Hi, this is Jim Tompkins, CEO of Tompkins Associates and Tompkins International. Welcome to our third installment on our sustainability series, today specifically looking at facility and building sustainability.
Today my guest is Steve Simonson, a partner of Tompkins Associates who's been here for many years and has, in the last several years, really taken hold of this facility and building sustainability topic. Welcome Steve.
Steve:
Thanks Jim, it's great to be here.
Jim:
Steve, what are some examples of sustainability savings ideas that are being implemented in buildings and facilities today?
Steve:
In terms of building sustainability, a lot of people need to take a look right at the beginning and understand that one of the best things you can do from a sustainability standpoint is determine that your network is in the right place in the first place. Warehouses that are built away from the customers and really take a lot of transportation cost and dollars are burning up a lot of energy. What we like to look at first is a network analysis to make sure our clients are as close to their customers as they can be within the areas they need to serve.
That being said, once we get into a facility, there's a ton of different things that people are looking for. A lot of people go in and say they want a LEED building and that is great, but it does cost more money.
Over the long haul though, if you do implement a LEED building, you do get a lot of savings from energy that do come back. Outside of that, one of the biggest things that we see is definitely the lighting. Lighting takes up about 60 percent of a commercial property's electric bill. So people are always looking for ways to reduce that.
Some of the best ways to do that is, number one, in a warehouse, skylights. The more skylights you can have in there the better, and the more natural light you can get on the floor. Obviously when it's darker you're going to need light. Putting in fluorescent T-8s and T-12s is a big push in the industry right now. They are very energy efficient and can really cut your costs from that standpoint.
Use that, coupled with an energy management system in parts of warehouses and parts of low-traffic areas. There's sensors that turn off the lights, so you're not using the energy when it doesn't need to be there.
Another not necessarily newer technology, but on the manufacturing side, I was talking to a gentleman, and they installed tubular lights - basically a cannister, round-dome that forces light into a shiny, reflective material. If you put numerous ones of these in your facility on a partly sunny day, it can light the whole facility without any electricity at all - pretty basic technology.
There's other things like a green roof - you plant grass and trees on the roof. There's a little bit of a problem with that in a warehouse due to weight issues.
You can get into the weight issue with an intensive roof - you don't want to do that. But with an extensive roof you can do that. It's really good for the air, rainwater runoff - things like that. So those are things we do see.
Jim:
Steve, do you have more clients that are asking for specific requirements in their warehouses to make them more sustainable?
Steve:
Yes, Jim, in talking about the fluorescent lights, we work with all of our clients when we're building a new building, and we work with the architects in the LEED concepts, and again the fluorescent lights and battery-operated floor trucks are the most-asked for, typically.
I think from a Tompkins standpoint, in our business, one of the best things we get asked about, or don't get asked about and people are surprised, is the conveyer. It saves money by turning off the conveyer - as the package rolls over, the conveyer gets turned off.
These types of technologies allow you to really reduce your overall electric bill. One of these clients saved $30,000 a month in each one of the three buildings they had. That's a lot of dollars and goes a long way in justifying some of these systems.
From a material handling standpoint that is one of the biggest things we see. Battery-operated floor trucks are typically a standard in the lower weight category within a warehouse. Once you get a little heavier you have to go to the gas, but you do see a lot of battery-operated floor trucks, too.
Jim:
Do you see where clients are really saving a good deal of money from implementing these kinds of sustainability practices?
Steve:
In terms of saving money, a lot of the clients are saving a ton, especially on the fluorescent lights - it's easiest to install and maintain and with an energy management system, you can see a reduction in an electric bill, specifically lighting, of 30 percent. That's a very big win for a lot of clients, especially if they're heavy into running operations at night.
The MDR conveyer is a really big winner for clients who are using a line-shaft conveyer where it's running constantly. Big buildings can have electric bills of $100,000 a month. We're seeing reducing that up to 60 percent in some cases.
One of the lesser known things out there is about the government grants and incentives you can get for installing an energy efficient system. Especially when it comes to conveyers - if an MDR conveyer reduces your electricity use, the federal government will actually write a check for you in some cases.
You have to qualify for that, and there are people out there like American Energy who you had on one of your last podcasts - they can help you do things like that where they work with the government to help get you money back for installing some of these things.
And there's also state-level ones. I was doing a project in Wisconsin. Depending on the type of coolants you use in a freezer, you can get a rebate from the state for being energy efficient. There's a lot of success stories out there, obviously you want to run your business correctly, you want to be green, but not so green that it costs you too much to be able to do some of these things. But there are some sustainability projects that make good sense from a dollar standpoint and from an environmental standpoint.
Jim:
Thanks so much Steve for being with us today to talk about building and facility sustainability. On our next installment, we'll be looking at the recycling and re-use aspects of sustainability, and I look forward to having Greg Hazlett as our guest next time. All the best, and I look forward to speaking to you soon.
