WEB EXCLUSIVE

With energy costs on the rise, businesses are striving to use less energy in their everyday operations. Savings on the energy bill go straight to the bottom line, so in today’s competitive market some of our nation’s largest and most successful companies are using renewable energy (RE) and energy-efficiency (EE) measures to stay ahead of the pack.

Some companies’ main function is to implement measures to improve the energy efficiency of other companies. Energy performance contracting (EPC) companies work to improve the efficiency of organizations such as businesses, schools, military bases, and even city governments. As payment, EPCs keep the utility bill savings that accrue from the upgrades. Helping the environment is a nice bonus for these companies, but profitability still drives their actions.

“Clearly, our main reason for implementing (EE) measures is economic benefit,” said Ron Blagus, Energy Marketing Director at Honeywell Building Solutions, one of the nation’s leading EPCs (honeywell.com). Honeywell allows companies to pursue environmental goals while saving money.

One of Honeywell’s contracts involved improving energy efficiency for the city of Perris, Calif. Honeywell began by implementing a handful of EE measures in the city’s facilities. These included lighting retrofits, high-efficiency heating and cooling units and programmable thermostats. Honeywell also installed photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays, designed by SPG Solar Inc. (spgsolar.com), at the Perris City Hall, fire house, senior center, library and corporate yard. Because the upgrades were done through a power purchase agreement (PPA), they did not increase Perris’ operating budget or raise the city’s taxes.

Honeywell is not only helping others become more energy efficient, they are improving the efficiency of their own operations as well. For instance, one Honeywell facility in Hopewell, Va., uses captured methane gas from a landfill to offset its natural gas usage, according to Blagus. “Doing what we advise others to do keeps our cost of operations in check,” he said.

Other companies help their customers become more efficient through the use of their products rather than services. Alcoa (alcoa.com) is a leading producer of aluminum. “Aluminum, because of its light weight and infinite recyclability, is part of the solution for becoming more energy efficient,” said Mike Belwood, Alcoa’s director of media and corporate relations. Some of Alcoa’s products include truck wheels, aerospace fasteners and fuselage skin.

According to Belwood, the production of aluminum has become much more efficient recently. “In 1900, it took 55 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy to make 1 kilogram of aluminum, and now at best practice it takes 13.5 kWh,” he said.

Because of these advancements, Alcoa needs less energy to produce its product. A portion of the energy they do use comes from renewable sources. Alcoa installed a 588-kilowatt roof-mounted PV array at their Kawneer manufacturing facility in Visalia, Calif., to help reduce their energy usage and electricity bill. Solar energy from the system is projected to provide 80 percent of the facility’s energy needs, said Belwood.

As members of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), Alcoa and Honeywell are also pressuring legislators to focus on the climate. USCAP is an alliance of businesses and environmental groups dedicated to influencing lawmakers to implement climate change legislation. (us-cap.org)

IBM (ibm.com) is another company that has made an impact in the efficiency of its own operations as well as those of its clients. Some of the most astonishing statistics for savings of both energy and money can be seen in the virtualization of information technology (IT). According to Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of Energy and Environment, IBM’s customers have reported total energy savings of up to 70 percent in their IT environment through data center consolidation.

IBM applied similar IT virtualization tactics at one of its own data centers in Lexington, Ky. According to Lechner, the facility was “at 85 percent of its total IT capacity and maxed out in terms of energy use and thermal footprint.” IBM avoided spending in excess of $100 million building a new data center by applying the same techniques they use with their clients, he said. These techniques included IT storage optimization, server consolidation and replacing outdated equipment. After the efficiency improvements, IBM Lexington has eight times the IT capacity it had before in the same physical envelope.

Of IBM’s nearly 400,000 employees, about 42 percent do not regularly go in to an office to work, according to Lechner. “By encouraging telecommuting, we have had significant savings in energy, a reduction in our carbon footprint, and we’re saving about $100 million a year,” he said.

Energy is expensive, and often harmful to the earth to produce. So whether it’s a small business cutting costs with energy-efficient lighting, or a Fortune 500 company producing a chunk of its energy with a huge solar installation, the bottom line is that energy efficiency and renewable energy are not only good for the environment, they are good for business.

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About the Author: Charlie Angelo is SOLAR TODAY’s editorial intern. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.