Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog

My wife and I completed our major remodel in 2002 without a single thought about getting to NZE. After all, we live in a 1977 home which leaked like a sieve in 1988 when we bought it. It took several years for us to realize the possibilities. In my case, three events took me to a mental tipping point: 1) the Solar Decathlon, 2) Boulder Green Building Guild workshops, and 3) the Boulder Solar Home Tour. At the 2007 Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C., I toured homes designed by the finalists of this international competition among university students. Each team of architects, engineers, and business students designs and builds a fully modern home that functions entirely off the grid and produces enough surplus energy to power an electric car. I remember being impressed by the level of systems integration in these homes. They typically employed passive solar, solar PV, solar thermal, daylighting, green walls, and lots of innovation. I loved it. On the down side, these homes were purpose-built and tiny. They did not instill confidence that I could achieve the similar results in my own home. There is a Decathlon every other year including October 2009; I highly recommend checking it out. Due to my positive experience at the Decathlon, I began attending workshops organized by the Boulder Green Building Guild. The BGBG offers bi-weekly workshops covering green building design and technologies. I learned a lot and came away with many ideas for making my home more sustainable. Finally in October 2008 at the Boulder Solar Home Tour, I got to see many of the same concepts and technologies, but they were implemented in houses I could relate to. About half the homes on the tour were net-zero and all of those used a combination of efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. Some of these homes were million-dollar beauties, but a few were remodels of standard housing stock. The newly constructed homes were spectacular, but the remodels attracted most of my attention. Essentially, I got to walk through houses very similar to mine, whose owners had invested in and succeeded in getting to net-zero. I became convinced that getting to net-zero was not the exclusive domain of newly constructed million-dollar homes. If someone else could achieve NZE with a reasonable investment of time and money, I figured I could too. The very idea was inspiring. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 5 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It's not as sexy as adding solar panels, but caulking leaks, weatherstripping doors, and adding insulation are among the fastest, cheapest, and most important steps on the way to NZE. At our house, the three most important tasks coming out of the energy audit were 1) topping-off the cellulose attic insulation, 2) caulking the recessed lights in the cathedral ceiling, and 3) weatherstripping the attic access hatch. After some procrastination, I finally did the work myself as winter was getting underway. Much to our surprise, my wife and I immediately felt the difference, especially on windy days. And because the house was less chilly each morning, we used our gas fireplace less frequently. On cold mornings we often take our morning tea next to the gas fireplace. Maybe not doing so was a lifestyle change, but the house actually felt warmer. We're a little different than most people in winter climates because we shut off our furnace each night before going to bed and turn it back on in the morning. Therefore the morning chill depends totally on the amount of heat loss during the night. Through that winter, our natural gas consumption dropped several more percentage points. But it was the increased comfort that had the most noticeable effect. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 4 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 02:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

On the Green Printer Blog, I came across the Harris Interactive survey of North American office workers citing their top ten environmental pet peeves:

1. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
2. Leaving lights on (37%)
3. Lack of recycling bins (33%)
4. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)
5. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)
6. Coworkers not recycling (27%)
7. Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)
8. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)
9. Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)
10. Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)

That's not a bad list for all of us to keep in mind. Most of us have experienced these things at one time or another. By being aware and making small changes, YOU CAN HELP. The little things add up to make a BIG difference.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A general rule of sustainability is to reduce consumption and minimize waste. In creating a sustainable home, energy efficiency is paramount. In the green mantra of reduce-reuse-recycle-replenish; REDUCE comes first for a reason. Saving a kilowatt is preferable to, and costs a lot less than generating a kilowatt from renewable sources. Therefore, even though we had tightened the building envelope several years before, a follow-up energy audit was crucial for finding the remaining energy leaks. Essential measurements in a professional energy audit include a blower-door test to measure the amount of air leakage and infrared imaging to show the location of the leaks. The Department of Energy provides a useful overview of energy audits along with suggestions for finding a qualified professional. It's worth checking to see if you are eligible for a federal tax credit. In our case, the audit gave us a top-ten list of tasks to to fine-tune our building efficiency. The results of our audit led to NZE Step 3. --JCB

Read about NZE Step 3 or start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 01:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Transportation makes up a significant portion of the carbon footprint of every company and every employee (about about 22% globally, see IPCC). Making carbon-aware transportation choices can reduce your footprint and have a positive impact on your bottom line. For individual companies, the transportation footprint includes inbound and outbound shipping, business travel, and employee commuting. Carbon emissions from travel are directly related the mode of transport, the efficiency of fuel consumption, and the distance traveled. Assuming two persons in a mid-sized car, trains can be twice as efficient per passenger-mile than cars, and over short-distances cars can be twice as efficient than planes. Actual results vary because a single person driving a large SUV is less efficient than flying in a peak-loaded airplane. And because landing and take-off reduce airplane efficiency, trips shorter than 500 miles favor a car, whereas longer distances favor a plane. Peak-load buses and ferries are less efficient than trains but more efficient than cars. Peak-load is important because off-hour and rural buses (with few passengers on board) can be less efficient than a small car. Employee commuting via bus can be highly carbon-efficient since typical work hours coincide with peak-period travel. Ferries are a special case because fuel efficiencies vary all over the map. Slow moving ferries are much more efficient than high-speed ferries due to the tremendous drag involved. High-speed ferries can exceed plane travel in terms of carbon emissions per passenger-mile. We all know that car efficiencies vary greatly. Per 100 miles driven, hybrids and small cars emit about 50 pounds of CO2, mid-sized cars emit about 80 pounds, and SUVs and pickups emit about 120 pounds (EarthTrends). Van-pools and big SUVs are more carbon-efficient than small cars if fewer miles are driven and/or more passengers are on-board. In summary, trains and buses are usually less environmentally damaging than cars and planes but the best choice depends entirely on the circumstances. Living close to work, car-pooling, cycling, and telecommuting can radically reduce emissions from employee commuting. Phone, web, and video-conferencing can radically reduce emissions from business travel. Fuel-efficient fleets, ground-transport options, and reduced packaging can reduce emissions from shipping. Obviously, carbon-efficiency is only one part of business decision making about transportation. Time-to-market, employee efficiency, and customer requirements are usually more important. That said, the savings from reducing transportation requirements and making smart transport choices go directly to your bottom-line.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 10:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Business sustainability is being discussed more often in boardrooms and executive suites around the world. When executives talk about sustainability, they talk about going beyond financial metrics to measure company impacts on all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Shareholders (owners) are rightly focused on financial metrics. All too often, however, they are biased towards short-term metrics, e.g. the rolling 30-day average share price. Shareholder focus on the short-term values of public companies can give private companies the advantage of patience and persistence in achieving their strategic vision. In both the public and private sectors, it takes a talented CEO to balance short- and long-term financial objectives. A company incorporating sustainability puts considerable emphasis on achieving long term financial objectives but also puts emphasis on their impact on all stakeholders. “Stakeholders” include everyone and everything impacted by the company. This means employees, suppliers, customers, society, and the environment. A focus on business sustainability therefore requires measurement and goal-based performance reviews in all these areas. While the impacts on employees, suppliers, and customers may fit conveniently within the sphere of financial metrics; society and the environment typically require a new set of metrics. What is your company's impact on the local, regional and national population? What is your impact on the environment including air quality, water quality, land use, and waste production? Does your company comply with all applicable labor and environmental laws? We hope so. But sustainability goes beyond compliance to evaluate your company's impact on people and the planet. Sustainability does not ignore profitability. It covers profits, people, and the planet. An unprofitable company is unsustainable. But a profitable company that mistreats citizens and pollutes the atmosphere won't be profitable for long. Managing and reporting on the 3Ps of profits, people, and the planet is also called managing the triple-bottom line (TBL). In the age of sustainability, managing your TBL will be a critical-success factor in all business endeavors.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This topic is not something I expected to write about but blogs can be useful for capturing unexpected ideas. My mother-in-law passed away this week. She had a kind heart and lived a long life; we miss her deeply. In keeping with her wishes, the family is going ahead with cremation and will spread her ashes in a beautiful nearby location. In working with the funeral home, I came to realize that cremation has a significant carbon footprint. The equipment uses huge natural gas burners consuming several million BTUs. The exhaust can also degrade air quality through such things as the vaporization of mercury dental fillings. Apparently, nothing in life or even after-life is free of tradeoffs. Being in the carbon advisory business, I looked into the carbon footprint of cremation vs. burial. Note that my family's funeral decisions had already been made based on spiritual preferences and this inquiry was driven by my intellectual curiosity. I looked into three options and ranked them roughly 1-2-3 based on their environmental impacts with #1 having the lowest impact: #1 cremation, #2 green burial, and #3 traditional burial with embalming. The details can vary greatly, but options #1 and #2 generally trade off the larger carbon footprint of cremation against the larger land-use footprint of burial (and its requirement for long-term operations). Traditional burial with embalming has a larger carbon footprint due to the materials and energy used in making the casket and concrete vault. Traditional burial also has a more toxic footprint due to the energy-intensive chemicals used in formaldehyde-based embalming. So-called green burials (greenburialcouncil.org) use decomposable and recycled materials in the coffin and dispense with the concrete vault and the embalming process. "Green cemeteries" use xeriscape and native landscaping to reduce long-term energy/water consumption and fertilizer/herbicide use. This places their environmental impact somewhere between the other two options. While green burials are a new part of our vocabulary, they are anything but new. They use age-old methods and are in conformance with many religious beliefs. Whatever you do, please don't make end-of-life-ceremonial decisions using a scientific analyses. This is an area where spiritual and religious views take precedence. If you have latitude, however, it can be useful to think about the environmental tradeoffs made in putting a loved one to rest. --JCB

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As business owners and managers, we should include energy modeling in our toolbox for making cost-effective sustainability decisions. Yesterday I attended a workshop on energy modeling organized by BGBG and presented by Roger Hedrick of Architectural Energy Corporation. The topic might put some people to sleep, but energy modeling is an increasingly important business tool. Essentially, an “energy model” takes the design of a building through a 24x7 computer simulation of energy loads, demands, and performance. It gives us a way to predict the relative effects of different design decisions on building energy performance. Essentially it supports “what-if” analyses by owners, managers, and designers. This is crucial in new designs and major renovations. For example, an energy model lets you understand the trade-offs of investing incremental funds in new windows vs. wall insulation vs. exterior green-wall shading. The need for energy modeling is no different than GM's need to put the Chevy Volt through wind-tunnel testing to minimize its drag coefficient. The need for performance simulation is increasing across all areas of business decision making. As the software and underlying data improve, you will see energy modeling employed across a broad range of applications including all new construction, all major renovations, and in the operation and maintenance of large facilities. In different forms, energy modeling will also show up in transportation management and supply chain management.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 09:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Can you believe it? Solar seems to be perceived as the fix for all our problems. Intuitively, it feels right. A lot of people think so, governments, media, corporations, countries, utilities, voters, and your neighbor. Solar has never been lower in cost. Rebates, tax credits, and tax waivers take us back to late-70's Carter-era incentives and better. The motivation for solar is tremendous, whether it's in your heart and you want to directly reduce your carbon footprint, or you think solar is geeky-cool and sexy, or maybe you just like the idea of investing $5-10,000 now to have 20-30 years of free electricity, immune from energy shocks and utility rate increases. The last six months have seen the cost of solar drop precipitously. Here are some of the reasons why the momentum for solar is as big and hot as the sun:

• The national Wall Street bailout included an extension to the federal tax credit (30%)
• Colorado's statewide vote on renewable energy led to rebates from the state's largest utilities
• The governor's office partners with smaller utilities to support rebates in areas not covered by the RPS
• The State passed a state sales tax waiver for solar purchases
• As of 2008, Boulder County requires a very high standard of energy efficiency in new construction, all but requiring solar for large homes and office buildings
  
• Boulder County offers financing for residential and commercial solar installations through through a 2009 bond issue
  
• United Power Rural Elecric Association (REA) customers can "buy" solar panels for about $1000 each and enjoy the financial and environmental benefits without hassle; the utility will use the money to locate and maintain a field of solar panels for their customers
• The Federal government keeps sweetening its incentives for the commercial market: allowing 50% 1st year depreciation, accelerated depreciation schedule, and a 30% tax grant
• Payback periods are declining rapidly and are well below ten years in many cases
• Carbon cap and trade legislation will further stimulate the commercial market
• National security concerns and terrorist threats are driving interest in US energy security
• The US military is investing in solar for both battlefield operations (think desert sun) and domestic use
• The LOHAS, sustainability, and “buy local” movements fit perfectly with distributed energy generation (think rooftop solar)
• The idea of being independent from the utility grid appeals to the rebellious child in many
• The data on climate change are getting worse, scientists are telling us that atmospheric temperatures are accelerating faster than anticipated

There's a lot more, but I am way over my alloted space! --Bob Monnet, Boulder CO, Flatiron Solar

Posted by Guest at 08:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Running a tight ship (think business efficiency) has paid off in the past and it will pay off even more when carbon is factored into your business results. Carbon, in the form of greenhouse gases, costs all businesses money. But not as a line-item in the accounting system. Up until now, carbon has gone unaccounted for by most businesses. It's invisible, it's not taxed, and yet comes as a byproduct of many business activities. With the EPA officially listing carbon emissions as a “form of pollution endangering public health,” we need to start thinking of carbon in business terms. Currently, the cost of carbon is an intangible. Depending on your industry, carbon emissions may affect your brand-value (especially in the consumer segment), customer loyalty (repeat sales), employee engagement (productivity), retention (cost of HR), supply chain compliance (long-term sales) and risk exposure. FASB is developing accounting guidelines for long-term business risks such as those related to carbon emissions and climate change but they are a work-in-progress. In the future, carbon caps and taxes will be priced into the cost of energy, transportation, and other carbon-intensive business purchases. These added costs will show up in our accounting systems. Fortunately, as we tighten budgets for these line-items, the cost of carbon AND our overall costs will go down.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

For carbon as a household greenhouse gas? Absolutely, yes. Up until now, carbon has gone unaccounted for by most of us. It's invisible, it's not taxed, and yet comes as a byproduct of nearly all our activities. We typically don't want carbon, we want heat, electricity, transportation, food, and other useful products. Unfortunately, all that stuff has “embodied carbon.” Meaning carbon dioxide is released at some stage of the product life cycle (production, delivery, or use). The typical American produces about 20 tons of carbon dioxide per year. That's the weight of ten SUVs! If carbon were priced at $20/ton (a typical cost for carbon offsets), the cost would be $1,600 for a family with two kids. We currently don't pay this cost directly. Economists like to say the cost is “externalized,” meaning “society” pays the cost. Someday we will pay the cost through carbon taxes on energy, gasoline, food and other carbon-intensive products. Scientists say that the environment is paying the price right now. Even if you can afford the extra cost, shrinking your carbon footprint is a good thing to do. It helps society deal with climate change and it will eventually save all of us a lot of money. You can get ideas for personal action from a variety of sources. Check out The Nature Conservancy to get started. --JCB

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes it takes the strangest circumstances to trigger change in a long-standing lifestyle habit. I make a lot of good lifestyle choices but I'm nowhere near perfect. In February, I was in England for my niece's wedding. I love ale and especially British ales. My wife and I were shopping the farmers market in Oundle and came across a guy selling what they call “real ales;” handcrafted local beer. I was surprised to see any kind of beer at a farmers market so I chatted him up and bought a few bottles. When the beer man found out that I lived in Colorado, he started praising the beer made here. He told me that handcrafted beer is making a comeback in England (I had no idea it had declined) and that Brits often looked to beer-crafters in the US for best practices. He said Colorado was one of the great places for micro brewing. I went on with my day and my travels, but this conversation apparently stayed in the back of my mind. A couple weeks later, back home in Colorado, I went to the corner store to restock the fridge. As I was reaching for the Guinness, I thought about all the freight-miles imported beer travels around the world, and all the extra carbon emissions. I thought about it for two seconds and realized that I buy local food when I can get it, so why not beer? I went home that day with a sampling of beers from Fort Collins, Boulder, Breckenridge, and Durango. Now only a couple months later, I'm a confirmed local beer drinker. What was I thinking? I wasn't! I was just operating off old habits and memories of great British ales from the years I lived in Europe. My ah-ha was simply that the choices we make every day are often by habit, rather than by design. Oftentimes, making an eco-friendly choice yields a better product at a lower price. We're not used to that so we don't think of it. So the next time you have a choice between a local vs. global purchase, just give it some thought. The right choice depends totally on the circumstances, and is solely up to you, but do give it some thought. Everything we do makes a difference. Cheers! --JCB

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