Energy Efficiency is the Ideal First Step in Going Green
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by keith in Environmental
When we hear about a company or organization “going green”, it’s easy to draw the impression that it will make itself environmentally friendly in one step. Sometimes, this is the case. But, just as often, going green amounts to a gradual process—a strategic approach of targeting the biggest problem areas first and then addressing smaller ones. One reason that organizations take this approach is to save investment capital; another reason is to let the cost savings that result from one green measure to accumulate toward another measure, particularly when the initial measure is energy efficient design.
One example this scenario can be found in Arizona’s Agua Fria Union High School District. Recently, two schools within the district—Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, AZ, and Verrado High School in Buckeye, AZ—contracted through the district with Tempe-based Clean Energy Constructors to implement a total 4,020 solar panels atop their facilities; a move preceded by the schools’ implementing energy efficient design on their interior. The result is a synergistic approach to energy efficiency that supplies free energy to technology that uses minimal energy, therefore resulting in a synergistic approach to utility savings as well.
In the recent past, non-commercial entities were largely kept from implementing energy efficient design due to its high cost and the unavailability of financing through energy efficiency providers. But today, many providers offer long-term, interest-free financing aimed at small businesses and organizations, allowing them to start the process of going green by focusing on the big changes first. When a commercial building becomes energy efficient, its annual utility costs regularly drop 50 or more percent, providing enough cost savings to easily pay off financed energy efficiency projects.
