As the warmer weather arrives, we all begin to think about taking time off and traveling. Traveling is a great way to relax and learn about the world. But it has its costs from an environmental point of view, between all the airplane travel (and jet fuel combusted), driving, and comfortable hotels, restaurants and other items causing more water and energy to be used and greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere. It would be a shame to work so hard to reduce environmental impacts to have them erased by high impacts during travel.

Thus, the ecotourism movement has grown. It emphasizes low-impact travel to and efforts in natural areas, focusing on conservation, natural processes, and education. By promoting responsible travel practices, ecotourism can help both preserve ecosystems and support local economies at the same time. Some key principles of ecotourism:

• Minimize impacts: Ecotourism aims to reduce the environmental footprint of travel through practices, such as using accommodation and transportation options that minimize impacts.
• Support conservation efforts: A good ecotourism program will result in the protection and preservation of natural areas by raising awareness and generating funds to maintain those areas.
• Respect local communities: Ecotourism encourages cultural exchange and education to understand and support local communities in their traditional cultures and livelihoods and by investing in local businesses.
• Provide educational experiences: Ecotourism offers opportunities for travelers to learn about nature, conservation, and local cultures, to better understand the interaction of all and to show a sense of responsibility. Such education can be spread to friends and family after the ecotourists return home.
• Promote sustainable development: By supporting local conservation initiatives, ecotourism can contribute to the furtherance of sustainable development and preservation of natural and cultural heritage.

As you decide how to spend your upcoming vacation time, take some time to consider the impacts of your travel options and consider minimizing your impacts and carbon footprint and how to further natural habitats.

CCES is not a travel agent, but we can help you assess whether your planned travel or other activities may be beneficial or harmful for the environment. Contact us with your technical needs today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.

We waited quite awhile for spring and I hope you are enjoying the nicer weather. During the inclement weather, you and staff probably tried to avoid going out and about your facility to do routine maintenance or address minor matters. Thus, nicer weather means it is convenient and there are the right conditions to get outside and ensure that environments are safe and equipment is up to standard, important for a well-run and energy efficient building for all. And spring means that the hot weather of summer is around the corner, so it is important to begin to prepare your air conditioners or other cooling equipment for the sharp demands of summer.

You know how your spouse may have a “Honey-Do” list for you to do at home? Well, here is a suggested list for commercial buildings:

• Clean air conditioning and heating units, replace air filters. This may well be a time of the year that you are neither heating nor cooling your building. Thus, this is the time to have all or most of your air conditioning and heating (split units, heat pumps, rooftop units) inspected. Open up the equipment. Carefully look and reach inside. Air filters can/should be replaced. Coils, tubes, and other portions should be inspected for dust, dirt, or grease, and cleaned. Despite filters, dirt can get in and stick to equipment, reducing its efficiency. Make sure electrical connections are in order.
• Have controls checked.  Review all thermostats and similar controls. Is the temperature stated on the thermostat the actual temperature in that area? Use an IR or similar monitor to determine air temperature of the area and compare. Being off by a degree or two happens. But if it is off by 3 or more degrees, have your HVAC firm re-calibrate the thermostat. It is certainly wasteful to you to have delivered to an area heat or cooling that is already at your desired temperature. Also, does the thermostat respond as it is supposed to? Does it turn on the fans and the heating or cooling source when the temperature in the room is one or a certain number of degrees above or below the setpoint? If there is a delayed response, the HVAC firm should check and adjust. If the heating or cooling source is activated, but the fan is not delivering to the area, that’s a major waste.
• Inspect and clean exhaust fans. This is not a fun job. Exhaust fans blow out air from bathrooms and kitchens. Odors, dirt, and oils can accumulate in the duct work. They need to be cleaned out periodically. If dirt accumulates in time, it can damage the fan or motor or reduce the space for air to flow, making it work harder and use more energy than it should.
• Investigate leaks in piping, tubes, or fittings.  The heating season should be about over. Your complex heating system has many pipes, vents, and fittings that transport steam or hot water. There are many opportunities and areas for leaking. Some may be very subtle. Look for water stains. And go through your entire system, not just where people are (near radiators), but throughout the boiler room and surrounding rooms. Small leaks add up. And check your condensate. You may think it is unimportant; it is water just returning to the boiler. But it is important and its heat reduces the amount of fuel the system will need to combust. Check for leaks throughout the year when they are visible, but especially as the heating season is winding down or just beginning.
• Check your insulation.  Insulation is a low-cost way to save energy. Your system has combusted a fuel to create steam or hot water. Why lose that heat through pipes you have paid for making by not insulating. It is natural that as pieces of insulation fray or fall off, it is not the highest priority to replace. But in time, as more pipe becomes bare, it adds up. Take the time as the heating system winds down to check the insulation and replace in kind and make sure you are not missing any spots.
• Check the little things.  Yes, this is not fun and probably has been put off for awhile, but take the time to review your
  • Building plans. Are they up to date? Have changes been incorporated and are easy to access (especially as tenants change)?
  • Emergency procedures. Do you know where your emergency equipment is? Is it full, operable, and ready to go? Does appropriate staff know what to do in an emergency? Take the time to make sure.
  • Equipment information. Is there easy access to specifications or operations manuals of key equipment (boiler, AC units, motors, controls etc.)? It is tempting to install new equipment and toss the manual in a file – somewhere. Find out where “they” are and have them more accessible (for example, make an electronic copy). And throw out the old ones. And procedures. Make sure they are up to date and understandable by all.
  • Training. This is a good time to review whether you have the right number and people trained to operate your specialized equipment and for various emergencies, whether it’s health and safety or operational. There is always some worker turnover. Are there enough people around who know what to do and how to handle equipment in different emergencies?

This good preparation in this “quiet” time of the year will make your life and work a lot easier.

CCES has the experts to help you organize your systems, perform retro-commissioning on your key equipment, and ensure that equipment is operating properly. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.

There has been a very robust movement in the last decade or two, recognizing the importance of worker health and productivity, to implement positive changes in the office environment. WELL and other standards have given guidance to architects and other professionals about features that can be built into buildings to attract businesses.

But the COVID pandemic changed things quickly. Many offices found in professional, commercial buildings became vacant and more workers began to work from home. Even with the health emergency waning, many workers have chosen not to return to their offices and are working from home permanently. Can features implemented in commercial offices be useful in the home office environment, too? Here are a few ways for home-grounded workers to maintain health and productivity. 

• Indoor air quality.  The vast majority of commercial office buildings must meet ventilation standards to ensure circulation of fresh air for workers. Such codes do not exist for residences. The best way to get fresh air in a home office is to open the window. In my home office, I try to open the window to let in fresh air at least once a day for at least a few minutes, even in the coldest or hottest days. This is important as workplace air quality correlates with how one feels and productivity.
• Comfort. Thermal comfort is also crucial, both being too hot or too cold. This is troublesome in a commercial office shared by many people with different needs, but can be more easily navigated in the home office.
• Lighting.  Lighting is another important factor for mood and productivity. Lighting that is too dim leads to potential errors. Lighting that is too bright can lead to eye strain. IESNA has published illumination standards for different types of work and tasks. Make sure you meet the minimum standards to better ensure good work and not to go too far over them for energy savings and reduced eye strain
• Looking outside. Workers near plants or with a view of nature from a window are more productive than those without a connection to nature. Some commercial offices do not allow plants or have limited window space. Setting up one’s own home office allows you the freedom to maximize exposure to nature.
• Noise. Probably the greatest factor affecting worker productivity is noise that causes distractions. Most commercial offices are built to attenuate outside noise (traffic, other people, etc.). But this is not true necessarily in residential home offices. Take some time to determine where there may be noise issues around your home (i.e., kids playing after school, trucks and construction) and plan for them. This is especially true if you lead Zoom meetings regularly.
• Your Own Amenities and Feel. Sometimes a commercial office does not have the “feel” or “vibe” you like; you have to give in to the group vision of your firm. But in your own home office, you can add the colors, the feel, and amenities that mean a lot to you, such as snacks (or no snacks) nearby, weights or other exercise equipment, artwork you like on the walls, background music, etc.

So invest some time, money, and effort, but make your home office a special place for your feelings and vibe to feel more comfortable, happy, and productive.

CCES has the experts to help you design your office or other spaces to be green and sustainable. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.  

OK. It’s May. You came into the year with budget and revenue goals. It’s no longer early in the year. What if you are falling behind? What can you do to make the numbers look better? Well, one approach is to study and implement smart energy efficiency projects. Smart, well-thought-out ones can have a ROI of 20, 30, 40, 50, even more % per year, better than so many others.

Energy conservation is a low hanging fruit for reducing operating costs, especially in this era of high inflation, led by energy costs. Think of energy efficiency as a financial investment. What is a sound investment? You spend money upfront for something that will save you costs or make you money for many years to come. You get a robust return on this investment with low risk. This perfectly describes smart energy efficiency projects. For a well-thought-out project, the risk (of failure) is low. You replace a 60-watt light with a 20-watt LED, you will save 40 watts of electricity; no doubt about it. You replace a cooling unit with an efficiency rating of 9 with one of 13.5, your efficiency goes up 50%; no doubt about it.

There is a particular value of smart energy projects. If you spend money upfront for the lights, cooling units, etc. and you save, in total, $100,000 per year in avoided energy costs, that’s good. But the changes made in year 0 continue year after year (it’s not like you’ll put back in the old light bulbs or AC units after that first year, right?). So you will save $100,000 the next year and the year after and the one after that without having to do anything more – for the entire life of the equipment. And then it gets better than that. Your $100,000 per year savings is based on a certain reduction in energy usage times its cost rate. Energy rates are, of course, only going upward, especially in this last year. Assuming an average of 3.5% per year rise in energy costs (about what it has been for the last decade, but lower than this past year), then the $100,000 you saved in year 1 automatically becomes $103,500 in year 2 – again, without doing anything. And it becomes $107,000 in savings in year 3 and $110,000 or so in year 4, etc. All from the one set of upgrades you made in year 0. Compare that to sales. Given an average profit of 10%, one would have to sell an additional $1 million of widgets to get your $100,000 per year of gain. Even if you were successful in doing this, then you have to go right back out there and do the same thing (sales, manufacturing, transport, etc.) again the next year and sell more in future years ($1,035,000 in sales in year 1, $1,070,000 in year 2, etc.) to equal the gains of smart energy efficiency.

And smart energy efficiency projects result in other palpable direct financial benefits. Such projects usually result in lower O&M efforts and costs. For example, an LED light lasts much longer than a standard fluorescent (8-10 years vs. 2), saving not only maintenance efforts of replacing lights, but allowing your staff to concentrate on bigger picture items and being distracted much less rarely, satisfying tenants. Fewer LEDs needed to be around as backup frees up space, too, and free space is valuable. Using less gas, oil, etc. on equipment because of energy efficiency means the equipment lasts longer, reducing your long-term high capital expenditures.

And one more thing. OK, for some energy efficiency projects a lot of money may need to be spent upfront for that very useful technology. Well, because of the low risk and relatively high returns of such projects, money can be borrowed for such projects at very competitive rates. Lenders know energy projects are low risk and the borrowers will get financial benefit (compared to other projects), so they’re willing to compete for such loans – to your benefit!

So you can see that smart energy efficiency is one of the best financial investments a business can make, and can make your bottom line numbers look better in this and future years.

CCES has the experts to assess opportunities at your facilities for energy efficiency, recommend ones with the greatest potential, and act as your project manager to bring in vetted, experienced vendors and specialists to bid and implement the project and ensure that you get the savings promised. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.