The Inflation Reduction Act will have a major impact on the clean energy industry in the years to come. One of the greatest benefits is the ability for non-profit entities to afford clean energy and energy efficiency projects. Money is certainly an issue for most non-profits and upgrading systems to be more energy efficient or green is too expensive for many. Most existing incentives for buildings to move in this direction revolved around good tax breaks and depreciation of equipment. Since non-profits don’t pay taxes, this would not benefit them. Often, a non-profit would work with a “for-profit” company, who would invest in the upgrade, take advantage of the generous tax break, and then lease the equipment or output to the non-profit. This is a good deal, but the non-profit may not get the total monetary benefit as even magnanimous for-profits certainly may want to make some profit out of these ventures, besides the tax break.

The Inflation Reduction Act changes this by allowing the option for direct payment of the benefit rather than the Investment Tax Credit. Non-profits can now quickly receive their incentive for investing in upgraded energy equipment, solar panels, or batteries and not be shut out. Access for non-tax paying entities of the 30% ITC will significantly influence non-profits and low-income communities to move forward on projects that not only will benefit the planet, but save them expenses, as well.

ITC direct payment will allow non-profits, such as charities, affordable housing developers, community-based organizations, and state, local and tribal governments, to receive the benefits of the ITC as an upfront payment, rather than a tax credit. This will enable non-profits to take advantage as for-profits have already done for significant energy efficiency, solar, battery storage, and other resilient power systems, enabling such systems and their industries to grow in the US and in areas that have not had such projects before. In certain communities of need, the ITC credit may be as high as 50%.

Thus, this is a time to discuss potential projects with non-profits. Such big-ticket items have been out of their realm for so long, many may never have thought about a smart, beneficial energy efficiency, solar, or battery storage project. Spend some time to reacquaint them with the technology, show them it works (there is no or little risk), what the potential benefits and savings are for the entity, and the improved economics for the non-profit. It may take some doing to get used to, but the conditions have never been better for this neglected group of entities to benefit from smart energy projects.

CCES is not a tax or accounting firm, but has the technical experts to help a non-profit or any organization determine which energy upgrade projects are best for it and bring in experienced, vetted vendors and experts on incentives to make this work. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.

We’re all very good and well-trained at what we do. However, our output – our ability to show what we do and to please our employer or clients – is due in part to how we present ourselves. No, I’m not talking about dress here or about our presentation and writing skills (although they are important, too!). I am talking about organization of data and files. How we handle and organize data we are given in our computer can be the difference between performing a project well or not and also performing it timely or being wasteful. Showing well-organized data in a report will also not only head off questions and comments and enable finalization to go quicker and smoother, but also makes you look good to your clients and the agencies or the public you are presenting data and findings to.

OK, OK. I may not be the best person to “lecture” on data organization. I have had breakdowns myself or have clients or agencies ask questions that would have been avoided had I better organized my data. But I’m trying to get better and that’s all we can hope for: improve and get at least a little better in the future. Here are some tips.

Invest time to organize. Instead of “throwing” your data into a project or other folder, spend some time early on understanding and organizing it. It may take a few minutes, but it will save you much more than that in the future. I am often given several years of energy data listed on a monthly basis. Often, the source just sends me a spreadsheet from a different project and it has extraneous information. Take some time to copy and paste or otherwise edit the information so that you have only what you need in the format you prefer. I’ve taken the time to take data presented in a certain order and change the order because I know that will make things easier for me when I need it later on.

Create folders and sub-folders with different categories. Do this in order to save time searching for needed documents. For most of my projects, I have a sub-folder specifically for Administrative materials. I create and use sub-folders for raw data given to me, for calculations, for reports, for pictures, for background, etc. for a specific project or prospect, so that when I need something I can find it more efficiently.

Create specific file names for specific files. One thing that used to bedevil me is having multiple versions of documents, a.k.a., multiple drafts. It may be tough to find the exact document you need. And looking at the date a document was last edited could be dangerous because a recently-dated file might be one that was not changed but only looked at more recently than it was created. Thus, in the file name I create, I list the status. For example, I will end the file name of a first draft document with DRAFT 1, followed by DRAFT 2, etc. until I label it FINAL. And, yes, all caps. I may have a contract in different stages, so I list the final one as not just final, but also SIGNED. This has not only saved me a lot of time in finding the right document, but provides an assurance that I am actually reading or utilizing the correct one.

Archive old files on or off of your main computer. Many of us have files from old projects we really don’t use much. However, while it may be “old”, it may contain useful information or formats. Therefore, I keep active project files by specific client or project in my main file folder for easy access. But I also have a separate file called “Completed Projects” in which I put project files that are complete (complete, by the way, defined as not just the work being done, but final payment being received, as well). So with a couple of extra clicks, all those old, historical files can be accessed. If you really have a lot of files or files with a lot of data, videos, and model runs, it may be in your interest to remove old files totally from your main computer and put them on an external drive or flash drive, speeding up your search for current documents on your main computer.

I hope you found this helpful and good luck in making incremental progress in data and file management.

CCES has the experts to help you organize your energy and environmental data to serve you well, help you understand your historical energy usage or discharges, and plan better in the future. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or karell@CCESworld.com.

The environmental movement is certainly changing. Unlike some scientific fields established centuries ago, the environment is relatively “new”. Of course, environmental problems existed back in ancient times. But we really never thought it could be studied and harnessed until the last 60 years or so. So with that history and the amazing pace of new discoveries, it is understandable that our approach to environmental problems will change as we learn more. And included in that is the language.

The language of the environment can change very quickly. For example, Dr. Harold Des Voeux in the early 20^th century studied a condition but could not find a word in the literature to describe it. So he invented one, that we now use commonly: smog. He saw the colored and hazy air and saw thousands of people suffering from lung ailments, breathing in so many byproducts of coal combustion. So he made up a word: “smog”, combining smoke and fog. He did not ask for permission. He just made it up and published it. Now, its fully understood as an air pollution concept.

A new project called The Bureau of Linguistical Reality (bureauoflinguisticalreality.com) has a goal is create a new lexicon for recent changes on our planet, such as climate change and biodiversity. Working with scientists and the general public, the project leaders have developed new words they hope will be universally adopted so that scientists can better communicate with each other and with the public. In this effort, the latter, speaking to the general public is important, so that new terminology not come down from educated people but from those impacted by change, too.

One example is a new word that has been coined, nonnapaura, the conflicting fears and hope of being a grandparent amid climate change. This word came from a discussion between the project leaders and a woman concerning her anxieties about the Earth’s future for her children and grandchildren and the conflict between improvements she has seen in her life and climate change. They took the Italian words nonna (grandmother) and paura (fear) and combined them for nonnapaura.

Other examples in the project include the word pyrora to describe the air during wildfires, when the atmosphere looked different due to the particulate matter present. And there is mientierra, from the Spanish for lie and earth, meaning when the ground gives a false sense of security, but is not really that secure, such as retreating coastlines. And there is the word shellaqua,the act of covering a once-permeable surface with human-made materials, thus increasing the flood risk. This word is based on a “shellac” coating and “aqua”.

CCES may not be experts in linguistics, but we can help you understand Climate Change and environmental issues and provide technical advice to protect you from its impacts and reduce risk. Contact us at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.

Whether you or your colleagues “believe” in man-made Climate Change or not, everybody has to acknowledge we are experiencing more extreme weather events and changes in climate, impacting the operations, sales, infrastructure, and personnel of all entities: businesses, governments, non-profits, etc. These effects are severe and can knock a facility off-kilter for many months, if not be an existential issue.

Is this a real concern? It sure is. In 2020, the US experienced 22 separate billion-dollar disasters caused by severe weather or climate, resulting in 262 fatalities and $95 billion in financial losses. The severe winter storm in Texas in 2021 alone caused 210 fatalities and $129 billion in product losses. The trend is worsening. It can affect almost any entity. History shows how these intense events have become more common in recent years. Thus, it is important to consider these effects on operations and plan.

How can one assess risks due to extreme conditions to make business-wise decisions?

First, we need to define the risks. Simply put in terms of direct effects, these come in two categories. One is short-term from extreme weather developing quickly and locally: hurricanes, tornadoes, intense rain, winds. The other is longer-term, infrastructure-related, and climate-related: droughts, perpetual flooding. Which of these is your facility most vulnerable to? How might these affect your operations? Safety of personnel? Ability to grow crops? Ability to transport in raw materials and out product?

What you can do is develop a Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA), a study of your facilities and operations to identify, quantify, and provide solutions to lower the risk of a climate-related hazard from affecting operations. 

The first step in developing a CRVA is to assess the potential for risk. What are the hazards your facilities and operations are vulnerable to? Are any in areas with historic hurricane or floods before? Meteorologists, geologists, and hydrologists can estimate risk by determining, for example, 100-year flood risks, storm surges, hurricanes. Historic meteorological data exists to perform an initial analysis. Together with this, the CRVA would need to estimate the potential effect of, say, a 100-year flood on operations. What operations, equipment, or portion of the facility might become non-operational?

The next step in the CRVA is to assess a facility’s infrastructure to determine if it is still adequately protected from identified potential natural disasters. Mechanical and civil engineers can help in such an assessment. For example, is water management systems still appropriate for more severe rainfall or was the new, large rainfalls not planned for back then? Is key equipment located in areas that may be at risk due to an extreme event (a key generator, boilers, or operational equipment)?

The next step is to conduct a consequence analysis. If a flooding of X inches of rain in Y hours occurs, which buildings, equipment, and operations are likely to be vulnerable and how, quantitatively, could affect production, business, and lives?

The final part of a CRVA is to develop a list of steps that would minimize potential damage to a vulnerable area based on the consequence analysis. These might include larger water management systems to take water away from a building or moving key equipment to higher floors, monitors and/or better communication so staff is aware of sudden changes, etc. Planning is great, but an action plan is also needed to prioritize options and actually implement them to reduce long-term catastrophic risk.

This is all very logical and most engineers certainly understand the notion of risk and to invest ahead of time to reduce risk. However, many entities are run by people who either ignore risk or insist on a direct financial benefits analysis. What is the payback? How much will a project gain for the entity? For reducing climate risk, it is possible that there will never be an extreme incident at the location in question; the investment has no direct return. Although with the frequency of such catastrophic incidents growing, it is impossible to ever say there is no risk of loss; extreme loss avoidance planning is as important as immediate return. People who control purse strings and think short-term need to be educated on the importance and value of risk reduction for a firm’s long-term viability.

CCES has the experts to help your entity evaluate climate and severe weather risk and work with you to develop and implement smart strategies to reduce such risk for a reasonable cost. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.