THINK DIFFERENTLY!
Turning Conservation into a Financial Asset
Article By: Tim Cresswell, CEO of Thomas Cole Inc., Co-founder of Climate Change Leaders
The best way to describe the topic is to provide an example for context.
Building ventilation air loss has become the number ONE conservation measures for buildings.
Buildings that have formal ventilation systems all leak air, in fact the air loss can be 15-35% air loss. Translation, 10-15% of your energy bill can be attributed to ventilation air loss, a very large waste cost that has made ventilation air loss the number one energy conservation strategy to lower energy spend and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Lets assume a high school with a building footprint of 125,000 square feet and an annual energy spend of $200,000. By reducing ventilation air loss, the annual energy savings would total $30,000 per year with an 7–8-year simple payback. The accumulated energy saved profile would be:
In addition to energy savings there is a triple bottom line.
Financial:
1. By mitigating ventilation air loss, future ventilation system replacements can be Re-sized to reduce capital expense.
2. In the future as buildings transform to net zero, a smaller green plant will cost less capital since 20-35 of the greenhouse gas has been eliminated through ventilation air loss.
Sustainability
Contributing to Canadian Federal GHG goals – ventilation air loss will lower GHGs by 20-30%.
Building Environment
Occupant comfort – better air quality, comfort and system reliability.
Mitigating air loss is more than a conservation strategy, it’s a financial asset that impacts Profit, People and Planet.
