Category Archives: Energy Management

The Pandemic’s Effects on the Energy Efficiency Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic is, of course, having a tremendous impact across the U.S. One hundred thousand or more will likely perish and tens of millions will have lost their jobs or had their businesses greatly weakened – including those in the energy sector.

1. Most companies are not thinking about energy right now. Of course, any company’s main concerns these days will be the health and safety of themselves and their employees, making sure technologies work so people can work from home, and maintaining their systems if they are allowed to function. Nobody is thinking about energy and upgrades and how to save usage and cost.

2. No or few site visits. Most companies and buildings that were seriously looking at energy upgrades are not going through with them. Many contractors are prohibited from or do not want to work in places where health is unsure. Many energy firms have had business losses “overnight” and have had to lay off staff.

3. Lack of capital. Potential customers for energy efficiency upgrades will be hard put to find the money to pay for potential projects – even if they understand the many benefits. The pandemic has put the U.S. in a recession, meaning there is less money available for projects and businesses looking to rebound will focus on projects with immediate paybacks or ways to re-attract their customer base. The many business failures probably will mean reduced revenue for many utilities and governments, meaning less money available for incentive programs. The good news is that the potential follow up to the CARES package is rumored to contain stimulus provisions for energy. Plus, several states want energy efficiency to be part of their recoveries, as well, as they understand that energy efficiency is one way to benefit businesses (help them reduce costs).

4. Losing motivation.  There is a concern that society will lose its motivation for energy management and sustainability as more data is published that the new recession and lockdown situation has caused traffic, power demand and green-house gas emissions to decline rapidly. Of course, a need for energy efficiency may return if people will return to our previous high consumption lifestyle.

5. Real estate changes.  We simply don’t know what the future of the workplace and its real estate will be, causing businesses to wait until that is worked out to design space more efficiently. People have gotten used to working from home and using video conferencing. When the lockdowns end, will businesses move to smaller spaces, encouraging staff to continue to work from home? Or might they wish to move into larger spaces to enable greater distances between employees as we continue to have social distancing at least until the virus is completely controlled? Until businesses decide on these trends (likely, many months or years), companies may be hesitant to invest in energy efficiency.

However, there are factors that favor a robust comeback of the energy efficiency sector.

1. Energy efficiency will be critical for businesses making a comeback. For most such businesses, it will be hard to bring back staff, make one’s product, get back customers, etc. Sales may lag for some time, even when lockdowns are lifted. Thus, it will be more important than ever for a company to lower costs, one of the greatest ones being energy. As long as energy projects are seen as financially beneficial with a short payback, it will be important for a business trying to come back to reduce regular costs, and energy efficiency meets this.

2. Prepare for the next “big thing”.  The pandemic hurt businesses so much and so quickly, certainly making people realize that one must prepare for circumstances that can potentially change rapidly. One way to prepare is to lower costs and operate more “lean and mean”. Being energy efficient is certainly an example to help businesses weather the next potential “storm”.

3. Climate Change may be the next “storm”.  While the pandemic was caused by a microscopic virus, perhaps the next big effect on people’s health and businesses is the opposite extreme. The changes to huge planetary systems, encompassed by Climate Change will surely cause large-scale death and business upheavals. Of course, the best way to deal with upheaval is to be efficient. Given Climate Change is so linked to energy, energy costs will likely rise significantly in the future, so controlling these costs by being energy efficient and using renewable technologies will likely be favored greatly.

For these reasons, it would appear that the energy efficiency business market will suffer in the short-term, but can undergo tremendous growth in the longer term.

CCES has the experts to help your company develop an energy plan and help you incorporate energy efficiency in your future growth plans to provide many competitive financial benefits. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.

Yes, It’s Time to Think About Energy & Sustainability

As I write this, we are in, perhaps, the most difficult period of our lives. We are mostly holed up at home and seeing how tens of thousands of fellow Americans have died (so far) from COVID-19 caused by exposure of the novel coronavirus and millions of people have lost their livelihoods or had their companies gravely damaged, as a result. It will be months, if not a year or two, before things get back to “normal”, if that is possible again.

But I maintain that this is the time to begin to think about your business’ energy profile and how to use it to your advantage when things move toward normal. The vast majority of businesses have been impacted by the pandemic. Those that survive when the worst of this passes will suffer great losses, possibly in the trillions of dollars in revenue. Certainly, there will be changes in the way business will be done.

What might those changes be? Many people are working from home now. Might it stay that way when people can commute to their offices again? What are the real estate implications of this? Many companies will need to reconfigure their offices. Some will learn from this and look to add more space with the same number of staff (office social distancing). Some will downsize their space as staff will continue to work from home.

Another given is that companies will need to make up for the shortfall of revenue of many months. Getting your product, sales, delivery, and other systems running again and reliable for your customers is important. And there will certainly be gimmicks and other inducements to get customers back.

However, part of the equation for being a viable business again is to cut expenses, and a great way to do this is through sustainability. What can you do to make your business more sustainable, your staff more healthy and productive, and cut back on energy and water usage and waste generation? As you await the end of the lockdown and prepare for your business to operate again, take some time to plan actions your business will implement to be more sustainable, have your staff more productive, and reduce those pesky expenses, by being more energy efficient.

Here is a true story that just happened. In February, I presented an industrial client a proposal to change their fluorescent lighting to LEDs. With utility incentives, the client would have to lay out $6,000, but would save about $70,000 in avoided energy costs in 5 years. What a deal! But they turned it down. They said they would go to the local hardware store, buy the LEDs, and install them themselves; after all, they were very handy. Well, March came with all of our issues with lockdowns and the client certainly did not have the time to go out and buy the LED tubes. The company, like so many others, is still operating, but has seen a significant drop in revenue. They realized they have to react to this by cutting expenses; they have asked for a new proposal for LEDs.

In your preparation to re-start or bring your company back to where it was, give some serious thought to energy conservation and sustainability to give your business a better footing to weather future situations.

CCES has the experts to help find ways to reduce your energy and water usage, saving potentially significant costs for you. We have saved others both cost and greenhouse gas emissions. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Small Buildings Reluctant To Do Energy Upgrades

Energy efficiency upgrades are often at the bottom of building owner or manager’s list of priorities, particularly for smaller buildings, defined as under 25,000 square feet, which comprises nearly 90% of US commercial building stock. According a 2015 report published by National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), entitled “Financing Small Commercial Building Energy Performance Upgrades: Challenges and Opportunities”, owners face several challenges in terms of financing such projects. NIBS recommends that government and other organizations make it easier to obtain credible financing.

Barriers to Energy Efficiency for Small Commercial Building Owners

According to the document, the main barriers are skepticism that energy retrofit projects will actually deliver the financial benefits calculated, financing, and technologies favoring larger buildings. Delivering benefits leads to three discussions.

Building owners, like most business people, crave certainty. While the engineer can explain the likelihood of the success of the retrofit, the owner – not knowledgeable about technology – is naturally skeptical about things they don’t personally know. Also, management usually does not have experienced staff who can review and oversee specific design and building performance vis-à-vis energy efficiency.

Second, management tends to focus first on urgent repairs and delay long-term upgrades. There are not many periods when there is not something crucial pending. Management culture, therefore, is more day-to-day rather than long-term. What then often happens is that management is forced to implement an upgrade because of failing equipment, putting the team under pressure, costing more money, and limiting options.

Third, building management tend to look at investments in the short-term if, for no other reason, their salaries/bonuses/promotions are based on short-term profit.

Another issue is financing which is potentially troublesome for many building owners who often borrow for other types of projects and may have checkered histories.

Finally, most strategies to improve commercial energy efficiency are more financially beneficial for larger buildings than small ones. Since there is a base price for a technology, building it larger or being more comprehensive does not add a lot to the cost, but could be more effective in reducing energy use. Smaller buildings do not get the potential benefit a larger building with more tenants and activities do.

Overcoming These Obstacles

One way to overcome the skepticism is to have the energy specialist come in with turnkey solutions. The company will develop the opportunity, bring in the proper vendors to design, build, and install the technology, and test it to ensure that minimum standards are met. One company that the building owner trusts oversees all aspects gives that owner more confidence that the implementation will be proper and goals obtained.

The NIBS report recommends that government, and, particularly, the federal government, link existing loan and other programs to assist small businesses. Existing Small Business Administration loan programs do not address energy or environmental upgrades. Working with the Dept of Energy, such programs focused on realistic energy savings and upgrades can be successful.

Property-assessed clean energy (PACE) and on-bill financing are options the report recommends. PACE loans are repaid through property tax assessments bills and are administered by government and considered higher-priority than mortgages. On-bill financing programs fund retrofits via utility bill savings over time.

Loans specific to upgraded equipment loans, managed energy service agreements, and real estate investment trusts (REITs) may also encourage more energy upgrade projects. In managed energy service agreements, customers pay an energy firm a set straight energy fee. The firm pays the utility what is actually used and makes money from the difference, which occurs by making the building more energy efficient. The firm takes the risk and the owner pays a set fee.

Understanding the building owner/manager’s culture and pressures will make it easier for energy professionals to propose energy upgrade projects which don’t just make technical and financial sense, but also makes the owner comfortable about success and minimizes risk.

CCES has the experts to evaluate any type of building and develop and project manage energy saving projects with a robust payback and to improve productivity at the same time. We can see projects from initial design and calculation to final. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.

Challenges Remain In Investing in Energy Storage

Everyone now understands that clean energy, such as solar and wind, has so many positives. Renewable power is now cheaper to build and operate than a conventional fossil fuel-fired plant. It is clearly cleaner for a community’s health and emits no greenhouse gases. The problem, of course, is the intermittent nature of the power. Solar produces a lot of power when the sun is out, but little or none during cloud cover or at night. Wind does great, but only when there is wind. But people, businesses, etc. need power consistently. And utilities need a reliable supply to deliver at all times. Storage of excess electricity is the solution to this problem; but storage on a utility-sized level is not simple. Energy storage is a rapidly growing sector, and prices are dropping.

A growing number of entities (businesses, cities, states) are committing to a high percent of electricity used from renewable sources. This article accounts for the many areas in the US pointing toward 100% clean energy. https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/100-Clean-Energy-Progress-Report-UCLA-2.pdf. Globally, one article predicts a 13-fold increase in new renewable power plants just between 2018 and 2024 (https://www.woodmac.com/our-expertise/focus/Power–Renewables/global-storage-q3-2019/?utm_source=gtmarticle&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=wmpr_globalstorq319). Therefore, energy storage must play a role to meet these goals.

Global investments will be needed to upgrade the grid with enough flexibility to account for the variable power generation profiles of renewable technologies, including electricity storage. As a new industry without an affordable, reliable solution, electricity storage does not motivate investors. Questions investors ask is how will an storage project generate income? While charging or while deploying electricity or both? Each plant likely has its own interconnection issues which may affect reliability and profitability.

Another consideration for investors is that electricity storage projects, for now, have a shorter lifespan (10 to 15 years) than that of renewable power itself. How do these technologies age during the lifespan? This can be worrisome to investors.

One more concern for electricity storage investment is reaction time and reliability. If a solar or wind farm suddenly fails to generate power for any reason, can the battery project deploy power into the grid immediately (in microseconds)? And to seamlessly shift back to store excess power again?

On the other hand, there is great motivation among utilities and governments to have reliable storage solutions in place to ensure uninterrupted power to consumers in case of a natural disaster (hurricane or other damage to the grid) and may ensure or guarantee the other risks to have such systems in place.

Therefore, energy storage as an investment opportunity for those with their eyes open.

Investment in electricity storage projects continues to grow, especially when paired with renewable technologies. This summer, a major large hybrid renewable project was announced, a 700 MW facility in Oklahoma, including 250 MWs of wind, 250 MWs of solar and 800 MWh of battery storage. More such hybrid plants or storage technologies added to existing solar/wind farms are being planned.

CCES can help you determine your electricity needs and whether renewable is in your interest and how so. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Community Solar: A New Win-Win Approach

More state and local governments and utilities are encouraging new solar plants to enhance flexibility of sources of electricity and to meet “green” goals. Building and maintaining a solar farm is now cheaper than that of a new fossil fuel-fired power plant, encouraging this even more. A problem that solar developers face – like any entrepreneur – is ensuring demand for the new plant. One approach is the many people who want to have solar panels but cannot have them on their homes because of shading or because they live in apartments without the space. Such people can invest in solar projects to get credit for creating solar power while the electricity generated from these plants go either to their community or certain spots, such as poor neighborhoods or nursing homes to help defray their costs. Such projects are called community solar.

For example, a community solar farm just began commercial operation in in Greene County, NY. The 3-MW solar project is under the category of “community” and, therefore, received funding and administrative support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

In this project, residential and small business electricity users near the proposed project were given the choice to invest in this project simply by switching their electricity to solar energy generated by the project. Such a switch even allowed them to receive State credits reducing their electricity bill. The commitment of a minimum number of utility customers to solar was what was needed to know that the output of the proposed plant would be accepted into the grid. In this case, having the community choosing solar even if each could not house their own solar panels was sufficient for allowing the electricity into the grid and to allow the investment and construction to start.

But this project did not end there. The project also called for the development of 2.5 acres of pollinator-friendly habitat to be planted around the site. In addition, the project included nearly $10,000 in funding to a local land trust to restore floodplain forest and enhance public access to a nearby nature preserve.

Solar projects used to be individual homes or buildings installing solar panels on their roofs or nearby yards. That’s fine. However, solar is and will go farther with this new emphasis on the community contributing together to support the construction of a new solar plant in or near the community and contributing to its electricity mix. And with solar farms now being cheaper than conventional power plants, this can even lead to a decrease in electricity rates for the community.

CCES has the experts to help you decide whether solar or any other potential renewable project is right for your building or company. We can bring in the experts to design the source for you and project manage it to ensure you get the maximum benefits and utility and government incentives. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@ccesworld.com.

Lighting and Improved Productivity

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been around for nearly 100 years. The primary advantage of using LED lights is energy savings. It has become popular in the last couple of decades because its cost of manufacturing has come down, the unit cost of energy has risen, and the technology itself has improved. LED output can now be controlled automatically to suit the users’ needs.

Now that a cost-savings baseline has been established, more recent research has focused on improving light quality to improve the health and productivity of workers.

Recent research has helped us understand how light influences human behavior. Human circadian rhythm can be affected by different visible wavelengths, particularly in the blue-green region. Light coming into one’s eyes and stimulating the nervous system is a major influencer of the circadian system, which starts in the brain and regulates physiological rhythms throughout the body, affecting hormone levels and the sleep-wake cycle.
Certain neural receptors in the retina when they capture light of wavelength of about 490 nm which best causes the brain to stimulate other parts of the body (alertness). Furthermore, light with lower amounts of this wavelength range signals the body to settle down and prepare to rest.

Light can influence other activities, too, such as being energized during the day and falling asleep at night. Several university research laboratories and lamp manufacturers are trying to incorporate this into LED light technology. While LEDs can emit a very natural white color, part of its spectrum could contain a larger amount of rays in the blue-green region (470 nm to 520 nm wavelength), which can influence human circadian rhythm and behavior.

Finally, research is showing that the ideal wavelengths to show effects on human behavior also depends on the age of the subject, due to changes in the eye’s shape and cornea with aging. In general, as one ages, the wavelength needed to influence human behavior goes up. However, even as one may adjust the wavelength, the influence on behavior declines as one ages; again, the effects of aging on the physiological and hormonal properties.

Therefore, imagine an office where the lights are programmed to emit white light at all wavelengths, but especially around the 490 nm mark, the high point for alertness for young people, but also higher wavelengths for older workers. And then changing the mix of wavelengths to higher ones to get people to settle down at the end of the work day. That time may come sooner than we expect.

CCES has the experts to help you evaluate your lighting to optimize the energy savings, be more green, and improve your workers’ productivity. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Start of 2020’s Notes on Clean Energy

Chicago is the nation’s leader in energy-efficient office buildings, according to the 2019 National Green building Adoption Index. Also in the top 5 were San Francisco, Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Los Angeles. The ranking was based on total space in office buildings having either the EPA ENERGY STAR label, USGBC LEED certification, or both. According to the report, in Chicago, 1,411 representing 71.1% of all office buildings, over 167 million sq. ft., are market-certified green.

Renewable electricity will surpass coal soon. The world’s consumption of coal is declining. Global investment in new coal-fired power plants has slowed sharply in recent years, as countries and investors finding that clean energy, such as solar panels and battery storage, are often a cheaper way to produce electricity and because of the major public health effects of the air pollution caused by coal combustion.

Renewable energy is expected to surpass coal as the world’s dominant source of electricity by 2030, growing to 42% of global generation. Natural gas, while emitting less greenhouse gases than coal, but still producing some, is also growing at the expense of coal. However, hundreds of existing coal plants will continue to do so to satisfy investors unless incentives can be implemented to retire these plants early. Carbon capture and sequestration technology remains unreliable. Watchdog agencies are not permitting CCS until it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that CO2 is removed for a long time. Wind is also growing, with expectations of nine-fold growth by 2040. Companies in the US, China, South Korea and Japan are planning major off-shore wind farms, joining several European nations who have already built such farms.

Electric car sales are growing. But so are SUVs. In 2019, consumers worldwide bought about 2 million electric cars, spurred by a combination of declining costs and generous vehicle incentives. Sales of electric cars are expected to continue to grow. As a result, global gasoline and diesel use for cars might peak by the mid-2020’s.

But despite this good news, sales of larger SUVs, which consume more gasoline than conventional cars, is expected to grow, too. In 2000, just 18% of passenger cars sold worldwide were SUVs. Last year, it was 42%, negating the gains in greenhouse gas emission reductions from the transportation sector from hybrid and electric car sales. Can a carmaker successfully manufacture and market an electric (battery-powered) version of an SUV?

Energy efficiency efforts are slowing. Energy intensity of the global economy (the amount of energy used to result in revenue), a measure of efficiency, made major gains in the first half of the last decade, but then slowed down. In 2018, the energy intensity improved by only 1.2%, a very slow rate. This may be due to many countries weakening their policies, such as US, which plans to roll back the standards that would have encouraged more efficient lights.

Another disappointment is the lack of inclusion of energy efficiency in building codes. According to one report, 2/3 of new buildings worldwide are being built without having to meet any type of energy efficiency codes and standards. Since a new building now will be functioning and, presumably, wasting some energy for the next 60 or more years, this is a concern.

Development in Africa is crucial. Africa is expected to grow economically and urbanize starting this decade. Will it do so powered by coal or another fossil fuel or will it do so primarily with renewable power, as sun and wind are plentiful in most of Africa? One report states that Africa has about 40% of the world’s potential for solar energy but is generating less than 1% of the world’s solar power.

CCES has the experts to help you plan your own energy plan to be more efficient, save costs, and have a demonstrably greener entity. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Start A Simple Energy Management Program–Part 1

Most companies have whole departments for sales, to control expenses, to manage employees, manage leases and other contracts. However, one area that many firms do not devote any time or resources to is energy. Many feel that energy is not controllable. We need lights and can’t function without them or need various motors and complex equipment, but we can’t do anything about their energy use. Some feel that energy is a small cost to them compared to salaries, rent, etc., so why spend resources on it.

Energy usage and costs are significant and are manageable. Perhaps business leaders feel otherwise because they never learned about it in business school. Nothing seen; therefore, not a factor. However, efforts to reduce energy usage, if done smartly, will usually lead to financial gains, paying back the cost and effort to implement the cost reduction strategy in a reasonable timeframe. Energy can be managed and minimized without impacting operations. While energy costs are lower than payroll and rent for most companies, that does not mean they should be ignored.

Perhaps you don’t have the labor, resources, or the will to develop a whole new group for energy, or even one person devoted to this. That is understandable. But there are simple things you can do to study and improve energy usage to gain these benefits.

The first thing to do is gather basic data. How much energy does your company use? What form (electricity, oil, gas, steam)? Is the use/need consistent or does it vary by time or season? Does it correspond to certain operations? Are their trends (energy use rising or falling)? Answers can lead to smart strategies to reduce energy use and costs.

How to gather such data? There is one item which your firm receives that is a treasure trove of information on your energy use – your energy bill. If your firm gets your monthly energy bill and just passes it on to Accounting to pay and that’s it, that is not good. You should begin to scan and save electronically your energy bills and invoices (such as oil deliveries) and set up spreadsheets with basic data from these bills. How many kilowatt-hours does each facility (meter) use monthly? Does it change over time and correlate to particular needs of your operations (i.e., greater production or sales? weather?)? By managing data, you can see trends and elicit control over your energy use.

One item that most overlook is your rate class. For example, I worked with a religious institution that for decades just paid its monthly energy bills without reviewing them. I saw right away that their rate class for electricity was of an industrial source, not the discounted rate of a religious institution. Nobody noticed this. Fortunately, the utility had a 6-year lookback program that paid the religious institute the overcharge with interest. Was this religious institution happy when it got a check for $84,000 from the utility! Sometimes buildings change functions, but nobody knows to change the rate class appropriately. Take a look at your utility bill and make sure you are charged properly.

Electricity, gas, etc. bills are typically divided into 2 parts, supply and delivery. By law, the utility can only deliver; it cannot supply the electricity or gas. Utilities, therefore, allow you, the user, to pick a supplier. If you do not pick one, then the utility will pick one for you; and – trust me – it will not necessarily be the cheapest! You can save significant energy costs at no cost to you by researching and selecting a lower-cost supplier.

The final simple item to look for is that most utilities not only charge you for electricity usage for the entire period (usually in kilowatt-hours), but also for your peak demand (kilowatts). What is the most electricity drawn for a short period (often 15 minutes) during the billing period? The utility had to provide you that amount of power through their lines during that short period and if it is high, then you will pay a high rate for this, even if usage is otherwise low. So, study your usage and peak demand charges. Do you have periods of very high electricity demand where several high energy-usage equipment is used at the same time? If there is any way to spread out your operations to lower the short-term peak demand? Can certain operations be done at night or early in the morning instead of in the middle of the day? You can save significant cost. For example, using your air conditioning systems more at night (when the peak demand charge is lower) and less during business hours or performing mechanical operations at night and less during the day will save you significant energy costs.

While these are simple tips that do not require great expertise, they can result in significant energy cost savings. Perhaps you can try this, have some success, show your upper management, and they can see that energy savings can be significant and manageable and worthy of a more sophisticated program. Good luck on this in 2020.

CCES has the experts to help your firm manage your energy use and reduce costs and provide greater flexibility for you in operations. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Talking Points: Climate Change

Part of a series with basic information to inform your colleagues.

Don’t let climate change deniers have an equal say. It took several decades of intensive research but scientists now have a good understanding of Earth’s climate system and the impact people have on it. This is not just a few outlier researchers but scientists in diverse fields of study collaborating and showing the many impacts of GHGs and how impacts build on each other. Tens of thousands of scientists around the world have done work that strongly meet scientific criteria. Research that is rigorous, thorough, uses evidence, transparent, overseen by institutions that value accuracy, and withstand public scrutiny. The climate change deniers who have looked for any weakness from this list (although they lack evidence themselves) are now quietly backing away.

This research has led to 3 incontrovertible facts:

1. people are causing our climate to change, particularly due to GHG emissions,

2. human-caused climate change is dangerous with potential dire consequences,

3. there are still viable options for reducing the consequences of climate change.

Climate change will affect both our personal and professional lives. Some places or industries will get hit harder or sooner than others, but there will be a ripple effect. It is unlikely anybody – even the richest and most secure people – will go unscathed. Yet we have options to manage and potentially reduce climate change impacts:
1. mitigate: implement GHG emission reductions (renewable power, efficiency),
2. adaptation: improve a society’s capability to cope with changes in climate,
3. intervention: in planetary or regional system to counteract some GHG impacts,
4. study and research: to better understand our climate and our impacts on it.

What can we do? No one person can change everything. But people can use their voice and their vote. They should demand that political leaders make climate change a very high priority and pass legislation to encourage green energy and discourage or outlaw dirty sources. Leaders can also pass legislation that introduces incentives for making good energy choices and additional costs for sticking with dirty ones. One can also remain involved with one’s own company to understand and speak up on how climate change will hurt the bottom line and how it can do its part by being more green.

You can encourage your company or local community to seriously consider implementing adaptation, implementing strategies avoid, withstand, and/or recover from climate change impacts, such as passing or adhering to land-use planning and building codes, response planning and disaster recovery; impact assessment for critical systems (e.g., water, energy health, etc.

But whatever you do in your personal and professional lives, realize that climate change is real and it’s not something that will happen in the future. There is plenty of incontrovertible evidence that unwelcome impacts are happening to many people now.

CCES can help your firm develop a climate change action plan and put your firm forward as an effective advocate. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

Tips To Be A Good Facility Manager (For the Sake of Your Engineer)

Speaking as an engineer and a contractor, my job is to use my expertise and experience to help my clients prosper within their specific building or corporate situation. I deal quite a bit with corporate and facility managers who often think very differently about a problem than I, as an engineer, would. I can’t tell a client, under very different pressures than me, how to act in his or her field, but I can and hope to give my opinions here on things for the manager to be aware of to make the exchange of ideas with the engineer or contractor more successful. The facility or corporate manager knows its facility or company and its challenges more than I can ever know. Despite the client communicating such issues, I must work within those limits. I recognize that what I, as an engineer, consider the “best” solution to a problem may not be feasible for the company, given the specific situation, facility, goals, and company.
It works the other way, too. Facility and corporate managers must recognize our capabilities and limitations and work within them for the project to proceed successfully for all involved. Here are some tips for the facility manager to understand to work better with an engineer and help the project succeed.

1. Trust Your Senses. You are a smart person. Trust the evidence you see that something may be wrong. It is tempting to see, hear, smell a problem in your building or operation and ignore it. It is tempting to say, “It’s too much work. Life is easier if I ignore.”; “I’m too busy”; “It’s somebody else’s job.”, etc. But that’s all the more reason to at least record the issue and get details. We engineers like and need details. I can’t tell you the number of times a client describes in the most general terms an odor, a leak, etc., but does not know the details of it, when or even exactly where it happened. I need such information, in many cases, to determine a cause and solution. Being told in general about a problem does not help. You don’t need to solve the problem; just collect details for the engineer to handle..

2. Know and Check Your Staff and Your Processes. You are probably a good communicator and know your staff well. Being around your equipment and processes on a daily basis, you probably know a lot about them. Don’t think that way. You only know what your staff tells you; other things may be going on. I once did an air emissions inventory for a chemical plant. I was given the formulas and steps used to make certain products. I walked on the floor to see the equipment in action. I spoke to some of the workers who set up the tanks, reactors, etc. I showed them the official formulas; they laughed. They had not followed those procedures in years, even though those were the official versions. The workers on their own made changes, in many cases, to save the company time, resources, etc., but had never informed the managers. Problematic. Worse still was the project I did on an air matter where some workers admitted they routinely took the barrels of spent material with low solvent content and dumped them in the next door wetlands. “But it was very diluted”, they said. I reported this to the manager, who was totally unaware, and he had to report this to the authorities. Be aware of what goes on. Bottom line: know your equipment and processes, not just by what the specs. say, but how it does in the field, too.

3. Listen to and Trust Your Consultant. I can’t tell you the number of times that I made a suggestion to a client and the person is not listening or assumes I have an ulterior motive. I can’t say every single consultant is straight forward, but the vast majority are. So it’s in your interest to listen to what he/she says and trust that he/she is looking after your best interests as understood. That doesn’t mean the engineer is right, but at least seriously listen to their suggestions and see the angle he/she presents.

4. Think About Different Perspectives. Every client has their own motives. We understand. Some truly are concerned with their company; some care only about getting the credit for a project well done; some like to wield power; some only care about saving money short-term. That is fine. Circumstances, corporate culture may dictate this. But at least, be open to different pictures that your engineer presents, such as “While this saves you cost now, it may lead to higher costs because …..” or “This project cannot proceed smoothly without the cooperation of _____ in _____ Dept.” Your engineer will likely offer you different perspectives and effects of options. Listen and consider them carefully. Yes, one may be more important, but you owe it to yourself to not dismiss other perspectives or side effects the engineer offers.

5. Challenge Your Engineers – with Facts. If a manager hires an engineer to do a project, there is nothing wrong with checking on and even criticizing his/her work, assumptions, sources, etc. Some engineers merely give a client (and an agency) numbers without any background. It is certainly your right to ask the engineer how the work was done. Similarly, it is OK to ask or criticize the assumptions made. What is important, however, is not to criticize for the sake of criticism, but with real curiosity and real facts. I had an emotional client once who often lashed out at me, critical of certain decisions I made on behalf of the client for work performed. When I sat down with him I showed him my assumptions and what my goals were in discussing the issue and the client understood, apologized and agreed. This is a productive exchange. However, being crass and angry and not giving your engineer a chance to respond is counterproductive.

CCES has the experts and experience to work with you to upgrade your processes for productivity and energy cost savings. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.