It’s Time to Light the Fuse on this Rocket! January 26, 2009 Posted by: johnsoncontrols 05:54 PM By Joy Clarke-Holmes, Johnson Controls, Inc.
In his confirmation hearings, former U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) – President Obama’s pick for interior secretary – said one of his responsibilities will be helping the new administration craft the “energy moon shot we will take.”
Salazar’s reference to America’s successful initiative to put a man on the moon in the 1960’s– an initiative envisioned by another young and popular president – is, to say the least, very encouraging. A moon shot-type effort is precisely what’s needed to rebuild our economy, break our dependence on foreign oil and avoid catastrophic global climate change.
And we need to get it off the launch pad right now. The new administration and lawmakers must act immediately to adopt and implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009, currently before Congress. The act includes key provisions to put people back to work and put us on a fast track to a clean energy future. Among them:
$11 billion to modernize our electricity grid
$8 billion in loans for renewable energy projects
$6 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient
$6.9 billion to help state and local governments improve energy efficiency and lower carbon emissions
$2.5 billion to increase energy efficiency in public housing units
$1.5 billion for grants and loans to school districts, universities and other institutions for energy efficiency initiatives
$2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy R & D
$2 billion for loans and grants to support U.S. manufacturers developing advanced battery systems for next generation vehicles
These investments will transform our economy, our energy infrastructure and our workforce. And the sooner we start investing, the better. But where to spend all this money?
Recently, a senior economist at a respected university questioned whether there are enough “shovel ready” energy efficiency and renewable energy projects around the country to make an immediate impact. The answer is a resounding “yes!”
Businesses and organizations of every kind – federal agencies and facilities, state and local governments, local school districts, public and private colleges and universities, manufacturing, retail, industrial, you name it – are way beyond eager to get going on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. To list just a few projects we’ve recently completed here at Johnson Controls:
Installation of a solar PV system on a parking structure at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. The system generates more than 20,000 kilowatt hours of electricity every year, and avoids emission of more than 28,000 pounds of CO2.
In East Hartford, Connecticut, installation of energy efficiency measures in 18 school and municipal buildings. The measures will save taxpayers more than $500,000 annually, make them eligible to receive more than $700,000 in utility incentives, save the amount of energy needed to power more than 400 homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 677 cars from the roads or planting 943 trees.
Completed energy efficiency upgrades to key county government facilities in Peoria, Illinois that will generate more than $1 million in savings.
I could list many, many more, but the point is this: there are plenty of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that could begin immediately.
In fact, the U.S. Conference of Mayors just released a list of 18,750 “ready-to-go” jobs and infrastructure projects in 779 cities nationwide. 1,378 of these projects are related to “Energy Block Grants and Green Jobs” – from street light retrofits in Anchorage, Alaska to a wind turbine to power wastewater treatment in Marbleton, Wyoming. The projects can start early this year and be completed in 2010 if funding is provided.
Best of all, many energy efficiency and renewable energy projects can be financed through performance contracting – meaning they pay for themselves through the energy savings they produce. And every single one of them will help create and sustain jobs, have a positive impact on our economy, help increase our energy independence, lower greenhouse gas emissions and upgrade our nation’s critical public and private infrastructure: the schools where we teach our children and the buildings where we conduct the people’s business.
T minus today and counting! Efficiency now!
Performance Contracting: Green Building Guarantees We Can All Believe In January 19, 2009 Posted by: johnsoncontrols 04:49 AM By Steve Truebner, Johnson Controls
Who thinks global climate change is going to take a nap while world financial markets hibernate? What about the urgent need to reduce our dependence on unreliable foreign energy sources. Think that’s moving to the back burner as the global economy recovers?
Not hardly. Greening existing and new buildings through energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy remains an imperative despite the economic downturn. But for many organizations the challenge is how to fund these projects in the face of declining capital budgets.
Here’s an idea: our old and trusted friend performance contracting. For years, the ongoing need to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars has led government agencies and departments at all levels – federal, state and local – to use performance contracting to lower their energy bills and generate their own power without committing capital or exhausting their borrowing ability. Schools, universities, hospitals and companies in virtually every industry have done the same.
Let’s face it: there’s a lot to like about a funding mechanism that absolutely guarantees reductions in energy usage and then uses cost savings from those reductions to fund the energy efficiency and renewable energy measures implemented. Just ask the people of Lafayette, Colorado.
Johnson Controls just completed a $1.2 million project in Lafayette –a city of about 26,000 situated at the base of the Rockies just east of Boulder. The project entailed improvements to nine city facilities including a fire house, senior center and City Hall. Throughout the facilities lighting, HVAC equipment, computer monitors, weather stripping and building automation systems were upgraded. Solar electric and solar thermal systems were added to the recreation center. At the wastewater treatment plant we installed a system to burn waste methane gas to generate heat to help run the facility. Traffic lights around town were replaced with high-efficiency LED fixtures. All in all the improvements help the city avoid generating more than 959 tons of carbon dioxide every year. And that’s not the only “green” benefit.
This project was one of the first in Colorado to be funded through the energy performance contracting program administered by the Governor’s Energy Office. The facility improvements will save more than $100,000 in annual utility and maintenance costs – money that will pay back the cost of the improvements in ten years. And that’s not just a promise; it’s a guarantee. Periodically, we will measure the performance of the energy efficiency measures and report to the city on whether the objectives are being met or not. If they aren’t met, we’ll cut the people of Lafayette a check for the difference.
That’s the level of accountability you get with performance contracting – a level of accountability that the incoming Obama administration should seriously consider as it doles out billions in economic stimulus dollars.
Inheriting a deficit that has already ballooned to $1.2 trillion, the President-Elect said the other day that even after the economy begins to recover, “trillion dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come. But as I said yesterday,” Obama went on to say, “Our problem is not just a deficit of dollars. It’s a deficit of accountability.”
Obama promised that, “Part of our stimulus package is going to involve revamping all federal buildings so that they’re energy efficient.” And he’s appointed a Chief Performance Officer to work with the Cabinet and others to “discuss how they can run their agencies with greater efficiency, transparency and accountability.”
Luckily, that is exactly what performance contracting delivers – efficiency, transparency and accountability to guarantee that the dollars spent actually produce results. And best of all, there’s no waiting, because performance contracting is a tool any organization can use right now.
Green Buildings: More Than Just an Act of Faith January 12, 2009 Posted by: johnsoncontrols 04:58 AM by John Coleman, Johnson Controls
Remember the first time another grownup said something really nice about one of your kids? I mean, something really nice. Something like, “Your son is a joy to have in my class” or, “Your daughter is the kindest, most considerate person I know.”
It puts a lump in my throat just thinking about it. All along you’d been relying on your instincts, hoping you were raising them the right way. But you didn’t know, really know, know for sure until that moment came along. The moment when someone said to you, “You’ve been doing the right things.”
Funny as it may sound, that’s precisely the way I feel about the 2008 Green Building Impact Report, researched and written by Rob Watson and Elizabeth Balkan, and released at Greenbuild (with my employer, Johnson Controls, as a presenting sponsor).
Let’s be honest. This whole green building thing has been largely a “go with your gut” thing from the get-go. Up until now, we’ve all been pretty sure we were doing something good for the environment by adopting LEED standards, whether it was for new construction or existing buildings. After all, reducing environmental impacts of buildings is what LEED is all about. But did we know, really know, know for sure that we were making a difference? No we did not. Why? Because, as the report so aptly puts it, “No comprehensive evaluation of the overall impact of LEED has been conducted. Until now.”
For the first time, the Green Building Impact Report documents the broad spectrum of accomplishments LEED has helped us achieve in the last eight years:
Reduced energy usage by 25% on average – by 2020 this is projected to save the amount of energy that would be produced by burning more than 48 million tons of coal
Lowered CO2 emissions by 7 million tons to date – a number the authors estimate will grow to more than 700 million tons by 2020
Generated or purchased 1.63 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity – enough to power 150,000 homes. That number is expected to approach 59 billion kilowatt-hours by 2020
Avoided nearly 400 million vehicle miles traveled by occupants of LEED buildings – expected to reach more than 4 billion miles by 2020
Saved nearly 10 billion gallons of water in 2008 alone, – expected to exceed 245 billion gallons by 2020
Created a $10 billion plus green building materials industry – projected to surpass $100 billion by 2020
Realized annual productivity gains on the order of more than $170 million from improvements in indoor air quality – a figure that is expected to grow to nearly $2 billion per year by 2020
“Green buildings,” the report confirms, “Are an undisputed market success.” And indeed they are. But, just like our children, they’re also a work in progress. The report concludes that there is much more to be done, and done quickly.
The report quotes a study by the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development that says while the total square footage of building space is expected to increase 150% by 2050, CO2 emissions from all those buildings will have to drop to 20% of what they are today if we hope to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Obviously, this means many more buildings will have to be LEED certified, and every one of those buildings will have to be even more efficient – actually, a lot more efficient – than they are today.
One step in the right direction is the new headquarters for Integrated Design Associates, Inc., a San Jose, California company that provides electrical engineering and lighting design services to schools, medical facilities, offices and other clients.
The company bought a 60’s era windowless concrete building that had previously been a bank and – with Johnson Controls’ help – turned it into the first commercial office building in the U.S. designed to produce 100% of its own electricity, burn no fossil fuels and produce no net greenhouse gas emissions.
The IDeAs building:
Includes a geothermal heat pump system that uses the constant temperature just below the surface of the ground to help cool the structure in the summer and warm it in the winter
Generates as much electricity as the building consumes through solar photovoltaic panels
Takes advantage of available day-lighting through skylights, sensors that turn off some lights when sunlight is sufficient, and windows that darken when the sun strikes them directly
Uses high-efficiency lighting and occupancy sensors
Extends energy savings to computers and office equipment that automatically shut down when the building’s security system is armed
If you’d like to read more, check out this case study.
And, every time you get the chance, make a parent’s day. Say something nice about their kid.
Seeing it All Come Together January 05, 2009 Posted by: johnsoncontrols 03:36 PM
By James F. Dagley and Terry W. Hoffmann, Johnson Controls, Inc.
This is a great time of year to be a football fan. For a few short days around New Years, we get to see the best-of-the-best in college football compete in one bowl game after another. It’s thrilling to watch teams that are hitting on all cylinders – their players performing at the top of their games on offense, defense and special teams. It’s a rare combination that produces remarkable results, including – at least for one school – a national championship.
That’s exactly the situation we see developing in the facilities management game, only the players aren’t quarterbacks, linebackers or punt return specialists. They’re facility and IT managers – just like the ones at Ave Maria University.
Located in southwestern Florida near the city of Naples, Ave Maria represents the coming together of two visions – one to build the first major Catholic university in the U.S. in more than forty years, and the other to usher in a new era of land planning that protects the environment and agriculture while promoting economic prosperity. Ave Maria University and the community around it are being developed at the same time in an effort to create an environment where living and learning converge. It’s a model for rural development everywhere.
This spirit of convergence is especially evident at the school, where IT and facility operations have been merged into one. Nearly two dozen systems encompassing IT infrastructure, fire, security, HVAC and building control systems have been combined on a single platform operating on a single IP network. Converging these systems has been a boon for the University, saving the school $1.5 million in up-front construction costs and $950,000 annually in reduced utility and staffing costs.
Merging facility and IT management systems to this degree would have been impossible just a few short years ago. It’s possible now thanks to another convergence – this one in the industry as a whole: the coming together of the technology, standards and expertise to merge previously separate facilities management and IT systems on standard platforms, applications and infrastructures.
This perfect technology storm is unleashing opportunities for facility and IT managers to make quantum leaps in building and business performance – lowering their construction costs while increasing operating efficiencies and reducing energy usage. And in many cases, a Technology Contractor is the coach that makes it all possible.
Technology Contracting is a coordinated, enterprise-wide approach to managing the installation and integration of complex building systems. The Technology Contractor is the single point of responsibility, the person who brings to the table the right mix of expertise and perspective, and who calls the shots on choosing, installing and operating the building’s network and its systems. It’s not a new idea, but it’s one that’s catching on fast now that the return on investment has been documented.
If you’d like to learn more, check out the white paper we’ve written about this topic. It’s called The Perfect Technology Storm.
And while you’re watching your favorite schools play on the wide screen, think about how convergence is helping organizations such as Ave Maria University – a school that may never compete for a BCS Championship – win big for themselves, for their communities and for the environment by encouraging facility and IT manager to play together on the same team.
