Environment
: Federal Climate Wise Program Provides Incentives
San Diego businesses that choose to go green may see a lot of green as a result.
The city of San Diego is participating in the federal Climate Wise program, which offers businesses economic incentives to use green building techniques, reduce waste or save water, according to Nicole Hall, public information officer with the city of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department.
That’s in addition to the tremendous return the business will get as it saves money on energy costs, Hall said. Over time, the energy savings on the building pay for the cost of the green technology, she added.
Hall points to several businesses and institutions that have signed on. BF Goodrich Aerostructures, Continental Marine Cos., Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, Inc., The Salk Institute, ST Microelectronics, Solar Turbines and San Diego State University are local partners in the Climate Wise program.
Through Climate Wise, Hewlett-Packard learned about economic incentives available from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. that encourage saving energy and reducing pollution.
Hewlett-Packard installed better filtration systems on its cooling tower that allows the company to reduce its water consumption, said Peter Livingston, mechanical engineer and site energy manager. It also installed new landscaping that requires less irrigation.
Audit Process
Other changes include purchasing more efficient technology and automatic shut-off lighting, reducing the amount of electricity the building consumes, he said.
The company also recycles a high percentage of the cardboard, paper and metals it uses at the site, Livingston said.
Hewlett-Packard is going through an audit process to identify areas the company could further reduce its impact on the environment , everything from how it uses energy, its manufacturing processes, and how parts are shipped, he said.
In some areas, the environmental improvements can be gained at no extra cost. In other areas, the added cost of being environmentally conscious is perhaps 5 percent to 10 percent, or sometimes as high as 20 percent more. But it pays for itself eventually, Livingston said.
“The payback we get on most of the things that we’ve done is probably two to three years. In a lot of cases it will be just over a year,” he said.
And the benefits add up.
“If we can cut costs by 5 percent, then we’re talking $100,000 a year. Multiply that by 20 years, and that’s $2 million. If you can keep working toward it and reduce it another 5 percent, now you’ve got that additional savings,” he said.
Campus Conservation
Elsewhere, energy consumption at San Diego State University has increased only 10 to 15 percent over the past 10 years, despite the fact the total square footage of space on the campus went from 3 million to about 5 million, said Bill Lekas, administrative operations analyst.
Many of the energy saving measures on campus were installed before Climate Wise was initiated. But with about $2 million to $3 million in added financial incentives available from the program over the past few years, that’s sped things up on campus, Lekas said. And that’s in addition to the energy savings, which he estimated to be in the millions of dollars.
As for the city, it’s also walking the walk. Hall pointed to Environmental Services’ new headquarters off Ridgehaven Court near Serra Mesa. The building, home to more than 200 city employees, also serves as a demonstration project for green technologies.
In 1996, the city opened its new 73,000-square-foot facility, for which the environmental upgrades cost about $268,000.
But just in terms of electrical generation alone, the city saves 65 percent , or $89,000 a year lower than what the building had used before the upgrades.
Similarly, the building saves $3,000 a year in water costs compared to a similar building next door. At that rate, the cost of going green has already been paid off, meaning the green building is now in the black, Hall said.
The building itself is also an important resource. It’s open to tours to show businesses what the city has done, and that these ideas are easily transportable to other buildings, she said.
“It shows companies and people that it is possible to construct a building that promotes sustainability whether they chose to do some of what we’ve done or all of what we’ve done, this shows that it can it can be done. And it can be done on a tight budget,” she said.
