Special Report: 3.26.2009

Posted by TED Magazine on Thursday, March 26, 2009

A "Green" Show in Baltimore (Part 1)

By Joe Salimando

Planning for mid-March, I had a choice: Fly to Orlando for the Electronic House Expo (and conference) or stay home and drive to Baltimore over each of three days for the National Facilities Maintenance & Technology show/conference. One thing was clear: I learn a lot more when I get off my duff and get out to a conference.

On one side of the scale, I really like the EH Expo. I’ve learned a lot attending sessions there over the years. And it’s warmer in Orlando than in the Bawlmore-Washington area. On the other hand, it would cost a lot less to drive each day from my Northern Virginia home to/from the NFM&T.

Save money? Stay local? Go someplace warm? To decide with an ounce of smarts, I looked at session schedules. NFM&T had numerous “green” sessions aimed at people who manage/maintain buildings. As that seems important (green building is growing, the rest of construction is in the toilet), I chose Baltimore.

Today, on the other side, it seems like a good decision. I attended all or part of seven “green” sessions. I walked the show floor. I listened to people. I learned.

Bottom line, so far: Staying home and saving money may seem like a good decision at the beginning of a Depression. But it’s certain that I don’t learn a lot when I sit around talking to myself. In fact, my stupidity level actually increases.

Lesson No 1, therefore, is: Get out the door!

About The NFM&T Event

A company called Trade Press is behind the NFM&T. This company publishes magazines like Building Operating Management and Maintenance Solutions, among others. On behalf of the NECA-IBEW marketing cooperative (a client), I have placed ads in Trade Press’s magazines and spoken with the company’s publishers and sales reps.

As we are in a Depression, attendance reportedly was down at the 2009 event. But if there was a downstroke in the number of exhibitors, I didn’t see it. I heard there were 500 companies and organizations on the show floor.

Above: The Capital Lighting & Supply booth at the NFM&T 
show displayed LEDs, including the streetlight at left.

Familiar names included: Capital Lighting & Supply (the Sonepar unit in DC-MD-VA), with a 10 x 20; Hagemeyer NA (yes, another Sonepar unit!); and C.N. Robinson, a local lighting distributor. Also among the exhibitors: ASCO, Eaton, Philips.

Apparently, others had absorbed Lesson No. 1!

EPAct Deductions & Lighting

Paydirt appeared immediately (the first session I attended) when Charles Goulding of Energy Tax Savers provided an EPAct update. Goulding described himself as a CPA and tax attorney, with 35 years of experience, who had given 400-plus presentations on EPAct.

His firm, he said, had been involved in perhaps 5,000 projects that had obtained EPAct tax deductions. Even more impressive: He added later that his firm had seen another “nearly 3,000 projects” that were candidates for EPAct deductions, but did not qualify.

Among other things Goulding told his audience, based on his experience with the 5,000 and the 3,000:

• The existing building’s condition does not matter. The amount of electricity it uses before the retrofit does not matter. All that matters is the amount of energy used per square foot (after the retrofit) relative to requirements of ASHRAE 90.1/2001. So don’t worry (at least, not for EPAct purposes) about taking precise measurements of how much energy you are wasting right now!

• There is a difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction; many folks don’t know it. A credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your taxes. A deduction reduces your tax liability, but to figure out the value you have to first assess your total (federal + state) tax rate. Apparently, there’s confusion about this, too. 
  
  
• Perhaps you knew this one already, but I did not: Within the negotiating and compromises struck by Congress in extending EPAct’s expiration by five years (to Dec. 31, 2013), the legislation’s writers left the starting point at ASHRAE 90.1/2001. In other words, they didn’t update it to 90.1/2004 (which has tougher requirements). This is a good thing. It means that it’s easy to qualify for an EPAct tax deduction and, as technology gains over the coming months and years, it will become even easier.

From an electrical point-of-view, Goulding was delightful. “Lighting, Lighting, Lighting!” he said at one point. Most EPAct tax deductions taken thus far (it’s been 3-plus years) have been about lighting retrofits. The second-most-taken deduction involves lighting controls, he added.

[One reason for this: It’s not easy to qualify for EPAct deductions offered for HVAC retrofits. He noted that his firm has seen more activity on the HVAC front in the past year or so.]

Finally, he made an important point: “The big money is not in tax savings; it’s in energy savings.” If you’re right now saying “Well, of course,” I would guess you’ve not dealt with building owners working on nearly 8,000 energy-smart retrofits trying to qualify for EPAct deductions.

Goulding has. If ALL of the stuff above seems “obvious” to you, it might be worth your while to acknowledge that you’ll be dealing with people (potential customers) to whom NONE of it is obvious.

Green Purchasing

I attended a session on Green Purchasing that seemed to be less than one might want, and turned out to be more. Relevant notes:

• Each seminar ran 50 minutes. There were at least six (sometimes 10) to choose from during each time period; at least two in each period were “green.”
  
  
• The room was packed. Apparently, the average facility manager must dive armpit-deep into buying green products.
  
  
• Two men from a company called Site Stuff were the speakers. I was initially put off by this (displaying my abysmal ignorance to myself yet one more time). What can a couple of guys from a procurement website teach anyone about green buying? As it turns out, one heck of a lot.
  
  
• Chris Dietrich and Tom Forshee (who can put LEED AP after his name) talked in detail about how people in buildings dry their hands in bathrooms. Yes, I know this has nothing whatsoever to do with electrical products. But it was very instructive on “green thinking,” which probably won’t get less important over time.

[On point D: Years ago, when I was Editor of a waste industry magazine, my boss told me what one reader had asked: “I want to read more and more about less and less.” This may seem an inelegant way of expressing a thought, but it’s actually been a guiding sentence for me as editor, publisher, and writer.

What the trash hauler who said it meant: I want the nitty-gritty details. I don’t want to know a guy buys Heil garbage trucks; I want to know how he specs them out and what kind of tire maintenance schedule he has. And so forth.]

 

That’s what Dietrich and Forshee provided: A nitty-gritty look at the options facility managers have in helping their customers (building tenants and visitors) dry their hands after washing them in a building’s bathrooms.

Essentially, there are three choices, each with “green” attributes as well as cost implications (including operational logistics involved):

Folded paper towels—expensive. Seems to be a lot of waste (i.e., people use several towels). It’s always difficult for the first users of a towel dispenser to get just one towel out, so there’s even more waste. The towels spill over onto the floor, creating a perception that your building is sloppy. And someone must frequently replenish the towel supply.

Paper towels on a roll—less expensive, less waste. Someone still must deal with replenishment, of course. And you have an up-front cost for changeover to a roll-towel dispenser.

Air hand dryer—adds big up-front expenses (you must provide power to the thing). But there’s no replenishment need (and no one leaves the men’s room angry because there are no paper towels left for him). Very “green,” of course, even adding the cost of electricity; there’s no waste, no trees to kill. A graph showed a $40,000-plus savings over five years from the retrofit of these for folded-towel dispensers.

Now, one might think these guys were selling air dryers. But their presentation, which was only 45 minutes, also discussed the hand-drying-in-the-bathrooms decision-making process at three buildings. In one (a Chicago high-rise that houses numerous lawyers) the decision went against the air hand dryers because of noise.

The point: There is lot that should go into any given “green” purchasing decision. There’s waste reduction and recycling, of course, but also facility issues, operational issues (labor and maintenance), and things like appearance, customer preference, and more.

More from Baltimore next week on LEED and anti-LEED.

	Joe Salimando of EFJ Enterprises is a consultant, web content provider, and wordsmith based in Oakton, Va. To contact him, call 703-255-1428. See also The EleBlog.
Personal Disclaimer: The appearance of the ambling pachyderm is indicative of the writer’s obsession with elephants, not his political leanings.
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