Sustainable Leadership

Think energy efficiency is limited to light bulbs? Think again.

nergy efficiency geeks love saying that the greenest — and cheapest — kilowatt-hour is the one that's never produced. Why? Because it's true. Sustainability has clearly made its way into the day-to-day lexicon of c-suite executives striving to incorporate innovative solutions in their business models that accomplish a host of objectives, including the reduction of waste across the supply chain that has a direct impact on profitability. Although energy efficiency has lingered in the shadows for decades, it has recently been thrust into the limelight, given rapidly rising electricity costs over the past decade.

Emerging as a proven source for substantial energy efficiency gains are commercial refrigeration systems. Refrigeration controls offering verifiable kilowatt-hour savings, along with a user-friendly interface, unleash new opportunities and have gained the attention of utility companies in several states, which offer aggressive financial incentives to permanently reduce electricity demand from commercial refrigeration systems.

The Hum of Savings Opportunity

The reassuring hum of evaporator fans can be the sound of new sustainability opportunities or, if ignored, is the sound of eroding profit margin due to unnecessary equipment runtimes or poorly functioning equipment. Refrigeration represents 60 percent of total electricity consumption in a typical grocery store, while at a food processing and distribution facility, it can be as high as 80 percent. Research has shown that a typical walk-in cooler consumes approximately 100 kilowatt-hours per square foot annually, while a walk-in freezer consumes approximately 187 kilowatt-hours.

Innovation in refrigeration control technologies is serving as the workhorse in delivering verifiable kilowatt-hour savings by safely cycling evaporator fans, controlling door heaters and other related equipment. Advanced technologies that are Web-enabled provide control to optimize equipment runtimes that result in additional verifiable energy savings and improved operation and maintenance.

Behavior is the Game Changer

Sustainability strategies and corporate energy efficiency goals are only effective if leadership teams can effectively link them to actionable items within their organizations. Innovation in refrigeration controls is the catalyst in capitalizing on the greenest and cheapest kilowatt-hours, but it requires the crucial link between strategy and the organization's ability to execute, including linking that strategy to midlevel managers who are often tasked with the day-to-day job function that delivers the intended results.

Although energy represents only about 1 percent of total grocery store costs, it's about equal to a typical grocer's profit margin. Therefore, a 10 percent reduction in energy costs can mean a 10 percent increase in profits.

Here are some recommendations for leadership:

• Get energy basics: Have your maintenance or engineering team bring you up to speed on what the current energy efficiency plan is (if there is one) and how it's implemented. What you don't know can cost you, so learn and be an informed decision-maker on energy.
• Measure the right stuff: Identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) and monitor regularly for performance against some baseline. Indicators could be energy use, number of refrigeration starts or percent runtime. We love real-time trending as predictors.
• Get professional help: Check with your utility, as it may offer free energy assessment and use expert consultants to develop a performance improvement and monitoring plan. The goal should be to implement OnStar-type real-time performance monitoring.

Carol Tobian leads business development efforts in the Mid-Atlantic region for Canton, Mass.-based National Resource Management Inc.

Sustainability strategies are only effective if leadership teams can effectively link them to actionable items.