The GLRPPR Blog

On October 3, 2007, U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson kicked off a 10-city, 20-day Energy Star Change-a-Light Bus Tour at Disneyland. EPA and the Department of Energy are sponsoring the tour to raise awareness of the benefits of energy efficient lighting choices. At each tour stop, an outdoor education center will be set up with interactive displays on the importance of our lighting choices, how to use and dispose of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) responsibly, and the connection between our personal energy use and our climate. According to EPA, Energy Star qualified light bulbs use 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, and last six to ten times longer. See the Change-a-Light Bus Tour web site for the dates and locations of all stops along the tour. Note that the tour stops in three cities in the Great Lakes region: Chicago on Oct. 12-13, Indianapolis on Oct. 14, and New York City on Oct. 23. The web site also includes a video message from Administrator Johnson, a photo gallery, a podcast interview with Wendy Reed, Campaign Manager for Energy Star, and a link to information on the Energy Star Change-a-Light, Change the World pledge site.

Thanks to Martin Bromley for responding to my post about sharing energy efficiency information in honor of Energy Awareness Month by submitting the following article. Martin notes that although the article refers to “business” energy waste, the concepts discussed apply to other organizations such as government offices, colleges, schools, etc. Please note that reference to Martin’s software, Energy Lens, is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an endorsement by GLRPPR or WMRC.–JS

Why Energy Monitoring is Critical to Reducing Business Energy Waste
By Martin Bromley

Monitoring energy consumption is vitally important for businesses that want to cut their costs and environmental impact by saving energy. This article gives an introduction to energy monitoring, and explains why it is so important for business energy management.

“Energy monitoring”, or “monitoring and targeting”, is the process of analyzing energy-consumption data to find signs of waste (opportunities to target), and to track changes in energy consumption as time goes on and as energy-saving measures are implemented.

Energy monitoring goes hand in hand with energy management: the process of controlling and conserving energy consumption within an organization. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” has become a real cliché in the energy-management industry, but it does hold a lot of truth: energy monitoring brings measurement into the process of energy management, and makes it hugely more effective as a result.

Monitor energy consumption to see if you are improving:

Energy monitoring enables you to see if your energy efficiency is improving as time goes on. A big part of energy management is implementing energy-saving measures, and energy monitoring enables you assess how well your energy-saving measures are working.

For example, you might decide to try changing the power-management settings on staff computers, to reduce their energy consumption when they aren’t in use. By analyzing your energy-consumption data, you should be able to tell whether or not such a measure has helped to save energy, and you should be able to get an indication of how much energy it has saved. This helps you to decide whether an energy-saving measure is worth pursuing further, or whether it’s time to focus your energy-management attention elsewhere.

Energy monitoring will also enable you to prove the energy savings that you’ve achieved — if your hard work has hammered down energy consumption at your business, you’ll want to be able to prove it!

Monitor energy consumption to find energy waste:

Energy monitoring can also be a very effective way to find out when and where your business is wasting energy. Traditional weekly or monthly meter readings are little use for this, but the detail contained within modern energy-consumption data such as 15-minute or half-hourly data makes it easy to identify specific days and times when the business is routinely using energy unnecessarily.

For most businesses, the quickest way to make big energy savings is to ensure that equipment is switched off when it isn’t needed. You might think that this is easy: just make sure that people switch things off. However, it’s rarely that straightforward. If a light is left on it’s usually clear to see, but the energy consumption of other types of equipment is often much less obvious. Also, unless your building is very small, it can take a long time to check all the equipment that should be switched off. Things are further complicated by people working on after you’ve gone home, and by equipment that’s controlled by timers (you need to keep checking that the timers are set and working correctly).

If you have good quality energy data (such as 15-minute or half-hourly data), analyzing it once a week or once a month will make it easy to see how much energy is being used throughout each working day, and when the building is closed. You can check whether staff and timers are switching things off without having to patrol the building day and night, and, with a little detective work, you can usually figure out who or what is causing the energy wastage that you will inevitably find. A good understanding of your energy-consumption patterns will also help you to make informed decisions about where best to focus your energy-management attention, enabling you to hone in on the biggest, easiest energy savings first.

Getting started with energy monitoring:

If you are not already monitoring your energy consumption, you are almost certainly wasting energy that is costing your business, and costing the planet.

The good news is that it’s easy to get started with energy monitoring: once a week (or once a month) spend a little time analyzing your energy-consumption data from the previous week (or month). Look for signs of waste and take steps to ensure that such waste doesn’t happen again.

Wise investments into energy monitoring should pay for themselves many times over with the energy savings you’ll achieve by making your business more energy efficient. So why not get started today?!

About the author, and further resources:

Martin Bromley is a keen advocate of energy monitoring, and one of the main people behind Energy Lens: a software package that makes it easy to turn energy-consumption data into energy monitoring charts and tables that are invaluable for energy management.

If you are interested in saving energy at your organization, please do visit the Energy Lens website at http://www.energylens.com/ for more information and a freely downloadable trial of the Energy Lens software.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Bromley; reprinted with author’s permission.

The State Education Department (SED) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have announced new guidelines to encourage the use of energy efficient design when building and renovating schools. These voluntary guidelines, known as the “Collaborative for High Performance Schools” (NY-CHPS), were created through a joint effort of SED and NYSERDA. NY-CHPS will help schools develop and maintain learning environments that contribute to improved academic achievement while reducing operating costs and protecting and conserving our natural resources. Read the full NYSERDA press release here.

The guidelines are available online to download in PDF format.

Note that NYSERDA, in cooperation with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), will be hosting a Green Schools Summit on October 15, 2007 at Farmingdale State University of New York. Visit the summit web site to register and view the agenda. Sessions will cover the NY-CHPS, as well as reducing exposures to toxic substances/green cleaning, working with LIPA to green your school, alternative fuels and emission reduction efforts for school buses, and teacher/student energy and environmental initiatives from NYSERDA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

October is Energy Awareness Month. See the U.S. Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program web site for details on this year’s energy awareness campaign and to download or order outreach materials and resources. The Energy Awareness Month FAQs are particularly helpful.

In honor of Energy Awareness Month, the GLRPPR Blog will focus on energy related resources, organizations and case studies this month. If you would like to share information on energy efficiency or renewable energy programs or success stories from your area with other GLRPPR members, send the information to Joy Scrogum for consideration. If we post your information, we’ll credit your contribution to the blog in the post.

In a previous post, I described the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program Save Energy Now initiative. On August 20th, DOE began accepting applications for the third round of free industrial energy assessments. According to the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) News, the program has already performed energy assessments at 253 industrial plants throughout the United States which have resulted in annual energy savings of nearly $63 million; currently planned projects are expected to yield another $263 million in annual energy savings. The assessments focus primarily on energy-intensive components and systems, such as fans, pumps, and systems for process heating, steam, and compressed air. Initial selections of industrial plants for energy assessments will be made starting in mid-September, and additional selections will be announced periodically until the target of 250 assessments is reached for the calendar year 2008. For more information and to apply for an assessment, visit the Save Energy Now web site.

In May, GLRPPR announced the new P2 Search tool, designed to search several different pollution prevention (P2) related web sites simultaneously. Now we’re pleased to report that the total number of sites currently included in this search engine is 45. GLRPPR Help Desk Librarian Laura Barnes has added the “GreenBiz” family of web sites (www.greenbiz.com, www.greenerbuildings.com, www.climatebiz.com and www.greenercomputing.com), as well as OSHA, CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to this customized Google search tool. The complete list of sites included in P2 Search is available at http://www.glrppr.org/search/p2_search_list.cfm. If you have suggestions for other web sites you think should be included in P2 Search, contact Laura Barnes.

We appreciate feedback on P2 Search. Our thanks go out to Harmony Madill of Environment Canada’s Canadian Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (CPPIC), who contacted us recently after trying out P2 Search and noticing that some documents available on CPPIC weren’t showing up in the search results, even though they were showing up in the results of a standard Google search. Laura Barnes did some investigating and discovered that P2 Search was looking at the index of the English version of the CPPIC site (it’s available in English and French, of course), rather than the more generic http://www.ec.gc.ca/cppic (sometimes you can be too specific). Laura remedied the situation by broadening P2 Search to include the entire Environment Canada domain. Nice catch, Harmony!

You can add P2 Search to your own web site or to your customized Google homepage (iGoogle) by following the links and instructions available in the lower right hand corner of the P2 Search homepage. Code is provided for adding the tool to your web site, so if you’re not technically savvy or not authorized to alter your organization’s web site, you’ll need to provide this to your webmaster. If you do this, tell us about it to help us get a feel for how many people are using this option. Happy searching!

There’s still a few days left to apply for a FREE Energy Savings Assessment (ESA) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Applications are being accepted until March 16, 2007 at 5 p.m. Eastern time. According to the online application information: “DOE will make initial selections of applications for ESAs in late November. Additional selections will be announced periodically until the target of 250 assessments is reached for the calendar year 2007.”

Through the Save Energy Now program, DOE’s Industrial Technologies Program is sending energy experts to energy-intensive manufacturing facilities to conduct free Energy Savings Assessments (ESAs). “The purpose of the assessments is to identify immediate opportunities to save energy and money, primarily by focusing on energy intensive systems including process heating, steam, pumps, fans and compressed air.” Check out the Save Energy Now fact sheet for more information.

Visit the Save Energy Now web site to read FAQs about the program, view results summaries from past ESAs, read case studies, find contact information for ESA energy experts, and access tip sheets, technical fact sheets, software and other best practice information.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has announced the availability of applications for the 2007 Community Pollution Prevention (P2) Grants Program. The goal of this program is to institute P2 practices and waste reductions at public parks, and offer visitors a unique opportunity to learn about P2 and environmentally sustainable practices while observing day-to-day operations at those parks. A total of $250,000 in grant funds are available and applications are due April 30, 2007. Examples of eligible activities include: development of a park-wide P2 program; recycling projects; implementation of education outreach programs to train park staff and visitors about P2; the disposal of solid and hazardous waste, pesticides, and fertilizers located on park property; replacement of hazardous cleaning products through the purchase of environmentally friendly products; the purchase and installation of water saving fixtures and landscaping; the purchase of energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling, and maintenance equipment; and green demolition and construction projects.

Be sure to check the GLRPPR Funding Opportunities page regularly for additional notices of grants available throughout the region. Relevant funding opportunities also appear in corresponding Sector/Subject Resources on the GLRPPR web site.

The Government of Canada has announced a plan to invest $300 million over four years to promote energy efficiency. The ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative includes three components: a retrofit program that offers information and support for the retrofit of homes, buildings and industrial processes; a program to encourage the construction of more energy efficient buildings and houses; and a program to accelerate energy-saving investments and exchange of best-practice information within the industrial sector. See the Natural Resources Canada Backgrounder for more information on this initiative.

This initiative is the latest in a series of measures set forth by the Canadian government to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and cleaner energy technologies. See the ecoENERGY web site for more information on all these energy-related initiatives, as well as the Natural Resources Canada Backgrounders on the ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative and the ecoENERGY Technology Initiative.

A cooperative effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and participating corporations (including 1,600 work sites that earned the Best Workplaces for Commuter designation), Best Workplaces for Commuters provides information for employers and employees looking for alternatives to a gas-guzzling commuter lifestyle.

The site includes facts and figures about the program and about commuting more generally, as well as benefits of a sustainable commuter program, resources for setting up a benefits program at your workplace, and summaries of successful programs.

For more information about the benefits of alternative commuter programs, see also:

• Bicycle Commuting Benefits
• Montana’s TAWSE Program (Try Another Way State Employees)
• Cutting Commute Driving: An Environmental Toolkit
• Commute Cost and Carbon Emissions Calculator (Stanford University Parking & Transportation Services)

If you have suggestions for additional resources, please login and post them in the comments.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs offer significant environmental benefits over incandescent bulbs because they are more energy efficient, which reduces their climate footprint. However, they do contain a small amount of mercury, which can be released into the environment if the bulb is broken upon disposal.

Vicki Fulbright addressed this topic in her presentation at the 2005 ENERGY STAR Lighing Partners Meeting, “The CFL Mercury Conundrum: Northwest Utilities Respond“. She discusses the conundrum, reasons to recycle, and profiles successful recycling programs from throughout the United States.

For more information on the topic, see also:

• Ask Umbra: On Mercury in Compact Fluorescent Lights
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps (Wikipedia)
  
• Fluorescent Lights and Mercury
  
• Proper Disposal of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

If you have other suggestions for other resources on this topic, just login and leave a note in the comments.

Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy program recently released a Plastics Energy Best Practice Guidebook. According to a Focus on Energy press release, the guidebook emphasizes not only the energy savings advantages, but the additional benefits, such as improved production, reduced waste and lower materials and water usage that result from improving plastics-specific manufacturing processes. The guidebook includes a discussion of energy use in the plastics industry, ways to compare a facility’s performance with other plastics processors, guidelines for energy management best practices and summaries for more than 20 technical best practices for plastics-specific production processes that have been reviewed by plastics industry leaders. To request a copy of the guidebook, contact Craig Schepp at 608-277-2948.