City Pilot Program Helps Businesses Save Energy
By Bishop, Laura
BOULDER – The city government wants to help local businesses and property owners save energy.
In August, the city of Boulder launched Building Performance with Energy Star, a pilot program, to offer energy saving tips to the city’s commercial sector. Any Boulder business of small to medium size with more than 5,000 square feet is eligible for the program, as well as bank branches with more than 1,000 square feet.
Carolyn Weinreich, commercial energy and climate coordinator for Boulder, said 12 businesses have expressed interest in participating in the project. The city will recruit about 20 businesses through the end of the year. The program will end next March.
“We are hoping to get businesses lined up this year,” Weinreich said. “We want to work with companies to receive rebates from Xcel Energy for energy efficiency measures.”
Participating businesses submit a year’s worth of energy bills and schedule an on-site visit with an engineer who gives recommendations on ways to improve energy efficiency. Participants also learn the amount of time it will take for the project to pay for itself in utility cost savings.
In addition to energy, Weinreich said the city is partnering with the water conservation office to offer a water audit as well. In the past year, some businesses already participated in water audits through the water conservation office’s own pilot program.
Mark Stetz, senior project manager for Boulder-based Nexant Inc., a firm hired by the city to provide energy assessments, said participants receive a benchmark score that ranks the energy performance of the building they are trying to improve against similar buildings in the region.
The city’s contract with Nexant runs through March 2006. The contract has a limit of $96,000, and payment is based on the number and scope of audits.
Weinreich said Nexant was awarded the contract because it has experience operating Xcel Energy programs, and it has expertise in the energy savings.
Weinreich said so far about 25 buildings have been or will be audited.
Jim Bradford, project engineer at Nexant Inc., verifies the reading of an electric meter. The company assesses energy use at local businesses to determine ways to conserve and cut costs for the participants in the city’s Building Performance with Energy Star pilot program.
Stetz said he looks at how much energy is used per square foot per year.
“The first thing we do is screen their energy use,” he said. “If they are better than 75 percent of the buildings, they can earn their Energy Star label.”
On a walk-through, engineers look at lighting, boilers, heating and air conditioning systems. They may suggest upgrading controls that handle building operations, adding insulation, replacing or tinting windows and coating a roof, according to Stetz. The businesses will receive a range of suggestions for improvements, including items that will provide an immediate payback and others with results evident over the long term.
“We try to use the projects that are attractive with those that have a longer payback,” Stetz said. “Xcel offers incentives on things that save on electricity.”
With advances in lighting technology, a business using fluorescent lighting could see a 30 percent reduction in energy use, but maintain the same level of light, Stetz said.
After the audit from Nexant, the business is sent a set of recommendations in about two weeks.
“We translate energy use into dollars,” Stetz said. “That’s what makes sense to people. We present these studies as a return on investment.”
At the conclusion of the project, Weinreich said she hopes to have a number of buildings with a score of 75 or above apply for special recognition through the city and the Environmental Protection Agency. “It signals to tenants and potential investors that the building has relatively low operating costs and is using energy efficiently,” she said.
Not all buildings will achieve a 75 score. Weinreich said, however, lowering costs by 10 percent to 20 percent would be a success. “We want to help with other city goals, and that is to help businesses be profitable and stay in Boulder by lowering operating costs,” she said.
The Boulder Chamber of Commerce is participating in the project to reduce energy costs in its building. Dan Powers, community affairs manager for the chamber, said his organization is at the beginning of the process and doesn’t have a building score yet.
Powers said the chamber, at 2440 Pearl St., is in a 6,700-square- foot building that was built in 1980. The Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, Small Business Development Center and Boulder Economic Council share the building with the chamber.
“We were intrigued by the description of the program and the philosophy of trying to lead by example,” Powers said. “If we find that there are helpful suggestions on how we will be more efficient, we can describe our results to other businesses in Boulder.”
The energy audit service is free to participating businesses. Weinreich said the $100,00 budget for the program comes from an increase in the city’s trash tax and a $13,000 grant from the StEPP (Strategic Environmental Project Pipeline) Foundation, and a $20,000 contribution from the city’s water conservation office.
The city expects the increased trash tax to provide an additional $258,000 this year as well as in 2006. Of that increase, $67,000 will go to the Energy Star program.
“We are trying to give money back to the commercial sector through these programs,” she said. “The city has a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction goal. To meet the goal, we are trying to increase energy efficiency in the commercial sector. The commercial sector is the second largest contributor to the community’s greenhouse-gas emissions.”
Any Boulder business of small to medium size with more than 5,000 square feet is eligible for the program, as well as bank branches with more than 1,000 square feet.
BY LAURA BISHOP
Business Report Correspondent
Copyright The Boulder County Business Report Oct 14-Oct 27, 2005