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As any energy manager knows, it's one thing to find energy-saving projects that are worth doing, and quite another to get them implemented.
Over the last three years, EDF Climate Corps fellows have uncovered almost a billion kilowatt hours of potential energy savings, representing $439 million in net operating savings. But our biggest question has always been, "Will the companies move forward with those energy-saving investments after the fellows leave?"
Thankfully, the answer is yes: So far, companies report that they are implementing projects accounting for 86 percent of the savings identified by EDF Climate Corps fellows.
This year, as we looked back on three years of results, we noticed that many of the projects that were implemented first were lighting projects. For example, Hospital Corporation of America will roll out a lighting retrofit program across the organization, and eBay recently upgraded the lighting in a 60,000-square foot building on its San Jose campus. Other companies are employing devices to make sure the lights are on only when people need them: AT&T will install occupancy sensors in its 250 largest central offices, and SunGard is optimizing the lighting timers in its New York City office.
This is no surprise if you've ever looked at the ROI on lighting projects. The upfront costs tend to be relatively low -- zero in the case of delamping or switching timer settings -- so payback time is short. And lighting projects are pretty straightforward to identify. You can often spot ways to cut lighting costs just by walking through a building, and use a $50 light logger to document when the lights are on and don't need to be, as our fellow at AT&T did.
Beyond lighting, EDF Climate Corps companies are also implementing upgrades to HVAC systems, office equipment, and data centers. Eaton is moving forward with an air circulation improvement in a North Carolina plant that could yield an annual electricity reduction of 2.5 million kWh. eBay is currently installing power management software for all of its PCs. And Cisco has raised temperatures in some of its research labs, which could save the company about $1.8 million and 18 million kWh of electricity annually.
It's so much more than just
It's so much more than just the statement: "changing behavior," though. It's really about understanding occupant, O&M, and organizational needs, behaviors, and expectations. Otherwise there's no guarantee the building focused energy conserving measures will be successful (as occupants, O&M, and/or owners will circumvent them, misuse them, or take matters into their own hands in some other way if their needs aren't met and/or expectations aren't managed).
You have to spend time with the occupants, O&M, and owners - "out in the field" so to speak to understand who they are, what their backgrounds are, what their expectations are and why they have them, etc. That's how truly successful designs and ECMs are formulated, how successful education and training programs/policies are developed, and how buy-in is established by making all of the key stakeholders active members of the process. And you have to evaluate the solutions after the fact - to verify if they're working as intended, understand why they are or aren't working, and make adjustments as necessary.