Energy Efficiency Can Dance!
By Claire Roby
Carbon Accounting Coordinator,
Clean Air-Cool Planet
I recently had the privilege of presenting at the third Green Building Learning Institute of UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building. The three day workshop in San Antonio, Texas, brought together representatives from historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, and tribal colleges. It was all very idyllic—these different groups coming together to learn about green building—but the lessons transcended both interest group and economic sector.
In one of the early presentations, Southface, an Atlanta based sustainable buildings nonprofit, outlined the most common problems they have observed when an organization undertakes climate action planning. The second on their list, right after “selecting an improper scope and goal,” was “choosing sexy aspects over impactful projects.” In other words, while solar panels may look grand, there are plenty more cost effective projects that most organizations still have yet to undertake.
On the other hand, Karen Ellis, Director of Corporate and International Environmental Programs for FedEx, explained how her company has approached their large-scale solar installations, noting they are “difficult to put it in the normal [budget] model, with traditional expectations of return on investment,” She added that state “and federal incentives have been key, as well as power purchasing agreements.”
Illai Kenney, of Howard University and the Responsible Endowments Coalition, put it another way: “Energy efficiency isn’t sexy, it’s the plain girl standing by the wall—but she can DANCE!” Environmental Defense Fund’s summer Climate Corps program has shown just how well energy efficiency can dance. As EDF’s Jill Logeman explained in San Antonio, in 2009 EDF placed 26 MBA students in Fortune 1000 companies around the country. After just 3 days of training on energy efficiency principles for office buildings and data centers, these students spent 10 weeks identifying efficiency opportunities representing $54 million in operational cost savings over the project lifetimes, along with an annual reduction of 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Regular maintenance of HVAC systems, more efficient lighting, and insulated windows and attics can save energy and money everywhere—from large companies down to your own house.
Now that’s my kind of dance!
Tags: Carbon Management, Cimate Corps, clean air-cool planet, Climate action, climate change solutions, Energy Efficiency, False Solutions to Climate Change, FedEx, Green Building Learning Institute, Responsible Endowments Coalition, San Antonio, Southface, sustainability, Texas, UNCF
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
