This is part of a continuing series of articles on simple, inexpensive energy saving tips to implement now that will produce real, measureable, quick energy savings, monetary gains, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. These are suggestions that will not “put out” your staff, but make you look like a hero.

Turn your roof into a “Cool Roof”

Cool roofs are roofs that reflect and absorb less of many kinds of solar radiation, such as visible, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths. Common roofs have a high thermal emittance, allowing the heat energy from this radiation to enter the building, causing an additional heating load for your air conditioning system. Besides the cost saving benefits of taxing your air conditioning system less, cool roofs also save money by extending the life of your roof. Summer temperatures on black roofs can reach 150°F. Cool roofs reduce this peak temperature by as much as 50°F, reducing the “heat island” effect on the roof which can cause premature damage to your roof and structures on it.

A University of Central Florida study showed a strip mall’s cool roof caused average electricity savings of about 25% (http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/FSEC-CR-964-97.pdf). In addition to this usage decrease, a significant decrease in peak demand during the summer months was measured, as well. More buildings are now required by their utility to pay extra charges for high instantaneous demand during the summer.

These benefits can be easily achieved by merely painting your black roof. It does not have to be white; silver or light blue are popular colors that have a positive effect. More manufacturers are producing light-color roofing materials these days.

Of course, by not allowing heat to enter a building cool roofs may cause your boiler to combust more fuel in the winter to heat occupants for comfort. Thus, overall cool roof cost savings will vary based on local climate. Several studies indicate that unless the building is located in an area of long, severe winters, most buildings will receive some overall economic benefit from installing a cool roof. According to the UCF study, the ROI was about 9 years. So, while you may not want to convert an otherwise good roof to a cool one now, if a roof needs replacement anyway, request cool roof materials.

Remember, installing a new cool roof is not the end. Like many other new technologies, proper maintenance is important or else energy savings of cool roofs will drop over time.

CCES has experience in performing site-specific energy audits and recommend proven strategies and technologies used by others to reduce your facility’s energy usage, saving you money with a good ROI and without inconveniencing your staff.

Over the next few months, I will devote at least one article per month on simple, inexpensive energy saving tips to implement now that will produce real, measureable, quick energy savings, monetary gains, & greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. These are suggestions that will not “put out” your staff, but make you look like a hero.

Turn your PCs off at night.

According to the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2009 report: (http://web51305.aiso.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1E_PC_Energy_Report_2009_US.pdf), about half of all PCs used in U.S. offices, about 108 million corporate PCs and monitors, are left on overnight and on weekends. To make this more understandable, this would cost an organization with 1,000 PCs left on overnight and weekends about $22,000 to $36,000 per year based on a typical range of electricity unit costs. Again, this is money being spent for electricity that is not doing the organization any good.

Since the 2009 report, some, but limited, progress has been made in turning PCs off when not in use, but with the growing number of units, PCs drawing power when not on are still a major waste of electricity. Changing culture is difficult, but a contributor to this problem is that many IT departments specifically instruct users to leave PCs on all night so that they can implement system upgrades overnight and not disturb anybody’s use.

The solution, like many things, may be new technology. New power management software can allow IT departments to remotely “wake up” computers that are powered off in the middle of the night to centrally upgrade or install programs, then put all computers back to sleep before employees arrive to turn on their equipment.

Dell Computers is reportedly saving $1.8 million per year in avoided costs implementing this software for its 50,000 computers with a healthy payback (6 to 12 months).

Bonus energy saving tip: Buy Energy Star-labeled PCs and monitors.

Work with your Purchasing Dept to buy only Energy Star-labeled PCs as you replace existing units. According to Energy Star (http://www.energystar.gov), a PC that meets the new Energy Star 5.0 criteria uses 30-65% less electricity than a standard model. So while such a PC may cost a little more, it is likely to enable you to make back the extra money invested in one to two years. Since the average PC lasts 4 years, that would be 2 to 3 years of savings, not to mention an effortless way to also reduce GHG emissions.

CCES has experience in performing a site-specific energy audit and provide specific suggestions to reduce your energy usage, saving you money and with a good ROI.

As an engineer, I hate to admit this. But for a long time, I used to think that achieving something, such as reducing your energy or water usage or increasing productivity, was the end all. You are doing good for your organization. Period. But this is not the whole battle. Documenting and presenting your achievements effectively to stakeholders is as important. If you succeed in meeting your goals, great; you will reap financial and clean energy benefits. But if you don’t document your triumphs and communicate it properly to your customers, employees, stockholders, etc., then you’ve missed the opportunity to show the program’s success and impact that will benefit both your organization and your own career. While we engineers like to achieve physical success, writing a sustainability report is essential, as well, although not necessarily one of our strengths.

If you are involved with a team writing a sustainability or CSR report, start by evaluating your audience. Who is likely to read it? What may those that actually read it look for? It is likely that people with different interests will read the report. People in Financial will be interested in the program’s monetary gains (how much money was saved); people in Environment or Sustainability will want to know GHG emission, waste and other metrics; people in Marketing will look to see how this can be used to further sell products or improve the company’s image. Therefore, make sure to include diverse bottom line facts in the report, so readers can glean satisfaction from it from their points of view.

As engineers and scientists, we take pride in data to prove our point, and data should be part of such a report to demonstrate indisputably what we say we achieved. However, it is important not to overwhelm the reader with data. A small number of summary charts or tables showing before and after are most effective. Bar graphs and pie charts are best to visualize a comparison. Make sure data is normalized to a business metric (GHG emissions / ton of product or / square foot of space) and can be benchmarked to compare to other facilities (including those of competitors).

Perhaps the most critical part of the sustainability report is the Executive Summary because, silly as it sounds, even people who this is important to are pressed for time and may not read the whole report. The Executive Summary must provide basic information and make an impression. So make sure not to write this hastily, throwing it together as the end of your reporting effort. Do not copy and paste from other sections. Make sure it is clear with key bottom line information for the different audience groups.

CCES experts can use these principles and others to help you organize your sustainability program and write and communicate its journey and successes to key stakeholders of your organizations. CCES has helped a number of firms successfully communicate sustainability goals and achievements in a cogent, impressive manner.

When it’s cold, of course you think about your boilers. But it’s easy to forget about your boilers and your heat needs that will crop up again before you know it. For many manufacturing facilities, heating and hot water account for one-third of a facility’s energy consumption. Easy, smart strategies you can implement now in the non–heating season can save you much costs in the future, which will help your bottom line. Here’s a list:

Strategy Potential Cost Savings Up To:

Upgrade/install insulation of boiler, pipes, valves 10%
Upgrade roof and exterior wall insulation 20%
Implement a regular boiler Testing and Maintenance Plan 20%
Clean steam traps 10%
Install additional zones to improve heating control 20%
Switch from No. 6/No. 4 fuel oils to No. 2 fuel oil or natural gas 20%
Install hot water reset control 10%
Install separate domestic hot water unit for boiler summer shutdown 20%
Install thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) to control hot water flow 10%
Install door sweeps on exterior doors 1%
Replace any single-pane windows with double-pane high R units 5%

Obviously, don’t take these potential savings listed literally. They are estimates of best case scenarios. Also, these are not additive; don’t think that by implementing them all, your fuel heating bill will go down to zero next year!. However, each of these strategies, if applicable to your needs, will lead to progress in reducing your heating load, improving your heating efficiency, and saving you significant heating fuel costs.

Two final notes about why you should study and implement strategies to reduce your heating bills now is that these strategies can be researched now in the non-heating season and, for the most part, implemented shortly in time for the next heating season and, at the same time, to interfere minimally with your operations. Finally, many states and utilities have incentive programs to pay part of the costs of implementing these strategies. Take advantage to improve your ROI.

CCES technical experts can help you assess your building or manufacturing facility’s heating system and recommend and help implement smart strategies now to save you operating expenses and reduce your fuel dependency.

First, note that this article is NOT meant to provide any legal advice. It does address the issue of certification responsibilities under LEED or any green building performance. While an owner may desire a new or existing building to meet LEED standards and hire an engineer or architect to prepare design documents to achieve this, the owner must understand that LEED certification is met on actual achievements. Thus, construction and implementation of features must successfully reflect the design parameters to meet the green standards. If a standard is not met, how may fault be assigned or breach of contract determined and how do design and construction firms protect themselves?

The two keys to addressing these potential problems are to have a strong team involved and clear contractual language terms. It is best for the engineer or architect to work with a Contractor they know, trust, and knowledgeable of LEED or whatever green building standards need to be achieved – a Contractor that through experience has shown will not “cut corners” and will follow through rigorously on all requested portions of the design documents. While engineers and architects are aware of standards like LEED and their education enables them to understand and appreciate its requirements, construction professionals are less in tune and may have less of an understanding of them. Short cuts – particularly under pressure (perhaps even from the owner) to cut back to meet budget – may result in failing a green building standard. Therefore, researching and developing a relationship with a Contractor that fully understands and will work to meet a green building standard (or at least communicate when there is potential for problems) and insisting that such a firm work on the project is critical.

In addition, contracts between parties are critical. They should be clear that the engineer, architect, and Contractor do not guarantee that the completed project will meet the desired certification. This is important not just because something may go unexpectedly wrong in the design or construction to fail a standard but also because certification is dependent upon third party approval which is something no party wishes to be beholden to. The contracts should include various green design or construction features and a strong professional effort to meet the goals, while not requiring success in certification. An alternative may be to include wording in contracts that do not tie the project to certification of any standard, but works toward the goal of a more sustainable building. Work with the proper legal professionals to ensure protection from liability of a project not meeting a desired standard while achieving improved building performance.

Once again, this article does not constitute legal advice and should not be construed to do so. Speak to a legal professional. CCES can help you with the technical aspects of designing better performing buildings for your benefit whether to meet a specific green building standard or save money and improve building values and reduce expenses.

There has been some discussion lately about large EHS consulting firms beginning to staff up in anticipation of a lot of “catch up” work as the recession ends. These firms advertise quite a bit that because they operate many offices located, in most cases, around the world, and offer a wide breadth of technical services they are the best firms to provide comprehensive, multi-sector EHS assistance to companies, municipalities.

However, in many instances, small consulting firms – even solo practitioners – can offer a competitive alternative to such huge firms. Because of the recession many highly experienced EHS and energy professionals laid off from their former large firms have founded their own consulting firms, and these small firms provide client companies with a viable alternative when procuring consulting services. Depending on the project, these small firms can provide services that are equal to or superior in quality for a lower cost than those provided by the large consulting firms.

I have seen it from both sides, having worked for two huge firms and now heading my own small EHS and energy consulting practice. Here are six advantages of using a small consulting firm:

1. Personalized service. At most small firms, the owner himself or herself serves the client, and work is conducted by the owner or a trusted senior staff member. Through this arrangement, the client speaks directly to “the boss” and does not have to go through channels as is required at a large consulting firm.

2. Expert service. With a small firm, the client gets the direct benefit of the owner’s or senior person’s many years of experience unlike at some large firms where projects are shuttled to junior staff. The small firm’s owner or experienced practitioner has direct involvement in the project from start to finish.

3. Passion. Most small firms are thrilled to have a client’s business, as even one good project can positively impact their workload. This differs from a very large firm where a given project is one of many. Small firms tend to take the time to build close personal relationships with their clients. While large firms care for their clients too, small firms are almost always quite appreciative of their clients’ business and give that extra effort to please (sometimes providing “extras” beyond the Scope of Work) because their level of service is a direct reflection of the owner and the firm.

4. Flexibility. Of course, a disadvantage of using a small firm is the limited depth of experience compared to a large firm. No one can know everything. However, there is a growing tendency among small companies to create teams to expand the breadth of their expertise. For example, I was recently involved in a teaming arrangement with 3 other small firms representing other sub-specialties that were needed to deliver detailed greenhouse gas reporting services. A Fortune 50 company compared the capabilities, personnel, and experience of our team to those of a huge consulting firm, and chose ours – based on merit! That large firm did not have expertise in all 4 areas that we had. The evaluation did not even consider that our cost was lower than the big firm’s.

5. Lower costs. Of course, small firms have lower overhead costs (e.g., reduced office expenses, few or no non-technical employees, such as HR and marketing) than large firms. Project labor costs also tend to be lower with a small firm because there is less duplication of services (a second or third person reviewing the work of junior staff at a large firm). Therefore, in most cases, smaller firms can perform the same work at a significantly lower cost.

6. Local know-how. Many small firms have an intimate knowledge of the regulations and even the unwritten procedures in the states where they practice. At many large firms, staff must perform projects in many locales and may lack experience in all jurisdictions. It is important to receive services from practitioners who have actual experience in your locale.

Companies seeking EHS, sustainability, and energy consulting services should consider both small and large firms in addressing their needs. While some situations may be better suited to a large firm, many can be solved just as well, if not better, by the right small firm.

CCES is a small EHS, energy, and sustainability consulting firm whose Principal has over 25 years of hands-on experience in all of the listed areas. Understanding specific client needs, CCES can team with the right professionals to provide quality services in all specific areas.