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Posted by Amy Jarvis on December 18, 2009 at 12:23pm
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to present at the Oregon ASHRAE chapter meeting on the Portland Climate Champion Award and passed state and local legislation with Marlowe Kulley from the BEST Business Center. This was a departure from a typical ASHRAE presentation and appeared to be appreciated by the members and be viewed as “new and different” information. To that end, I would like to share some key take always from our presentation:
1. One of the key issues with the operation of many buildings (and with meeting the requirements of this award) has to do with building occupants and day-to-day operations. For instance, we often design our buildings to have night and weekend setback but the thermostats may not be programmed as such. Marlowe described a prominent firm in town with a new green building that did not have their thermostats set correctly and did not know this. This underscores the importance of building commissioning and providing detailed O&M manuals at job close-out.
2. The easier green operations are, the more they are accepted. For instance, as one point, I tried to steal everyone’s trash cans in the office as a way to promote recycling and reduce waste. Needless to say, this was a big flop and was met with resistance. Instead, we now have recycling at every location in the office that there is a trash can which is much easier and better received. Additionally, we worked with our building to implement a recycling program which requires minimal sorting.
3. Not all recycled products are created equal. So recycled products may cause certain printers to jam and others may not. As a result, it is important to test new “greener” products to ensure compatibility with existing systems.
4. Knowledge is power. Education is important. Enough said.
5. A green champion is necessary to spearhead these issues. However, that champion can only do so much without the support of the office. Office buy-in and support is necessary for success.
6. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland, consistently talks about how Portland is one of the greenest cities in the world but cautions us that the praise is on a very low scale. He is absolutely correct.
7. There are a lot of great free inexpensive resources that are underutilized in Portland and around the country. Sometimes, an outside view is necessary to plan for and make progress.
I am always available for help and questions.
Thanks!
Amy
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