling professionals. Can these old dogs learn new tricks? Can their profit models, based on minimizing cost of sales, support the requisite high touch approach? For this deal to succeed, Redwood and Anixter will need to collaborate on training programs and tightly script sales playbooks on how to position, sell, deploy and support the new technologies. Redwood will also need to make its “factory direct” sales and technical resources easily accessible to Anixter and its cabling professional customers. And, given the higher cost of sales associated with selling Redwood’s products, Redwood may also need to offer more attractive pricing terms and market development funds to support demand creation. Although they will not want to cross the legal line into the franchise realm, franchise systems with tightly scripted processes and strong factory support may be an antecedent to review as they think about making this relationship a success.
It’s clear that business as usual will no longer suffice for technology and service providers competing in the demand-side management market. Moreover, companies will not prevail solely on having the best mousetrap. The winners will be those companies that complement great technology and great service offerings with innovative go-to-market strategies that are not only creative but also lifecycle appropriate.
Written by Erik G. Birkerts and Thomas G. Knight, founding partners of Evergreen Growth Advisors, a boutique strategy consulting firm serving clients in the Clean Energy industry.
Get Your Energy Plan in Order
Nov 22nd
Does your business have a comprehensive energy plan? Now is the right time as New York City introduced laws requiring building owners to do a number of things in regards to energy efficiency – benchmarking, performing energy audits, retro-commissioning and a host of other initiatives.
Implementing an efficiency program can save a company millions of dollars in energy usage and drastically reduce emissions as well as create a corporate culture that fosters continuous improvement in the areas of sustainability and building performance. High performance buildings operate efficiently and cost-effectively.
Energy costs and usage can be reduced without your company sacrificing comfort or a great deal of financial resources. Let’s face it, we all need to do more with less. It’s certainly a different environment than it was almost 35 years ago when Jimmy Carter came on TV during the oil crisis with his sweater and said, “You know, we all need to sacrifice.” The truth is, today, with the technology that we have, people don’t need to sacrifice. Proven technology exists that can provide great working and living conditions, the right temperature and humidity, the right level of lighting and we can do it in a very efficient way. So, people don’t have to sacrifice. They can work under the right conditions but spend less money creating those conditions.
Concurrently, capital is loosening up so businesses have access to resources, to make investments in major energy efficiency projects including lighting and lighting controls, HVAC, furnaces, boilers, motors, variable frequency drives and energy efficiency studies. Between the federal and state level, city and utility level, there are substantial incentives available to help businesses make smart investments in energy efficiency.
If the task of implementing an energy plan seems overwhelming, the following steps can help propel you in the right direction:
Make it a Commitment
Realize that energy efficiency is everyone’s responsibility. Make it a company-wide mandate and get everyone involved. Outline important benefits and steps.
Perform an Energy Audit
An energy audit is key in knowing precisely how much energy your company is currently using and exactly where improvements need to be made. It can highlight the weaknesses in current energy consumption and provide recommendations for energy efficiency and savings while increasing your building’s performance. To ensure accurate usage information, measurement of each energy source – e.g. gas, electricity, oil, and renewable – is needed. Use all the information you gather to produce an energy policy and identify long, medium and short-term energy-saving targets.
Set Goals
When implementing an energy policy, you must first decide on specific actions to take to save energy and put those actions in order of priority. It’s very important to set realistic and attainable goals. For example, if your business commits to a percentage reduction in carbon emissions, make sure that this is attainable. It’s a slow and steady ride but if priorities are outlined effectively, you can be certain to reach your goals.
Determine Roles & Resources
Having an experienced energy management team or manager can keep everyone on track by reiterating and highlighting the benefits of the corporate energy policy and leading the team toward their energy saving goals.
Get the Word Out – Raise Awareness
It is very important to get everyone involved from key decision makers, to senior management, to staff at all levels of the business. Choosing to provide energy efficiency training and energy efficiency education programs can help employees understand the importance of the energy efficiency policy, boost participation and motivate employees.
Research Energy Efficiency Finance Options
Many organizations see low funds as a major obstacle to energy efficiency projects but in many cases, funding can be structured so that the projects can be repaid from energy savings, negating the need for upfront capital. A good energy service company can guide you in the right direction offering special financing while the government provides tax credit and low-interest loans for energy projects.
Implement Energy Efficiency Processes and Equipment
Energy efficiency projects can be outlined in short, medium and long-term as well as low-cost and projects needing capital investment. Starting with the short term and low-cost measures can have an immediate impact and get everyone on board at the starting gate.
Measure, Monitor and Report
Measuring and monitoring progress regularly will increase active participation and make sure your company is on target to reaching its energy saving goals. Alert the staff to the progress, this will certainly keep them motivated.
Get Certified – Register for Third-Party Verification
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC). It provides building managers with the groundwork of constructing, operating and maintaining green building design solutions. Visit http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19 for more information on LEED certification guidelines and processes.
The ENERGY STAR® is a recognizable symbol of energy efficiency. The EPA awards the ENERGY STAR to organizations achieving a high level of energy performance within their industry. There are special criteria for receiving an ENERGY STAR rating. Visit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=industry.bus_industry_plants for more details.
Achieve, Recognize, Reward!
Recognizing and rewarding those employees who have taken great initiative for implementing the energy policy and reducing energy consumption will foster an environment of sustainability and possibly increase participation.
Written by David Pospisil. Pospisil is Program Manager of Con Edison’s Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Program, New York, N.Y. Con Edison’s Green Team offers incentives to offset the costs of those major energy efficiency projects. The Con Edison Green Team is eager to help you create a high performance building. Join the discussion on LinkedIn at the Con Edison Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Energy Efficiency group. For information about Con Edison’s Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Program, visit conEd.com/energysavings or call 1-877-797-6347.
Addressing today’s energy dilemmas in commercial buildings through demand response
Oct 26th
A growing number of incentives are heating up demand response (DR) adoption in the commercial building sector.
The commercial sector, faced with factors such as rising energy costs as well as new and pending federal building codes and standards, has placed a renewed focus on improving energy efficiency. According to the U.S. Green Buildings Council, buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. In the U.S., buildings account for 38 percent of all CO2 emissions (1).
To address this escalating challenge, the Obama Administration has set a goal of making commercial buildings 20 percent more efficient within the next 10 years, which could reduce business owners’ energy bills by about $40 billion per year (2).
Demand Response stands to play an important role in meeting these energy efficiency goals.
Due to smart grid technologies which allow a bi-directional flow of information between end users and the electric utility, DR has evolved from a reliability tool used in peak emergencies to a solution for actively managing energy use. The latter is often referred to as DR 2.0 or demand management. Through actively managing energy use and participating in DR programs, commercial buildings can help mitigate the stress of new demands on the grid such as unpredictable renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.
However, until recently, DR has typically seen a higher success rate in the industrial sector, because many factories are already equipped with energy management and power systems that can be tapped to share power. In commercial building settings, there is often a lack of technology readily available to automate the DR process. Additionally, commercial buildings, such as offices or retail stores, have the added responsibility of addressing the needs of multiple tenants or shoppers before making an energy decision. For example, a retail store manager cannot simply turn down air conditioners during the heat of the summer or dim lights during store hours to meet DR requirements.
In order to expand DR participation in the commercial sector and reach DR’s maximum potential, technologies such as smart grid enabled building automation systems (BASs) have been growing in popularity. These systems allow facility managers to measure and control energy use across disparate building systems – from lighting to HVAC systems. BASs can communicate directly with the electric grid to provide facility managers with real-time information about the level of energy demand the utility is experiencing, and thus enables them to make more intelligent energy management decisions based on this insight. For instance, when energy demand and prices are high, facility managers can consult the BAS to determine where load can be shed, whether it should be turning down the air conditioning for a certain period of time or switching off lights in unoccupied rooms.
These practices will simultaneously cut buildings’ energy costs and reduce peak loads for utilities. Ultimately, this will reduce the overall carbon footprint associated with electricity generation by reducing the need to build more fossil-fuel burning power plants to meet the utilities’ peak load demand.
In addition to the environmental benefits and reduced energy bills that a commercial building can recoup by acting as a DR resource, recent legislation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has made large steps towards increasing the monetary value of demand-side resources. FERC ruling 745, which I discussed in more detail in an earlier Daily Energy Report column, requires wholesale market operators to pay the same price for DR resources as they would for traditional generation resources. As a result, it encourages building owners and managers across sectors to participate in DR programs by enabling them to generate a revenue stream through their participation.
Yet another move to encourage DR participation in the commercial sector came earlier this year, from The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which has been studying ways it can count DR as part of its LEED rating system. The USGBC, in conjunction with Schneider Electric, Skipping Stone and Lawrence Berkley National Lab, announced plans to release a comprehensively updated LEED Demand Response Pilot Credit. Originally launched in 2010, the enhanced Demand Response Pilot Credit will establish guidelines anticipated to increase participation in automated DR programs.
As part of the credit, LEED projects that satisfy the requirements by demonstrating their ability to shift energy consumption during peak events by 10 percent of peak load demand will earn a point towards LEED certification when they participate in existing utility-sponsored DR programs that meet guidelines established in the pilot credit. Additional points are also available for projects that implement semi or fully automated DR programs in their buildings.
By tying building energy consumption into DR networks for more efficient power consumption, a number of benefits will be realized for commercial buildings, utilities, and the environment. Through these incentives and technology innovations, commercial building stakeholders should have more motivation (and the necessary tools at their disposal) to drive greater efficiencies in facilities today.
Written by Donald Rickey, Senior Vice President, Energy Business, Schneider Electric
Supporting resources:
- (1) U.S. Green Building Council: Energy Information Administration (2008). Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook.
- (2) U.S. Department of Energy. “QTR: Report on the First Quadrennial Review.” Energy.Gov. U.S. Department of Energy, Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
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.
AdvantageIQ’s Role As An Energy Cost Reducer
Sep 30th
Jeff Heggedahl, CEO of AdvantageIQ, discusses his company’s shift from helping companies pay their energy bills to also becoming a reliable energy saving strategist.
A Greener World: The Sustainability Decisions of America’s Leading Companies
Sep 6th
Imagine you just spent $50 at the store purchasing everyday household necessities and the store clerk inquires whether you would like to donate $1.50 for a good cause when you are checking out. Do you politely decline and go about your day? Do you contemplate where your money is really going if you accept? Do you act on blind faith and out of kindness agree to donate the $1.50? If you do choose to donate the $1.50, what benefit(s) are you realizing?
The intent of asking these questions is to incite some consideration on your part to steer your business toward going green. Specifically, you have the choice as the end-user of electricity to purchase sustainable energy. This can be accomplished in several ways with the most common means being the purchase of RECs, or Renewable Energy Certificates. As this is not a technical paper but rather an interest piece, you can choose to visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/documents/purchasing_guide_for_web.pdf to gain more knowledge about purchasing green power.
Let’s explore the tangible and intangible benefits of going green. The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) incentivizes building owners and users to procure green power with their ENERGY STAR program. Similarly, the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) awards from 1 to 6 points toward LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification depending on your project’s LEED category and percentage of Green-e certified power purchased. These programs as well as local, state and national energy efficiency subsidies are becoming more commonplace.
As I am visiting New York at the moment to meet with prospective clients and catch up with close friends, I look at the Empire State Building in wonder. It is literally the first thing I see when I step out the door and head west. But what is going on inside that iconic building? I recently read numerous press articles championing the Empire State Building’s ownership for their energy efficiency retrofit projects and most recently their decision to procure 100% of their energy requirements through wind power. For more insight, visit http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/green-power-for-the-empire-state-building/?pagemode=print.
It’s not just your hipsters that are electing to be environmental stewards, but rather weather-worn corporate executives who recognize the prudence of being green and are answering the calls of their stakeholders. Consider Intel Corporation for example. Their annual energy consumption measures approximately 2,850,000 MWh’s or 2,850,000,000 kWh’s. Of this amount, approximately 2,500,000 MWh’s are green power. At an estimated $1.50 per MWh (this is likely overstating the premium given the volume), Intel made the conscious decision to expend an additional $3.75M annually to subsidize the development of solar and wind farms. This Fortune 500 entity is not alone. If you reference http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/fortune500.htm you will find a host of notable companies that are leading the way to a greener, cleaner, more sustainable environment for future generations.
I will conclude this article by saying I was one of those naysayers who purported our great country has the energy resources to sustain ourselves for the next 200 years given existing technologies. Why the urgency to make the change and go out of my way to start living in a greener manner? To be perfectly honest, it was my mom’s eccentric and insistent displays of recycling that changed my views. Big changes, epic events start with the convictions of one individual that transforms into the ideologies of the masses. Greening our world seems like a good enough cause for me. After all, it has been a chief cause for my mom for some time and we all know moms know best. I will stop before going so far as to sensationalize and exploit the notion of global warming to promote sustainable choices, but I am clear in my message that taking steps to green our planet through conscious and sound decision making is a good choice, a wise choice. This is from a kid who watched Captain Planet when I was younger and forgot to grow up. That same young, imaginative fervor is prevalent in executive offices of our nation’s largest corporations. Educate yourself on living and promoting sustainability.
Written by Steven Edwards, Partner with Apex Green Energy. Apex Green Energy, LLC is a Texas-based energy management advisory firm with international scope representing small to mid-size business owners, commercial real estate owners/managers, manufacturers and general end-users of energy (both electricity and natural gas). We provide our clients with the tools and market insight required to reduce operating costs and navigate through the complex and often burdensome process of evaluating energy procurement choices and energy efficiency capital projects. Our proactive and objective approach to energy management is strengthened by our deep market knowledge and experience across multiple asset product types and energy product offerings.
Our ultimate objective is to offload energy management so you can focus on your firm’s core competency. In doing so, we always encourage our clients to evaluate sustainable procurement options and overall green business practices as environmental stewards of our generation.
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