An energy-efficient workplace is a motherhood issue: everyone is for it, but few people do anything about it. Experts say, however, that the economic, as well as environmental, benefits of conserving energy in the office are tremendous.

“People often see energy efficiency as just a ‘green’ issue. They think, ‘If only these damn tree-huggers would get out of the way, we could get on with it’,” says Scott Rouse, managing director, Energy @ Work, a Toronto-based consulting firm. “The truth is: if a company addresses its energy consumption, it can reap a 25% or higher return on its investment. It’s the greatest secret around right now.”

Energy savings come from looking at all aspects of an office building’s use of energy, examining how everything works together and then devising a plan to retrofit equipment and intelligently use energy with no reduction in performance or comfort, experts say.

“You can’t just focus on one element of the energy picture,” Rouse says. “The danger there is you will move your energy usage to some other element in the building. You have to look at the whole energy picture.”

Major areas to consider are lighting, heating and cooling systems, and office equipment. And the payback of these energy retrofits may be realized in two to five years.

“The dollar value of energy savings is what grabs attention,” says Mario Iusi, president and CEO of Ameresco Canada Inc. The Toronto-based energy-services firm helps companies identify energy reduction opportunities, implement them and put savings into building upgrades.

There is also a social responsibility dividend as companies work toward becoming good corporate citizens. Environmentalists agree that conservation, even ahead of alternative power sources, is key to long-term environmental health.

“Conservation really is the fastest and cheapest way to deal with and be responsible for energy,” says Julia Langer, director, global threats program, at Toronto-based World Wildlife Fund Canada. “We can’t run an energy-inefficient economy on windmills. You couldn’t build enough of them. We have to get our demand side down.”

Experts say almost all buildings — except perhaps those that have been engineered specifically to be energy-efficient — can benefit from an energy-use upgrade.

For buildings more than 30 years old, savings can be more dramatic.

“If your building is that old, an energy audit and retrofit is the first thing to consider,” says Iusi. Equipment and fixtures are often hidden in walls, ceilings and mechanical rooms, so people seldom realize upgrades are needed, he says.

Another issue is that the most energy-efficient equipment and fixtures were not built into many structures. “When you bring in bidders, and they bid on what equipment is going into the building, they usually don’t look at high-end, energy-conserving equipment because it costs more,” Iusi says.

By looking at a company’s energy use in recent years, an energy-services company such as Ameresco will help a client identify its current energy use, called a “base year,” then work to reduce it.

As part of the process, the company’s energy load — basically how much energy the company uses at any given time of day — will be examined. If most of the lights and machinery come on between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., for example, the energy load can spike, increasing the energy bill. If there is machinery that doesn’t have to be on during that period, energy load can be shifted to another part of the day, reducing costs related to energy demand.

Here are some major areas in which energy use can be reduced:

Lighting

Commercial lighting is usually the biggest energy hog in commercial buildings, consuming up to 40% of the energy used, says a WWF Canada report. Costs can be reduced without a reduction in performance by assessing where lighting is needed in the building.

“If you think about it,” Iusi says, “you have lighting spread out throughout the square footage of the facility. That’s where you get the biggest bang for your dollar.”

Here’s what to consider:

> Use newer-technology fluorescent tubes. Some older buildings still use energy-inefficient T12 fluorescent tubes. Significant savings can be found by upgrading to T8s or the newer T5s.

> Retrofit the lighting fixtures to use two tubes instead of four, switch to electronic ballasts and reduce the overall number of fixtures.

> Consider all lighting uses. Standard exit signs use 34 watts and are continually on, as they should be, Rouse says. But, if the light is replaced with an LED exit sign, usage is reduced to 2.8 watts.

@page_break@Heating and Cooling

Rouse says a key part of the energy usage problem is how buildings are used. Where and how energy is needed changes over the years, and that affects the building’s original design assumptions. The same is true for the facility’s heating and cooling system. Heating and cooling can be complicated processes and require considering many factors.

> Look at what affects the heating in a building. If lighting is removed for the purposes of energy efficiency, there will be a concurrent reduction in heat. Computer servers also generate a lot of heat, as do computers and other equipment.

> Consider office configuration. An office space may have been originally designed using an open-concept plan. If partitions are raised in subsequent years, air flow changes, throwing off the original heating and cooling plan.

> Some buildings may be better served by a hydronic or hot-water system, in which a gas-fired boiler manages the heating load. Electrical heating, Iusi says, is cheaper to install, but costly to run because of rising electricity costs. Natural gas is less expensive than electricity.

> Insulation upgrades are generally costly in retrofit situations. “You basically have to break walls and get into wall cavities to replace insulation,” Iusi says. “Paybacks generally take quite long because of this and, for the most part, it’s an option that is disregarded.” However, if a building is in need of renewal, for example, if the roof needs to be replaced, it might make economic sense to upgrade the insulation for energy efficiency. And in a new building, insulation upgrades can pay for themselves in a very short time, and should always be considered.

Office Equipment

Although lighting, heating and cooling constitute the big savings, office equipment and how workers use energy are also part of the picture. Here’s what to consider:

> Buy office equipment with an EnergyStar qualification, which means it rates in the top quartile of energy efficiency in its category. Such equipment can reduce energy use by 15% to 25%, with no loss in performance.

> Try to reduce unnecessary plug load, which is the amount of electricity use from all equipment plugged into outlets in the building.

> Turning off equipment when it is not being used is an easy way to save energy. As an example, Rouse suggests that when IT staff are downloading software overnight, monitors, which are not needed for the process, can be turned off.

Putting solar panels on top of a building or windmills in the backyard aren’t really feasible at this time. But in Ontario, where the energy market is deregulated, an option for tapping into more environment-friendly sources is buying energy from Toronto-based Bullfrog Power Inc., which sells power generated from 100% renewable sources such as wind and low-impact water-generated power. The power sells at a premium, however, resulting in energy bills that are about 30% higher.

“But once you reduce your demand with an energy conservation program, you lower your energy draw by 20%-30%. You’ve essentially paid for the premium,” says Greg Kiessling, executive chairman of Bullfrog Power in Toronto.

“We do have an energy crunch,” says WWF’s Langer. “So, to ensure that we have a long-term, stable, competitive, clean supply of power, we should be investing in these new supply options.”

Conservation and smart energy use should be kept in mind when looking for a building for your business. “With an older building, it’s not only energy efficiency you will have to worry about, but also the outdated equipment you will have to replace,” says Iusi. “It’s something to think twice about.” IE