All business owners understand that a number of factors will affect their bottom line, as well as how they are perceived by their clients and the community. One of the ways to excel at both is to be as environmentally conscious and friendly as possible when it comes to your operations and equipment. Also commonly referred to as eco-efficiency, this is a management philosophy aimed at minimizing ecological damage while maximizing efficiency. Promoting environmental efficiency has many short-term and long-term benefits aside from saving money, and there are many different ways to pursue in achieving the same goal depending on the specifics of each unique business.
Today, energy use in a commercial building is becoming an ever-increasing financial concern for building owners. Building owners are looking for reliable, cost-effective solutions to answer these new energy challenges and manage overall energy cost. “Most building owners are aware of some of the energy reduction technology that is available to them for improving their building’s energy efficiency but many times lack the time and resources needed to develop a comprehensive building energy plan,” asserts Pat Killeen, owner of Engineered Controls.
“To that end, Engineered Controls can provide cutting edge building automation systems (BAS) that will play a big role in assisting building owners in monitoring, measuring and controlling their buildings energy costs, while still maintaining comfortable building environments. The BAS’s core functionality is to keep the building interior environment (temperature, humidity, pressurization, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels, etc.) all within a specified range. Beyond normal comfort control, the purpose of a BAS is to provide the means of minimizing the above environmental requirement at the most effective energy or utility costs. Typical control strategies provided within the framework of the BAS include time-of-day control or daily scheduling, optimal start-stop programs to optimize load operation and duty cycling and demand limiting software programs to minimize a buildings total kWh consumption. All of these software features are designed to optimize (minimize) the run time of a building’s electrical motors associated with fan and pump loads.”
He continues, “Building owners or energy managers are always looking for assistance from contractors to help in developing reliable and cost-effective solutions for their specific energy challenges and for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. So in order to provide that customer support, Engineered Controls has an Energy & Environmental Optimization (EEO) program to address these concerns of building owners in order to provide their employees, customer, or tenants with the building energy efficiency they are looking for. Our EEO program is designed to leverage a broad portfolio of energy efficiency products and solutions, as well as offer a high level of energy expertise for commercial buildings in the hands of our skilled, knowledgeable and certified EEO professionals. Our EEO team can help building owners and managers obtain real-world data to help them make fact-based decisions about how to optimize their buildings for occupants comfort and save energy at the same time.”
“Indoor air quality (IAQ) is also a major concern to businesses, hospitals, and schools,” Killeen emphasizes. “A building with poor IAQ can have a very negative adverse effect on employees, customers and tenants because it can impact the health, comfort, well-being, and productivity of the building occupants. Good IAQ in buildings is an important component of a healthy indoor environment. Significant increases in worker productivity have also been demonstrated when the air quality was adequate. Today in commercial buildings, building technology companies like Engineered Controls can provide building owners and managers with sophisticated building management systems (BMS) that will monitor a building’s indoor environment for possible contaminates and then automatically adjust the quantity of fresh air intake into a building to reduce the impact of these contaminates on the workers. In addition to monitoring a building’s environment a BMS can also monitor human exposure to pollutants (e.g. carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, radon, VOCs – volatile organic compounds and more) that can have an adverse effect on a worker’s health. To combat all of the indoor air problems, a BMS has software IAQ features (demand control ventilation) that will automatically adjust HVAC systems to introduce higher levels of outdoor air only when occupancy levels of building contaminants are at a high level.”
Killeen adds, “In order to obtain a buildings maximum energy and environmental efficiency, the selection of building control equipment is more important than ever before. Today this is accomplished by selecting control equipment with open protocol communications capability. This allows intelligent building networks to be connected together in order to monitor and control all aspects of a building’s heating and cooling system and beyond.”
Other components of your building will also factor into your overall eco-efficiency. Keith May, owner of The Tint Shop, explains how the suite of 3M Window Film products can assist with your building’s environmental efficiency:
“The Tint Shop offers 3M Solar Control Window Films, which are the perfect retro-fit for any home or commercial building owner or tenant who is looking to decrease solar heat, glare, and UV while increasing the efficiency of the heating and cooling units, all without replacing the original windows. If your property is more than three floors, we can also do an Energy Audit, which gives you a ROI (return on investment) time frame. Even expensive ‘tinted’ or ‘solar’ efficiency windows can’t do what 3M Window Films can do, and when installed by The Tint Shop, you know you are getting the right film for your exact situation and that it will be applied by professionals with over 18 years of experience.
Not only can 3M Window Films help with the efficiency of your building, but it can also help with efficiency of employees. 3M Window Films will ensure that employees are comfortable so that they are able to concentrate on their work instead of complaining about uncomfortable heat in their work space, or even headaches that can occur from squinting to avoid the bright glare coming through the glass. Some 3M Fasara Decorative Films can even brighten up a dark room or work space by reflecting light into the room using the ‘white’ decorative finish. So now that conference room that always seemed a little dark and gloomy can be brightened up without resorting to expensive fixtures or brighter higher energy bulbs.
Some newer technology that has been released by 3M includes their new Daylight Directing Films, which are literally like tiny ‘prisms’ working to redirect the light entering a window up towards the ceiling and away from employees, desks, screens, etc. Another new technology introduced by 3M is their Prestige line of window films. Prestige Window Films were developed to absorb a great deal of solar heat into the film and ‘refract’ it between 224 micro-layers in the film itself. All of this is accomplished by a film with little to no darkness or ‘tint’–in other words, a high VLT (visible light transmittance). This film, along with 3M’s Night Vision Series of films, is also made with 3Ms Night Vision Technology, which allows for unobstructed view with little to no interior reflection from the inside of the windows at night. Unlike other films on the market, once a light is turned on inside at night, the film’s reflection switches to the inside rather than the outside. It’s very similar to the mirrored window in a suspect lineup room. The victim is behind the one-way mirror in a dark room, while the suspects are in a very well lit room. If you were to flip the light on the victim’s side of the room on, the suspects would be able to see right through the mirrored ‘privacy’ glass. The same thing happens to window film at night.
With energy costs rising, and climate change becoming a factor, you want to find the most cost effective solution to energy consumption possible. Retrofitting 3M Window Films into ANY building is one of the most cost effective and least intrusive improvements available that produces immediate results. With an average ROI of three years, you will notice a drop in energy costs as well as a drop in climate in your building or home immediately. 3M Window Films also have advantages in the cooler winter months, as well as the hot summer, spring, fall months. During the winter, the heating system in a building is being used to keep most of the employees warm, while the employees in front of or close to large windows are sweating because they are getting hit with heat from the system, as well as the sun’s heat blasting in through the windows. 3M Window Films even out this heat in balance, keeping it more comfortable in winter as well as the warmer months.
3M Window Films have been recognized by the American Skin Cancer Society, as well as being Energy Star Rated. 3M is also a member of the US Green Building Council, and a part of the Clinton Climate Initiative. There are several different films for every type of situation. Call The Tint Shop today at (402) 466-1355 or email us at tintshop1355@gmail.com, with any questions, or to set up a free estimate on your home or office.”
It is also important to ensure that all chemicals utilized in the working environment aren’t environmentally hazardous or potentially harmful to your employees and/or clients. ServiceMaster Professional Building Maintenance (PBM) is GS-42 certified by Green Seal (www.greenseal.org), and is the only cleaning company to achieve this certification in Nebraska. Their green cleaning service utilizes products and equipment that are certified green by many different organizations, and they feel very proud of this accomplishment and their dedication to utilizing green cleaning measures. “It is very important to understand what being certified as environmentally friendly truly means,” emphasizes Jon Paolini of ServiceMaster PBM. “If something isn’t certified as environmentally friendly, how do you know it really is? There are a lot of products and services that claim they are green but really aren’t. We are the only Green Seal certified cleaning company in Nebraska. Our green cleaning services speak to the level of importance and dedication our business places on environmental responsibility. True green cleaning services have been shown to reduce indoor air particles and create a better indoor air quality. Also, our products have no VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds, or dangerous chemicals that are emitted into the air and can be hazardous to human health or cause harm to the environment) and greatly reduce known allergens so occupants of the spaces we clean can feel safer about what is in the air they breathe. Finally, by using these green certified products, equipment and processes we are reducing the amount of waste we generate in the cleaning process and the waste that is generated by those processes is much more environmentally friendly.”
He adds, “We also work with clients on setting up recycling programs, provide introductions to resources where we can’t help directly, and help them with their recycling process as part of our service–often times at little or no additional cost to them. Obviously the only way we can help in this process is to meet with them and let them tell us what their goals are in this area, but we find this to be not only helpful to our clients but very rewarding.”
In doing your part to be kind to our environment, you may also want to consider incorporating a recycling program in your office or business. “For commercial customers in the Lincoln area, we are happy to meet and discuss what recycling services we can offer to help assist you in going green,” says Scott Niederhaus, owner of Niederhaus Refuse. “There are plenty of options that don’t require sorting or very much effort at all on our customers’ behalf, and we also have a variety of container sizes and pick-up schedules to accommodate any size or scale of recycling efforts desired.”
There are many ways to improve environmental efficiency, and the number of available options is growing just as fast as technology advances. You can be environmentally friendly on any budget, and whether you make small improvements or major upgrades, every little bit helps!