GREEN DREAMS COLLIDING WITH RECESSION REALITIES
GOING GREEN MAY SAVE MONEY IN TIME, BUT COSTS MONEY UP FRONT
John Huey, who travels all around the country preaching the gospel of green for Delaware North Cos., is a firm believer that what’s good for the environment can be good for business. But breaking old habits isn’t easy, and making a business environmentally friendly takes a strong commitment that begins at the top, he said.
“You just don’t stand around and sing, ‘Kumbaya,’ ” said Huey, Delaware North’s director of environmental affairs. “It’s a big activity that you have to commit to and you have to keep pushing it until it gets done.”
Sometimes, going green can save a company money. That’s an easy sell, even in these tough economic times.
Sometimes, going green breaks even, but eats up valuable time from workers and managers alike. That’s a harder sell.
But often, going green costs money, whether it’s spending a few dollars more to use recycled paper, purchasing recycling bins or installing more expensive compact fluorescent light bulbs that significantly reduce electricity consumption and can pay for themselves in a matter of months or years.
“In a lot of our areas, it’s hard for us to come up with a cost benefit,” Huey said. “A lot of environmentally friendly products cost more.”
And that is a growing stumbling block for green initiatives as the recession enters its second year.
Interest remains keen in green programs, but the new economic realities are putting more focus on initiatives that pay for themselves quickly or don’t cost much, said Kevin Neumaier, the president of Ecology & Environment, a Lancaster-based environmental consulting firm.
“There’s certainly a lot of interest,” especially in green projects that can save a company money, Neumaier said.
That can be as simple as making sure the lights, computers and all unused equipment are turned off at night, Neumaier said. E&E reviewed its electricity use several years ago and was able to cut its power consumption by 15 percent by simply turning lights and equipment off during down times.
“Take a look at those things that will give you cost savings and make you greener,” Neumaier recommended. Then use the savings from those initiatives to fund other environmentally friendly projects that won’t pay for themselves.
Aggressive recycling
That’s what Carubba Collision did. The auto repair shop used the savings from its stepped-up recycling program are helping to pay for a more environmentally friendly paint system, said Joe Carubba, the company president.
Carubba, after hiring a waste solutions advisory firm to oversee its waste stream, launched a program to recycle virtually all of the waste produced by its collision repair business. Plastic parts, used headlights, steel and aluminum parts and cardboard all are recycled.
“It takes time” to implement, Carubba said. “People are set in their ways and do have bad habits.”
Carubba said the recycling initiative now is about 99 percent complete. “It’s our goal to reduce our trash to just about what comes out of the lunch room,” he said.
The proceeds from the recycling initiative helped the company pay for a new paint system that uses waterborne base coat paints, rather than the solvent-based paint system the company previously used.
The waterborne paints reduce emissions of ozone-damaging volatile organic compounds by 80 percent. California has adopted stricter emissions standards that are forcing collision shops there to install new paint systems, while Canada is imposing similar regulations in 2010.
“We like to stay a step ahead,” Carubba said. “We feel like it’s coming down the pike for everyone in New York State.”
At Delaware North, the company is implementing a program it calls GreenPath throughout its far-flung operations. The program originated at its national and state parks unit, which runs lodging and guest services at national parks, such as Yosemite National Park. By the end of next year, Delaware North plans to have it in place at all of its operations, including its gaming, concessions and hospitality businesses.
“The biggest change is the cultural change,” Huey said. “It may be: where does that hot dog come from?, or is there an organic substitute? Or is there a better wrapper for that hot dog?”
At HSBC Arena, where Delaware North handles the concessions, that means replacing non-biodegradable waxed deli paper with wrap that will decay and can be composted; using carry-out boxes made of recycled paper. At Ralph Wilson Stadium, it means using jug water behind the counter to reduce bottled water use by Sportservice workers.
At the Fairgrounds Gaming & Raceway in Hamburg, it means recycling 220 gallons of fryer oil each month and building its new gaming venue, set to begin construction this year, to the U. S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, said company spokesman Glen White.
Sometimes, going green simply means going dark. Energy Curtailment Specialists in Cheektowaga has built a stable of clients in Western New York and downstate that have agreed to cut their energy use when the state’s power supplies start to get too tight to meet the demand for electricity.
In exchange, those companies get paid, both for agreeing to reduce power consumption at peak times and for the actual reduction when the call goes out for participants to use less electricity.
On average, that happens for about two hours twice a year for ECS’ clients in Western New York, says Glen Smith, the company’s president and chief executive officer. Clients get a day’s notice and they are able to decide beforehand how much their operations can be scaled back. In some cases, it can be as simple as shifting a lunch hour, he said.
ECS also encourages clients to use their savings from the demand-response program to make other energy efficiency improvements. The company’s affiliate, energy solutions firm Ace Energy, is launching a Smart- Light WNY program to help clients tap into available state incentives and to provide other guidance in installing more efficient lighting systems.
Programs that can pay for themselves in two years or less typically are easier to sell to corporate officials, but ECS executives said the slumping economy has businesses pinching their pennies tighter than usual.
“Nobody wants to give up any capital right now,” said Jeffrey Bonerb, who is in charge of ECS’ marketing operations.
Still, New York’s high electricity prices –the highest in the nation –make energy efficiency projects more economical here than they are elsewhere, where power prices are lower.
“Years down the road, they’re going to be saving tons of money,” Bonerb said.
E&E long has taken its mission to be environmentally friendly to heart. The company’s Lancaster headquarters building last year was awarded the highest level of LEED certification, one of only 10 existing buildings in the country and the oldest structure in the world to achieve that status.
A 300-foot-long glass atrium, which bathes the plant-lined interior corridor in natural light, allowing employees to do their work without turning on the lights. And in a most unusual feature for a modern office building, the atrium opens, as do all the windows in the building, allowing fresh air in through the windows and hot air to escape through the atrium, creating a sort of natural air conditioning.
E&E isn’t alone with a green building. The new BlueCross BlueShield headquarters building at the former Gas Works site in downtown Buffalo is the largest office building built on a brownfield that has been LEED certified.
WNY’s wind advantage
Neumaier thinks wind energy can be a growing part of the Western New York economy, thanks to the strong breezes that blow off Lake Erie. The Steel Winds project along the Lake Erie shore in Lackawanna and the turbines that tower over the trees in the hills of Wyoming County are examples of the appeal of renewable energy in Western New York.
“We’ve got good wind resources along the lake and certain other spots along hill tops,” he said.
But to fully capture the economic benefits of renewable energy, local experts believe the region must develop a cadre of businesses that can design and supply products for the expanding renewable energy industry.
“I’d like to see us more involved in the supply chain,” Neumaier said.
The Buffalo Niagara Enterprise economic development and marketing organization last year added renewable energy to its list of targeted industries.
The BNE, hoping to build off Globe Metallurgical’s $60 million plan to reopen the Niagara Falls plant it closed five years ago to make high-grade silicon products for the solar power industry, is touting the region’s solar energy resources.
As part of the Globe deal for state incentives, the company agreed to provide an allocation of solar-grade silicon through the state at a 15 percent discount. Empire State Development Corp. also will partner with Globe to market 25 percent of the high-grade silicon to solar product companies and other end-users located in New York.
Thomas Kucharski, the BNE’s president, said the group also is approaching companies about the region’s potential for making wind turbines, which are in short supply. “Business kind of goes to where the opportunity is,” he said.
Yet new projects are under pressure from the global financial crisis. Noble Environmental Power’s proposed wind energy projects in the Cattaraugus and Allegany counties now are expected to take longer to come to fruition, company officials said.
RiverWright LLC plans to build a $214 million ethanol plant in former grain elevators along the Buffalo River. Last year the firm hired a Toronto company help it arrange as much as $120 million in debt financing for the local plant.
The Buffalo refinery would be the second ethanol plant in Western New York. Western New York Energy in late 2007 opened a $90 million ethanol plant in Shelby, just outside the Orleans County village of Medina, that can produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a year.
But the ethanol market has been volatile over the last year, shaken by volatile corn prices and wide swings in the market price of ethanol itself, as well as the financing crunch.
Other local business also are moving down the green path.
Gary Hydock, who runs GCS Radiant in Amherst, touts the energy-saving benefits of the radiant floor heat panels that his company makes. He says his radiant floor heating system, which is made partly from recycled products, such as recycled auto glass and even fly ash, can cut heating bills by as much as 75 percent.
One 4,000-square-foot house on Grand Island that uses GCS’ radiant floor heat panels, coupled with a very high-efficiency boiler, reduced its monthly heating bills to just $56 a month, he said.
The Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau is working with local hotels to upgrade their environmental practices by efforts such as greater recycling, the use of reusable serving utensils and bulk or reusable food and beverage containers. Those programs helped the CVB land annual conventions from The American Solar Energy Society this year and North American Association for Environmental Education in 2010.
Rebates are incentives
Companies don’t have to do it on their own, either. National Fuel is hoping to encourage more small businesses to install high-efficiency furnaces, water heaters and cooking equipment by revising its incentive program to include fixed rebates, rather than the more complicated and time-consuming customized rebates that have been available since late 2007.
The fixed-rebate program, launched in December, range from $500 to $3,500 for furnaces, depending on their capacity, and from $150 to $350 for high-efficiency water heaters. Rebates of $25 also are available for programmable thermostats.
The commercial program also offers rebates of $500 to $750 for the purchase of high-efficiency cooking equipment, ranging from fryers and broilers to steamers and ovens.
The rebates are available to small businesses that use less than 12 million cubic feet of natural gas annually. All of the equipment, except for the thermostats, must be installed by a qualified contractor.
“These kinds of improvements offer long-lasting savings,” said Julie Coppola Cox, a National Fuel spokeswoman. “The rebates are there to help make energy efficiency more affordable.”
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