Are Utilities Ready for Smart Meters?
Posted by RP Siegel March 17th, 2010 
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The rollout of the highly touted Smart Grid ran into another buzz saw this week, this time in Texas, when hundreds of consumers showed up at a town hall meeting, and the Grand Prairie City Hall, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, complaining that their recently installed wireless Smart Meters were responsible for higher electric bills. That led state senator Troy Fraser to get involved, asking the Texas Public Utility Commission to halt installation of the meters and to initiate an investigation.
The meters were installed by the Texas utility Oncor Electric Delivery, which services roughly three million customers in the area. The company has installed nearly 800,000 of these meters and insists that they are highly accurate. They are now running a side by side verification study, where smart meters have been installed alongside the previously used mechanical meters and show little difference thus far.
That doesn’t placate folks like Tricia Lambert, one of the hundreds who have complained, claiming, “My bills average between 1,500 and 2,000 kilowatt-hours, and it goes up a little more in the summer,” she said. “That’s pretty much where I stayed. The first month with the smart meter was 4,383 kilowatt-hours.”
Dumpster Diving Day Saves Burt’s Bees $25K Annually
Posted by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway March 15th, 2010 View Comments
The old adage “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” sure rings true for a North Carolina-based earth friendly natural personal care products company. In 2008, employees from Burt’s Bees took part in Dumpster Day, an event held to educate employees about waste reduction.
Trash destined for the landfill was collected for two weeks and divided into three categories – items that should have been recycled but were not, things that should be recycled and garbage. With about five tons of stockpiled trash dumped onto the parking lot, employees donned Hazmat suits and dove in to find out what they could dig up.
Metrus Energy: Efficiency With No Up Front Costs?
Posted by Scott Cooney March 12th, 2010 View Comments
As the economy as a whole remains mired in a sleepy lull, there are sectors that are red hot. According to GreenBiz.com’s State of Green Business Report, several green industries are creating jobs, growing, and shrugging off worldwide economic slowdowns. Among these are green building and energy efficiency.
Metrus Energy, a San Francisco startup, has positioned itself as a leader in energy efficiency projects for corporate and industrial clients, a sector that has not quite hopped on the bandwagon of energy efficiency, despite what would seem like an economic and environmental win-win scenario. The problem, according to Metrus, is the high up-front costs associated with energy efficiency projects. In terms of energy efficiency retrofits, homes and municipal buildings have had the benefits of a relatively low up-front cost, immediate return on investment, and immediate increase in property value. Businesses, however, must look at quarterly earnings and decide whether a one-time charge for energy efficiency will please shareholders….or get the CEO canned.
Metrus’ approach, which has culminated in its first-ever Energy Services Agreement project on a large-scale energy efficiency retrofit with BAE Systems and Siemens, takes away the up-front cost barrier. The result? A savings of 1+ million kilowatt hours (kWh) annually for BAE Systems, and no up-front cost for the client. Zero. Take a moment to think of the potential here. When we talk about world-changing ideas, this would have to be right up there among them.
Study Shows Bright Green Future for Smart Appliances
Posted by RP Siegel March 10th, 2010 View Comments
A new report from research and consulting firm Zpryme describes the growing field of smart appliances as a tremendous market opportunity. It estimates that the global household smart appliance market will grow from $3.06 billion to $15.12 billion over the next five years. In 2015, the global market size for smart washers and smart refrigerators will reach $3.54 billion and $2.69 billion, respectively.
Surfing on the tsunami-sized wave of government investment that is subsidizing the development of the Smart Grid, both here and abroad–and particularly in China–a few forward-looking appliance makers are positioning themselves ahead of what some say will be a flood of smart appliances.
What exactly are smart appliances? After all, ever since the first microprocessors came out, home appliances have been getting smarter, providing more and more convenience and efficiency. But these new smart appliances are different: their enhanced value lies in the way that they are inextricably bound to the Smart Grid. According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), the designation smart appliance refers to a modernization of the electricity usage control system of a home appliance so that it monitors, protects and automatically adjusts its operation to the needs of its owner.
Abt Electronics: Best Practices Aligning Value with Values
Posted by Bill Roth March 10th, 2010 View Comments
“No one will ever be mad at you for going green,” says Mike Abt, one of the four brothers who operate Abt Electronics, recognized as one of the nation’s largest consumer electronics merchant. “In the old days they might have thought of me as a hippie.” Mike’s quote captures the very essence of how going green has moved from outside the mainstream and into the income statement.
Make no mistake, Abt Electronics is all about being price competitive in the cut-throat world of electronics retailing. Visit the website and you’ll see how aggressively they promote price. Yet, as merchants highly attuned to their customers they are also pioneering how to grow green revenues.
In Seattle, Property Owners Competing to be Biggest Loser in “Kilowatt Crackdown”
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor March 8th, 2010 View Comments
In Seattle, a nearly 100-year-old real estate trade association is using an age-old approach to encouraging energy conservation. It’s fostering competition.
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Seattle and King County is conducting its second annual Kilowatt Crackdown, a contest that encourages real estate developers across the Puget Sound region to reduce the amount of energy their properties consume. The building with the biggest drop in energy consumption wins.
BOMA’s president Rodney Kauffman told The Seattle Times that in the contest’s inaugural year, the 53 buildings that competed saved “enough energy to power 1,000 homes for one year” (the Kilowatt Crackdown site breaks that down a bit more, explaining that the savings is equal to the electric consumption of 1,000 homes in the Northwest, which has very low electric rates, but it’s still a significant amount of conservation).
Empire State Building Reaches New Heights in Energy Efficiency
Posted by RP Siegel March 4th, 2010 View Comments
On February 25, 2010 the Sustainable Building Industry Council’s (SBIC) 2009
Beyond Green High Performance Building Award was given to the Empire State Building (ESB) Integrated Energy Efficiency Retrofit team, consisting of: Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Jones Lang LaSalle, Clinton Climate Initiative and Johnson Controls. These awards distinguish initiatives that shape and catalyze the high-performance building market, as well as the real-world application of high-performance design and construction practices. The winners were competing in a field of over forty applicants judged by a panel of distinguished architects. On hand for the presentation were Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-IL), co-chairs of the High Performance Buildings Congressional Caucus.
The ESB team took pains to go beyond the typical 15-20% energy retrofit reductions, to showcase what they believe represents a new generation of building energy retrofit technology, strategy and philosophy. Rigorous cost/performance analysis models were developed and refined which enabled the team to identify the most cost-effective energy reduction strategies. Among the initiatives selected were:
- Refurbished windows by using thin film and pumping in inert gas.
- Reducing lighting with daylighting, occupancy sensing & high efficiency bulbs.
- Placing radiative barriers behind radiators to reduce losses.
- A chiller plant retrofit
- Variable Air Volume air handling units
- Direct Digital controls that optimize heating and cooling operation
The resulting package is estimated to achieve a 38% reduction in energy consumption, which translates into $4.4 million annual cost savings with 105,000 metric tons of CO2 avoided over the fifteen year monitoring period.
My Missed Obama-tunity
Posted by 3p Guest Author March 3rd, 2010 View Comments
Clothes hung outside the original Fellwood development April 15, 1949
By: Martin Melaver
I’m a sucker for dreams-go-sideways stories. You know the type: You work hard against all odds, you pull off amazing feats as an underdog, you’re on the brink of phenomenal success, and then something pulls the rug out from under you at the last minute. Still, despite the lack of external glory, there’s that intense internal satisfaction of having mastered a discipline and having realized one’s purpose in life. Or am I kidding myself?
How To Cut Costs Through Energy Efficiency
Posted by Gina-Marie Cheeseman February 26th, 2010 View Comments
Is it possible to cut cost without cutting meaning? Robert Verganti of the Harvard Business Review thinks it is possible. Verganti, the author of the book, Design-Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating what Things Mean, pointed out that people care about price, but they also “do not want to feel poor.” Verganti added, “So the challenge for companies is to cut costs without cutting meaning.”
Companies can cut costs by implementing energy saving measures. A report released last summer by McKinsey found that the U.S. could save $1.2 trillion through 2020 by investing $520 billion by making improvements such as replacing inefficient appliances with new, energy-saving ones. The industrial sector accounts for 40 percent of end-use efficiency and the commercial sector for 25 percent.
The website, Business.gov proclaims, “Good energy management is good business.” The website lists “simple, low-risk, high-return” energy efficiency improvements businesses can make in the following categories: lighting, water heating, refrigeration, equipment, heating and cooling systems (HVAC), and buildings. Some of the improvements businesses can make include:
Recycling Is the Winning Ticket at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center
Posted by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway February 25th, 2010 View Comments
The Dunkin’ Donuts Center, located in Providence, Rhode Island, is taking a different approach when it comes to recycling. According to a recent company press release, two TOMRA UNO reverse vending machines (RVMs) have been installed in the food court at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The 31,000 square-foot facility serves as the premier events arena in the area, hosting sporting events, concerts and a variety of shows.
The machines, each about the size of a standard beverage vending machine, not only provide a clean and simple way to dispose of glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers, they provide an extra incentive to recycle. Using high-tech, patented bottle recognition technology, each machine can sort, collect and store. Each machine is capable of handling up to 20 containers per minute and can hold up to 500 beverage containers. And both user-friendly machines, provided by Coca-Cola, display positive messages, like “give it back” and “live positively.”
Are Big Box Stores Advancing or Detracting Sustainability Efforts? Yes.
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor February 24th, 2010 View Comments
Since TriplePundit.com launched in 2005, Walmart and other big box stores have gone through quite a metamorphosis in the eyes of many pundits of triple-bottom-line business. In fact, 2005 was the same year that Walmart launched the first of a growing list of initiatives aimed at simultaneously reducing its environmental impact and its operating expenses.
But the decision to do things such as boost the fuel efficiency of its trucking fleet and to aggressively reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste from its stores, wasn’t all driven by efforts to lower operating expenses and portray itself as a jolly green giant. Walmart was, and still is, working off the high environmental—not to mention societal—cost of its low prices. And while it’s taking many meaningful steps forward, in terms of sustainability, how can it erase the impact of millions of metric tons that the 100 million weekly Walmart shoppers emit as they drive to and fro the massive stores?
Crate & Barrel Warehouse Robots Cut Carbon Footprint of Retail
Posted by Kathryn Siranosian February 18th, 2010 View Comments
Can robots from MA-based Kiva Systems turn warehouses green?
Crate and Barrel thinks so.
So far, most companies have installed Kiva warehouse automation systems because they want to improve efficiencies and cut costs.
But, Crate and Barrel is betting that there’s even greater potential. The company recently purchased a Kiva system for its Tracy, Calif. Distribution Complex (DC), and it’s especially keen to see how these innovative robots can help drive carbon footprint reductions.
Tesco Opens World’s First Zero Carbon Supermarket, Pledges $156 M to UK Green Economy
Posted by Kathryn Siranosian February 9th, 2010 View Comments
Last week, Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, opened the world’s first zero carbon supermarket.
The store has no net carbon footprint and exports any extra electricity generated back to the national grid.
Located in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, this new supermarket boasts several eco-friendly features, including:
- A combined heat and power plant which runs on bio fuels from renewable sources
- Timber framing derived from sustainable sources rather than steel (which significantly reduced the carbon footprint of construction)
- Interior lighting that dims as the natural daylight increases, and skylights that allow daylight on to the sales floor
- LED lights in the parking lot and gas station (This is the UK’s first LED-lit parking lot.)
- Rainwater collection facilities on the roof which provide water for use in the car wash and to flush store toilets
- Refrigerant gases in the fridges, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that have virtually no environmental impact
- Solar-powered street lights and crossing signals
- Additional energy-efficient equipment, such as low energy bakery ovens
Finally, a Use for Those TPS Reports: Toilet Paper
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor February 4th, 2010 View Comments
Call it Cradle-to-Crapper. An enterprising Japanese firm called Oriental has developed a machine that will divert the waste paper in your office and convert it into toilet paper. Right there, on the spot. Feed about 40 sheets of paper into one end of the machine and in about 30 minutes, a roll of toilet paper emerges from the other end.
Sure, the carbon footprints linked to toilet paper purchases might not account for entire chapters of corporate social responsibility reports. But this contraption–which Oriental has inexplicably named the White Goat–is perhaps symbolic of the diffusion of sustainable thinking into the most remote corners of workplace design. Or, depending on how much water and electricity the White Goat eats each day, it could be symbolic of sustainable thinking gone wrong.
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