BrighterEnergy.org
A new permanent exhibition has opened at the Empire State Building in New York, showcasing the $20 million energy retrofit project in the city landmark.
The interactive, multimedia attraction aims to bring awareness to 3.8 million people that visit the iconic building every year regarding building efficiency and sustainable living practices.
Read more on BrighterEnergy.org. Submit your comments below.
What energy efficiency improvements can your organization showcase?
TradingMarkets.com
My name is Anthony E. Malkin, I am president of Malkin Holdings, and I run the Empire State Building. Seated behind me are Empire State Building Team leaders Paul Rode of Johnson Controls and Dana Schneider of Jones Lang LaSalle.
At ESB we created the first replicable, nonproprietary, open source, quantitative process to give transparent economic justification to energy efficiency retrofits in the existing built environment. Our work is guaranteed by the balance sheet of Johnson Controls to reduce our watt and BTU consumption by 38.4%. Our contract only guarantees 90% of our projected savings, so our actual savings will be in excess of 40%. Our payback period is three years.
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How do you think energy efficiency in existing buildings should be addressed?
Miller-McCune
Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, is an environmentalist — but he’s also a capitalist. If he’s going to spend $20 million on an energy retrofit of his famous skyscraper, he wants a guaranteed three-year payback and long-term savings.
So, Malkin and a team of experts from the Clinton Climate Initiative, a program of the New York-based William J. Clinton Foundation; Rocky Mountain Institute, a Boulder, Colo., “think-and-do tank”; Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate investment firm with headquarters in Chicago, and Johnson Controls Inc., a Milwaukee-based firm that serves the global building efficiency market, spent nine months quietly examining 67 ways to reduce energy use at the pre-World War II office tower.
Read more on Miller-McCune. Submit your comments below.
What incentives are needed to stimulate more energy efficiency retrofits of existing buildings?
CBS News
Here is my list of the top ten Green Giants, the companies most likely to produce, develop and promote the ideas and products that will have the widest ranging effects.
Johnson Controls is participating on the retrofit of the Empire State Building while its battery group received $299 million from the DOE to develop nickel cobalt batteries for hybrids. The joint venture Johnson Controls-Saft makes lithium ion batteries for Ford. The company also likes solar steam.
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How does your organization rank in the green economy?
New York Times
Assuming the money is eventually disbursed and the push to save energy continues, a handful of big efficiency-oriented companies, including Johnson Controls, could gain substantially.
A $20 million retrofit project at the Empire State Building that Johnson Controls is overseeing is projected to reap 38 percent efficiency savings annually by 2013, at an annual savings of $4.4 million.
Read more in the New York Times. Submit your comments below.
What should Washington do to speed distribution of stimulus dollars for energy efficiency improvements?
Sustainable Design Update
Even if every building built from this date forward consumed zero energy, the built environment would still produce enough greenhouse gasses to raise the carbon level to dangerous new heights.
What we need is a new dedication to retrofitting existing buildings with the latest in energy efficient technologies + a change in occupancy. Tenants need to feel comfortable wearing a sweater in winter and not wearing a suit and tie in summer.
Read more on Sustainable Design Update. Submit your comments below.
What are your ideas for greening buildings?
Green Building Elements
As part of a massive greening of the Empire State Building a new Heat Mirror® film technology by Southwall is being used to dramatically boost the energy-efficiency of the landmark building’s more than 6,500 hundred windows.
Johnson Controls is overseeing the full retrofit project with a team of energy efficiency experts including the Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute.
Read more in Green Building Elements. Submit your comments below.
How is your organization reusing and retrofitting to save energy and reduce costs?
By Don Young, International Facility Management Association (IFMA)
Taking part in a webcast this week, I couldn’t stop thinking about ice cream.
The webcast actually had nothing to do with my favorite dessert. It was about the third annual Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey that IFMA is happy to partner with Johnson Controls on every year.
Johnson Controls, of course, is headquartered in Wisconsin – America’s Dairyland – but that isn’t what put an image of ice cream into my head, either.
Here’s what did: Most of the time, I’m pretty good about choosing the no-sugar, no-fat ice cream when the urge strikes. I have to admit that sometimes, though, I give in and have a scoop of “fully-loaded.” I know I should stop doing this altogether. But I don’t. There’s a disconnect between what I know I should do and what I actually do. And that is exactly what the results of this year’s EEI survey show:
• 71% of business leaders are paying more attention to energy efficiency than they were a year ago (that’s up from 62% in 2007)
• 58% say energy management is extremely or very important (up from just 20% in 2007)
But here’s the kicker:
• 10% fewer business leaders expect to spend capital dollars on energy efficiency improvements
• 6% fewer expect to invest operating dollars into energy efficiency
Businesses know what they should do, but fewer are actually doing it. Why? The number one reason is capital budgets that are shrinking due to the economic slowdown. Number two is the relatively longer payback on energy efficiency investments. Uncertainty is yet another big reason – uncertainty over the direction of energy prices, financial incentives and government regulation of carbon emissions.
Still, in the midst of this uncertainty and economic turmoil, organizations are making significant investments in energy efficiency. Two of them took part in the webcast:
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory signed a $89 million energy savings performance contract with Johnson Controls to dramatically increase energy efficiency and use of renewable energy on its 500-acre, 400-facility campus in Tennessee. When completed, the improvements will reduce fossil fuel use by 85%, save 170 million gallons of water a year and supply 21% of the facility’s power needs with on-site renewable energy facilities.
The Empire State Building, one of the most recognized and admired skyscrapers in the world, recently contracted with Johnson Controls to perform $20 million in energy efficiency upgrades to the 102-story Manhattan icon that will cut energy usage by 38% and reduce the structure’s carbon footprint. The project will serve as a model for energy efficiency retrofit projects that have sensible payback periods and enhance the profitability of owners.
The question I had is this: how were these two organizations able to look beyond the barriers preventing others from investing in energy efficiency? Their own responses during the webcast spoke loud and clear on that subject.
“It’s just good business,” said Tim Clancy, Director of Operations at the Empire State Building. “The investment pays back in lower energy costs, and we end up with a more valuable building.”
“I agree that it’s good business,” added Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Deputy Director of Facilities and Operations Jimmy Stone. “It’s how we’re going to be a viable organization going forward.”
No disconnect there. Two facility management professionals who recognize the critical roles they play in helping their organizations control costs and operate sustainably. They and their organizations are proof positive that strategic capital investments in high-performance building technologies can and do lower energy consumption, maximize efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As the economy improves, credit markets ease and the regulatory picture becomes clearer, we’re certain to see more organizations like them lining up for their scoop of energy efficiency, with some renewables sprinkled on top.
