The question is not whether businesses save money by saving energy, it’s how much? In Las Vegas, Harrah’s Hotel and Casino now saves at least $70,000 a year at no cost. How? The hotel simply asked its guests if they wanted their sheets washed each day. The majority said no. As a result, Harrah’s reduced energy and water costs.
The concept of saving energy has helped to fuel the dramatic success of businessman Richard P. Eannarino, Sr., who owns the Smithfield-based New England Sun Control.
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Eannarino’s company has grown by more than 25 percent in each of the past two years, thanks largely to the fact that businesses are becoming conscious of the cost savings related to energy-efficient offices. Such savings range from longer lasting carpeting and drapes to more productive workers, inspired by the comfort of their surroundings.
Among his products are sun control and energy savings window films. Companies are buying the films for a variety of reasons, Eannarino said. Money is usually at the root of them.
Some companies want to save on costly electricity bills by reducing emissions, or protecting expensive carpeting and fabrics from damaging ultra-violet rays. Other companies are battling heat imbalance and looking to maintain a comfort level for employees to keep them happy – and productive.
“If you are sitting in front of a hot window all day, you are not comfortable,” Eannarino said. “You’re always getting up, walking around. It equates to productivity. And ultra-violet rays aren’t good for anybody these days.”
The company’s products – which include 3M Scotchtint Plus and 3M Scotchshield Ultra Safety and Security Window Film – are selling at a pace that produced a 31 percent jump in revenues last year, Eannarino said.
Eannarino counts Textron, BankBoston and CVS among his major clients, as well as small clients in office buildings all over New England. The majority of them, he said, buy his products for comfort. The energy savings, Eannarino said, give management a reason to make the investment.
The move to establish the “eco-office” is by no means confined to New England. In the Midwest, it represents the driving force behind the Environmental Law and Policy Center’s Environmental Market Project.
The Chicago-based ELPC is a public interest environmental advocacy organization that employs public interest lawyers, financial analysts, and public policy advocates. ELPC was founded in 1993 and its headquarters – a new “eco-office” – are located in a building originally designed by one of Chicago’s first environmental activists, Wallace G. Clark.
ELPC moved into the building less than two years ago. In keeping with the group’s mission, the move was an environmentally sensitive one – to say the least.
“Everything had to be environmentally acceptable and economically justified,” said Deborah Anderson Andraca, ELPC’s director of public affairs.
Andraca said the group’s approach was one that could be mirrored by other organizations – large or small.
“We took a more holistic view at the space we were looking into,” Andraca said. “We looked at what we could save, and by doing so we prevented a lot of waste from going into landfills. And we saved money.”
At the ELPC office the lights are installed with occupancy sensors. The carpeting is recycled.
“It was about half the cost of commercial office carpeting,” she said.
TAMPING IT DOWN, Ron Heifner uses a squeegee – like tool to fasten Scotchtint window film in executive dining room at Textron.
In fact, all of the office equipment is “Energy Star” compliant, an Environmental Protection Agency designation that means it consumes less energy and produces less pollution.
Eannarino said he sees a lot of that these days. More companies than ever before, he said, are looking for the “Energy Star” designation, whether it be for computer screens or other appliances.
The EPA predicts that by next year, “Energy Star” computers may save as much as 25 billion kilowatt/hours of power, or about the annual amount of energy used by Vermont and New Hampshire combined.
Other EPA statistics are even more telling for the business community, including;
It is estimated that medical care for major illnesses resulting from indoor air pollution costs more than $1 billion annually. Lost productivity from those illnesses cost between $4.7 and $5.4 billion. Further, lost productivity and increased sick leave time as a result of indoor-air-quality-related illnesses carried an annual price tag as high as $60 billion.
The agency ranks indoor air pollution as the fourth largest of 31 environmental concerns.
A total switch to energy-efficient lighting would keep 202 million tons of carbon dioxide, 1.3 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 600,000 tons of nitrogen oxides out of the atmosphere. Some experts suggest such a switch would reduce the U.S. yearly energy bill by at least $30 billion.
The drain on energy resources can be staggering. Each year, U.S. businesses use 12.5 percent of all domestic electricity, and the energy used to operate their buildings costs about $70 billion, according to the Sustainable Development International Corporation.
The SDIC emerged from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, founded in 1992. The SDIC – through its web site, smartoffice.com – produces its “Hidden Costs of Business.” The findings in the most recent SDIC report include;
Compared with other industrialized nations, U.S. companies use twice as much energy to produce one dollar’s worth of goods.
If U.S. companies’ electrical consumption were cut in half by using available energy-efficient technologies, the amount of carbon dioxide kept out of the air would equal the removal of six million cars from the U.S.
A study of companies and pollution prevention showed that companies that had been environmentally proactive had a 4 percent higher rate of return on investment, a 9 percent higher sales growth, and a nearly 17 percent higher operating-income growth.
Because compact fluorescent bulbs last much longer than do incandescent bulbs, their use averts the need for 10 to 13 times their weight in metal, glass, and packaging from entering landfills.
According to the SDIC, companies – some of them, among the largest in the country – are finding that “smart offices” save money. In fact, there is no shortage of success stories, according to the SDIC, including;
The EPA helped Boeing cut its lighting energy use up to 90 percent. The lighting changes saw a two-year payback, a 53 percent return on investment, minimized glare, and helped employees to work more productively.
Comstock, an international stock photography company, recently built a 10-story building was designed and constructed within 18 months, cost $500,000 less than was budgeted for, and operates at half the cost of one of the company’s other, less-efficient buildings.
Kraft General Foods avoided closing down plants and laying off workers simply through efficiency. Through an energy retrofit, not only was Kraft able to keep a plant open, but the energy saved was enough to power 1,000 houses.
Lockheed-Martin built a $50-million engineering design and development facility that resulted in a $300,000 to $400,000 savings on energy bills every year. In addition, employee productivity went up 15 percent, and absenteeism dropped by 15 percent.
