Kicking off the New Year with an “Office Energy Challenge”

by Pete Iengo, Office and Facilities Manager

Trees Water & People (TWP) works to protect people and the planet on every level: internationally, nationally, and locally.  After all, we are sprouted locally and growing globally!  As the teams Office and Facility Manager, I have the privilege of spearheading our carbon reduction efforts here at 633 Remington St., and as a result have developed the TWP Office Energy Challenge.

Started as an energy monitoring project reported through Fort Collins’ free and voluntary Climate Wise Program, we have created a challenge directed at reducing our energy usage right here in the office.  Our goal at the TWP office is to reduce wasted energy and phantom loads by 10%, while maintaining the highly efficient and well rounded business model TWP is known for.

An indispensable contributor in helping us understand our baseline energy use  and target our reduction goal is Fort Collins business owner and energy monitor guru Rick England.  Rick is spending countless hours monitoring and analyzing both real-time use and historical data for people throughout the Fort Collins community.  With this analysis we also get Rick’s expert guidance, which is bringing people closer to their energy reduction goals every day.

Now that Rick and I have identified the energy squandering culprits from around our building, we are ready to tackle the waste and tighten up the TWP operation. It has been fascinating learning the variation in output of over 100 measured appliances throughout the building and how those appliances effect our usage each month; it really adds up.

TWP is constantly working to help communities protect the natural resources they rely on, and that effort must reflect what we are doing here in the office.  This is precisely why the TWP Office Energy Challenge is so important.

Even if you don’t work at TWP, you can still be part of TWP’s Office Energy Challenge! A growing number of supporters are matching our efforts, going “ton for ton” with us; for every ton of carbon we keep from burning up in the smoke stacks, you can match our efforts through our carbon offset program!  For details, contact pete@treeswaterpeople.org .