Climate Leaders: Best practices in energy efficiency and emissions management

The EPA Climate Leaders’ partners’ meeting never fails to be valuable. It’s impossible to bring together so many leading minds in energy and carbon management and not discover new ideas, tools, and opportunities.

The real power of the group is the partners: UPS, PSE&G, Kohl's, Boise, Staples, General Electric, Owens Corning -- the list is a who's who of industry giants. With numerous discussions regarding carbon accounting, project financing, goal setting and achievement, perpsectives on legislaton, internal and external stakeholders, reporting and rankings taking place simultaneously, you walk away with almost more information than you can handle.

Here are a few of the nuggets I picked up:

· Staples – uses a $7 instrument in 750 vehicles to cap speed at 60 miles an hour. It frustrates northeast drivers but saves $2.5 million in fuel costs. I wonder how much it saves on maintenance and accidents?

· UPS – uses Telematics to track vehicles and driver behaviors. The tracked information not only improves efficiency and safety but also reduces costs.

· Boise Paper – generates 64% of their electricity load using biomass – waste products from their own processes – and 40% of that via combined heat and power.

· McKinsey – still the reigning thought leader on the subject with various studies cited by the partners. Of particular interest, Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy.

I definitely noticed a heavier concentration on fleet and travel related initiatives, which makes sense. As I’ve seen with my own customers, as facility management techniques become more commonplace throughout the organization, the search for additional opportunities naturally moves from stationary sources and assets to mobile. For those new to it, a great place to start is the EPA Smartways partnership.

That’s not to say there weren’t a lot of discussions surrounding building efficiency. I’ve found through the years that the partner updates and panel discussions equate to a fundamentals of energy efficiency course; building efficiency 101. This year was no different. I’ve also found, and appreciate, that all of the discussions, ultimately, revolve around information management: i.e. data collection, consolidation, and sharing. As a provider of an energy and carbon information management system, this warms my heart. As they say, information is power.

It also wouldn’t be an EPA event without a good amount of policy discussion. I think the highlight of the sessions though was the last, a keynote address by Daniel Etsy, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy, Yale Law School. His commentary on the status of cap-and-trade was insightful. Without hesitation, I agree with Mr. Etsy that a carbon tax (or “harm charge”) is much better for business. Predictability is key when planning long-term. Let’s hope our legislators see what Mr. Etsy sees – or that he and others are telling them – 42 votes of 60 is too big of a gap to bridge. We need a change of approach.

As usual, the networking sessions were invaluable and it looks like my next series of partner-to-partner best practices webinars will be as interesting as the last. If you missed the October sessions of Best Practices in GHG Inventory Management -- with presentations by Dupont, CalPortland Company, Caterpillar, IBM, SC Johnson, and Johnson Controls -- click below to listen to or view the archived presentations:

October 16, 2009
· Listen to the webcast
· View the presentations:
   o DuPont
   o Johnson Controls

October 23, 2009
· Listen to the webcast
· View the presentations:
   o Caterpillar
   o IBM

October 30, 2009
· Listen to the webcast
· View the presentations:
   o CalPortland Company
   o SC Johnson

And make sure you sign up This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for the next round of webcasts to be held in mid- to late-February. 3M, Boeing, Fairchild Semiconductor and UPS have all expressed interest in presenting. Invitations will go out in January.

Once again, two and a half days well spent. The partnership has come a long way since the meeting in the woods of Connecticut in 2003. Kudos to the EPA for continuing to foster a collaborative environment that benefits the partners as a whole and individually.

Additional Resources:
How to Choose an Information Management System – presented at Climate Leaders, December 2007
Low Hanging Fruit and Beyond – presented at Climate Leaders, December 2009

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