CWEB.047/NOVEMBER.30.1999
Two Oregon communities are looking at water- and energy-saving household appliances as a possible solution to their serious water supply limitations.
Wilsonville and Lafayette are hosting an innovative program to test actual water and energy consumption of efficient appliances, and to promote their widespread use by local residents through an educational campaign and financial tools such as low-interest loans, tax credits and rebates.
Working with a host of partners--including Portland General Electric, appliance manufacturers, the Oregon Office of Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and others--the two cities believe the Saving Water and Energy Education Program (SWEEP) can help ease water constraints brought about by restricted supplies and considerable growth. SWEEP also promises energy savings, along with real-life performance verifications for efficient clothes washers and dryers, showerheads, dishwashers, toilets and faucet aerators.
And, the program could serve as a model for other localities facing water shortages. "If this works as well as I hope it does, I hope to see this duplicated in a lot of other cities in the Northwest," said Lafayette city administrator Robert Willoughby. He thinks SWEEP will help his small town exceed its 12-percent systemwide water conservation goal, although he concedes he doesn't know for certain, because such a program has never been tried.
Unique Program
SWEEP is unique, according to participants, in combining whole-house appliance efficiency testing with a communitywide promotional campaign.
"It's a very comprehensive program," said Frigidaire spokesman Tony Evans, whose company is donating horizontal-axis clothes washers, matching dryers and efficient dishwashers to the 50 participating test households, 25 apiece in Wilsonville and Lafayette. "First of all, to get the data that can be used to be able to prove the impact that this kind of equipment can have on a . . . city's water utilization, and to encourage other communities to implement similar-type programs both in Oregon and elsewhere in the country," he said. "The education aspect will show consumers that these options are available, and the incentives make it easier to replace a product more quickly than they otherwise might do. And the education aspect involves not only the cities, but schools and families.
"It's probably the most comprehensive program of this type that's ever been tried," Evans noted.
It was initially envisioned as a more limited demonstration program for resource-efficient washers, following up on a similar initiative in a small Kansas community, according to Jane Cummins of the League of Oregon Cities. She found strong participatory interest in Wilsonville and Lafayette. "We got the cities together and have been working with PGE and the state and some manufacturers for over a year, and we found that as we started the discussions that there was great interest and enthusiasm in broadening the original concept."
She described the program as "an opportunity for cities to join with federal and state agencies, schools and local businesses to save both water and energy for their communities, and to make it part of the way they live."
Convergence of Interests, Roles
SWEEP brings together a number of entities whose interests and roles converge in the initiative.
The host cities, located about 20 miles apart in the Willamette Valley south/southwest of Portland, both have substantial water supply concerns.
Wilsonville has 13,000 residents and 14,000 people working inside the city, and is one of Oregon's fastest-growing cities, according to public works director Jeff Bauman. "We're growing at such a rate we can no longer meet demand in summertime on a sustained basis."
The city has relied on well water, but with the water table dropping 4 feet a year, Wilsonville placed a moratorium on new development. City voters just approved a $25 million bond issue for a new water treatment plant on the Willamette River, he said, but it won't be in operation for another 2-1/2 years.
Wilsonville has "a very ambitious, very vigorous summertime outdoor conservation program for water," Bauman said. It includes mandatory watering restrictions, no watering in city parks or other city facilities except for new vegetation, an informal curtailment program for large water customers, a zeriscaping demonstration project and an inverted block pricing structure that charges higher rates for more consumption. "We've done a pretty impressive job in summertime, but [for] indoor use year-round we hadn't done much," said Bauman. SWEEP "will really round out our conservation program."
Lafayette primarily depends on wells and springs, but the summer months can be problematic, according to town administrator Willoughby. "We're dealing with a chronic problem that's exacerbated by growth" that has nearly doubled the town's population, to about 2,100 people, in five years.
"Water's becoming a more precious commodity," he noted, coveted by agriculture, recreation, fish and wildlife, cities and other interests. Lafayette wants to work the demand side to help stretch its water supply. "We've concluded it's cheaper to buy conservation than it is to buy a well, and it's a whole lot easier--at least, I hope it will be," Willoughby chuckled.
Portland General, meanwhile, approaches SWEEP from a number of perspectives. For one, according to PGE's John McLain, water and electricity "is clearly a convergence area." For another, many residential energy efficiency measures promoted by the utility save both water and energy, such as clothes washers and showerheads. And the investor-owned utility also brings conservation experience that many small cities lack.
PGE manages and coordinates SWEEP, McLain said, and is providing low-flow showerheads for the participating residences in the testing portion. Coroma Co. is supplying low-flow toilets, and Frigidaire the clothes washers and dryers, and dishwashers.
To help sell efficient appliances in the communities, Frigidaire also is offering consumer rebates. The two cities plan to make available low-interest loans bankrolled by the state. Appliance purchasers also can take advantage of Oregon residential energy tax credits.
"The whole project turned into, instead of a small technology test, 'Can you rally a city, a small community, around this issue?'" said McLain.
Testing, Community Campaign
SWEEP's household testing is already under way. Data collection equipment went into participating Lafayette residences in early October, to establish baseline consumption levels. The efficient appliances are scheduled for installation by early December, according to Marc Ledbetter of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is conducting this phase of the project with U.S. DOE funding. The two-month data collection period should begin in early January. Wilsonville testing will follow. Ledbetter expects a final report to be available by the end of next summer.
"It's easy to have regular laboratory studies," said Frigidaire's Evans. "Here's a case where we can look at actual savings developed in real life with real families and real homes."
PNNL will collect data on whole-house water consumption at 15-second intervals, according to Ledbetter. It will then match that information with profiles of water consumption for individual appliances. "We are going to be assigning as much consumption at the whole-house meter to end-use consumption as we can," he said.
Also measured will be clothes washers (electricity and hot and cold water use) and electric consumption of water heaters. In addition, said Ledbetter, "We are working with the people at George Mason University to take this data and incorporate it in a model they have for estimating the effect of changes in end-use water consumption on energy use in the water system," such as pumping. "This model will also be looking at the effects of end-use water consumption on capital investments in that system."
The second major SWEEP component involves community education, with the intent of "getting the community activated taking on the energy and water issue," according to McLain.
Wilsonville's campaign will reach out to businesses, schools, homeowner associations, apartment managers and hotel and motel owners, according to Bauman. "We're in the planning stages," he said. In Lafayette, the city expects to work with local schools and also spread the efficiency message through water bills, posters and perhaps a conservation fair, said Willoughby.
"Right now we don't have enough water and people have to conserve," said Bauman. "The challenge is to make this a way of life when they don't have to conserve" after the new water treatment plant is on-line. "We have a couple more years to work with people and make it more of a habit."--Mark Ohrenschall
A new government office building in downtown Seattle became a green showpiece for a minimal premium price, despite a late start at incorporating environmentally friendly features.
King Street Center, located in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood at the south end of downtown, was completed in September and officially dedicated Oct. 12 as home to some 1,450 employees of King County's transportation and natural resources departments.
The 327,000-square-foot building rises eight stories and has a number of snazzy energy- and resource-efficient features, including daylighting and lighting technologies that reduce lighting energy use 28
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| King Street Center Photo by Mark Ohrenschall |
Total final cost of King Street Center should be about $65 million, of which $325,000, or .5 percent, represents an above-budget premium for all the green building features, according to King County DNR regional affairs analyst Bob Burns. Virtually the entire premium is attributable to the water reclamation system, paid for by the county.
"King Street Center has been an exceptional opportunity for the Department of Natural Resources to demonstrate the use of sustainable building materials and practices," writes county executive Ron Sims in a guide booklet. "The building is a model not only for the region, but also for the vision of the Department to sustain a livable, clean and healthy environment for ourselves and future generations . . . It is the first major county building project wherein major sustainable design features were intensively researched and implemented as a means to educate ourselves and the design, development and construction industry."
At the Oct. 12 dedication, Sims praised the public-private partnership that created King Street Center, and expressed hope that "this building will be replicated elsewhere" with its green features.
Burns, too, emphasized the educational aspect. "Our hope is even if people don't do what we've done . . . if we can just get people's wheels turning and they can incorporate their own ideas into their own projects we've been a huge success."
Not Originally Green
King Street Center didn't originate as a green building, but it evolved into one through a collaborative process involving the county, developer Wright Runstad and Co. of Seattle, general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis of Seattle, and other participating building professionals.
"The developer had presented a preliminary plan for the building that outlined the overall size, construction and siting of the building to the county in the fall of 1996," according to a project summary by Laurel Rhoades of the county's Department of Construction and Facility Management. King County gained a "very desirable rental rate" for its two departments under a 25-year lease-to-own arrangement, and the preliminary plans and overall project were approved in January 1997.
Then the tenants came in with their own agenda. "Being the Department of Natural Resources, we would love to see us maximize the use of recycled materials as much as possible," Burns recalled. "In addition to that, wouldn't it be great to maximize environmental friendliness and sustainability factors associated with the building?"
Sure . . . except
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| The south side of King Street Center opens to a plaza. Photo by Mark Ohrenschall. |
"The effort to achieve sustainability was made at every turn in the project," according to the summary. "Whenever a design issue came up, through collaboration with the Wright Runstad project team, sustainable issues were considered and either adopted or rejected . . . The goals for the project were outlined around the sustainable principles of Energy Efficiency, Resource Conservation and Environmental Quality."
Among the possibilities raised and then jettisoned were advanced daylighting and solar energy. High levels of daylighting would have required shifting the building's orientation, which couldn't be done without "a major change to the design and siting," according to Burns. Solar, meanwhile, would have busted the budget and altered the building's design and appearance, for questionable energy results, given Seattle's frequently cloudy skies.
Green Building Features
Here are some of the green building features that made it into the building:
Lighting: King Street Center does make use of daylighting, even if not to the greatest possible extent. "System uses sweep sensors, occupancy sensors and daylighting dimmer system at building perimeter to minimize energy usage wherever possible," according to the project summary. Daylight availability is enhanced because most enclosed offices are located in the interior of each floor. Indirect two-lamp T-8 fluorescents are supplemented by task lighting and compact fluorescent downlighting in office areas. The building also includes energy-efficient LED (light emitting diodes) exit signs, according to Rich Wilkens of Lambda Lighting Group, the project's lighting consultant.
Altogether the lighting system will use a maximum of .86 watts per square foot, about 28 percent below energy code requirements.
HVAC: The HVAC system includes variable-speed drives on main air-handling units "to accommodate variations in loading and reduce overall consumption," the summary said. A computerized system can control the HVAC system by sections, Burns noted. And filters on air ducts contribute to what he described as "hospital-grade air quality."
In addition, the primary rooftop HVAC units can filter considerably more outside air than the norm--60 percent as opposed to the typical 35 percent. Exhaust from copy rooms is regularly vented outside to get rid of particulates from copier toners.
Recycling: The most visible recycling at King Street Center is underfoot--literally. The building contains 32,000 square yards of recycled carpet, billed as the largest use of "renewed" carpet in the West. "Milliken 'Earth Square' renewed carpet tile is tile that has been taken out of an existing building, cleaned, fluffed, trimmed, re-dyed and heat set with a new pattern and colors," according to the project summary. It fit within the original carpet budget, Burns said. And the difference between this carpet and conventional carpeting is not readily apparent.
Other used materials found in places in King Street Center include elevator lobby floor tile made from recycled glass, and paints on elevator lobby walls "made from leftover paint collected through King County's hazardous waste collection program," according to the summary.
Construction site recycling also was extensive. Lease Crutcher Lewis, the general contractor, recorded an 80-percent recycling rate for, concrete, steel, railroad ties, granite, masonry, wood, miscellaneous metals and other materials.
Water reclamation system: King County paid $325,000 for this system, which is acknowledged and intended as a demonstration, not a cost-effective application, although it will augment water supplies and divert rainwater from the city sewer system.
Rainwater is collected on the rooftop and delivered to and through three large tanks (5,400 gallons apiece). The reclaimed water is filtered and pumped in separate pipes into the toilet plumbing system. The county estimates the collected rainwater will account for nearly two-thirds (1.4 million gallons) of the building's total annual flushing needs of 2.2 million gallons, with domestic water supplying the rest.
Burns said he has already given 30 to 40 tours of the water reclamation system, for "everyone from builders to developers to environmentalists to other [government] jurisdictions." County employees, meanwhile, generally appreciate the new building and its green features: "Most people like the fact that . . . we tried to be conscientious of environmental factors."
One paramount lesson emerged for the county in its green building experience with King Street Center. "If you start at the very beginning it's easier to fold stuff in, easier to get it incorporated," said Burns. "I think Wright Runstad and the county did a heroic job getting what we did, considering the design was already done, the schedule was already set, everything was already locked in . . . The earlier you get involved, the better" for such sustainable design issues as siting, building orientation, recycled materials, daylighting and even traffic flow.--Mark Ohrenschall
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance board of directors approved up to $7.5 million of new spending for the market transformation collaborative, at its meeting Oct. 27-28 outside Seattle.
Nearly half that amount, about $3.6 million, represents continued funding for seven current Alliance ventures, including initiatives for resource-efficient clothes washers, compact fluorescent lamps and energy-efficient light fixtures. Another $3.1 million constitutes the Alliance's operating budget for 2000, which includes the potential addition of up to six new staff people. And up to $750,000 was allocated for research into specific markets.
In addition, the Alliance board chose Charlie Grist to succeed Carol Brown as chairperson for the coming year. Grist works for the Northwest Power Planning Council and the Oregon Office of Energy, and represents Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on the Alliance board. He outpolled board colleagues Stan Price and Mat Northway in the chairperson election. Northway was selected secretary and Darlene Nemnich treasurer.
Clothes Washer Initiative
The largest amount of continued project funding approved in October goes to one of the Alliance's flagship programs, the Energy Star Resource-Efficient Clothes Washer venture, formerly known as WashWise.
Seeking to transform the market for energy- and water-saving resource-efficient clothes washers, the Alliance has spent about $9 million on this program since its inception in 1997. More than half of this spending has funded consumer rebates, which ended about a year ago.
This initiative has made a difference, according to a May 1999 market progress evaluation report for the Alliance. Regional market share of resource-efficient washers has climbed from negligible to an estimated 13 percent in 1998, and most importantly, from a long-term market transformation perspective, the Northwest experience is influencing the process for upcoming new federal efficiency standards for washing machines. It has had less impact on retail prices, which remain substantially higher than conventional models--$250 to $500 more for top-selling resource-efficient units, according to the evaluation. Limited competition among U.S. manufacturers is considered a primary reason for continuing high prices.
The Alliance board voted 12-5 in favor of an additional $1.6 million for this program for one year, primarily to fund marketing and retailer incentives. Alliance officials anticipate this will sustain the initiative and its progress until the new (and presumably more energy-efficient) federal standards are officially adopted.
Residential Lighting
Another flagship venture, promoting compact fluorescent lamps, also will continue as the Alliance reassesses its strategy in the residential lighting market. The LightWise venture and Energy Star Residential Lighting Fixtures program will be combined under a $1.1 million 12-month budget, with slightly more than half earmarked for incentives and marketing. Over the coming months the Alliance will conduct market research and consider how to further approach residential lighting, according to board member Liz Klumpp.
A September market progress evaluation report on LightWise offered this assessment of the program: "To date, LightWise has been hampered by a variety of factors, including high power factor bulb requirements [since lowered to normal power factor], 
limited manufacturer initiative and competition, limited consumer education and retailer support, and changing program contractors. Despite these problems, it has brought many CFLs [compact fluorescent lamps] into the Northwest, influenced downward prices for program and non-program bulbs, and fostered CFL programs elsewhere. However, a substantial price gap still remains between CFLs and incandescent bulbs and many consumers are not even minimally aware of this type of bulb (43%). Even if they are, many are not convinced they should buy them when they cost much more, are unfamiliar, and are not available at their local grocery store."
Board member Norm Beckert believes the Alliance should leave this market altogether. "I think we're just barking up the wrong tree and spending an awful lot of money for nothing. I'm not convinced there are true benefits to this program that will cause investors to invest in this type of product," he said. "We're trying to sell people on something we think is good for them."
But board member Syd France, while acknowledging years of challenges in promoting compact fluorescents, nevertheless said he would "like to see us give it one more chance." Board member Ken Keating noted the Alliance has a great opportunity now to work with major lighting manufacturers as well as other regions of the country. "I'd like to see a better proposal [but] I will support the one here to keep us in the market," he said.
The one-year funding for the combined residential lighting programs passed on a 13-2 vote.
On another split vote, 11-6, the Alliance board approved $240,000 for one year for the Architecture + Energy: Building Excellence in the Northwest program. The funding will provide for workshops and other educational initiatives put on by the American Institute of Architects/Portland Chapter for building design professionals, but not the annual awards program. The Alliance board indicated it would issue a competitive solicitation for this venture should it be continued after this additional year.
Other initiatives approved for continued funding were Energy Star High-Efficiency Residential Windows ($350,000 through December 2000), National Standards ($144,000 for three years) and the Alliance's participation in the national Compressed Air Challenge ($50,000 for three years).
Meanwhile, the Northwest Lighting On-Line project has come to a successful conclusion, the Alliance reported.
2000 Operating Budget
The Alliance board wrangled over a proposed $3.1 million operating budget for the collaborative in 2000--a 23-percent increase over 1999--and ultimately concluded in a 15-3 vote that the spending plan was justified by growing demands on the organization.
Most of the budget expansion comes from the planned hiring of six additional staff people over the next year, stemming from increased workloads, according to Alliance officials. The six prospective new employees would work in administration, projects, evaluation, market research, development and industrial areas, according to executive director Margie Gardner. This would increase the Alliance staff to 25 people.
A memo from board members Brown and Grist supporting the proposed budget increase said, "The Alliance is now at a point where it is both managing a large portfolio of existing projects and getting ready to launch a series of new projects. Existing projects are at a point where they take more care and feeding to keep them effective. We [the Alliance] are recognized as the national leaders in the field of market transformation, especially in exploring new approaches for ventures and in the evaluation of those ventures." They noted that "even with the increase in staff, the administrative budget is only 10% of the anticipated annual budget of the organization." Of the $3.1 million, about $2 million is earmarked for administrative expenses and $1 million for project-related costs.
Among the expanded duties foreseen are project coordination, market research and technology assessment, utility coordination, stakeholder outreach, fund-raising, communications and administrative support, according to the memo.
Still, board members Beckert and Brian Hedman sharply questioned the planned budget increase. "Ratepayers are the ones who are really funding this stuff and they are under a lot of pressure," said Beckert. "How does it look for us to be adding this kind of staff? It is a very visible sign that we're quite willing to spend a lot of money on projects yet to be divined, perhaps . . . It's tough to get that message back to the people we do represent, to be able to justify."
Hedman suggested the budget increase poses a perception problem for the Alliance. "We're decreasing the amount of funding over what we've done the last three years and increasing staff. Even if it is justified, I think that's going to be a real tough public-image sell. I'd be more comfortable waiting to see what develops next year before we approve the additional staff."
Other board members, however, considered the proposed budget reasonable. "A lot of this is not only needed for the future but for the present," said Keating. "Members of staff are overstretched." He also indicated the Alliance's biggest savings could only come from cutting projects, which now account for 87 percent of total Alliance funding.
"I think we have a very good story to tell about the projects we've done and the type of staff we've acquired," said board member Jake Fey. "One of our responsibilities is to be responsive to the executive director when she identifies she needs more resources to upgrade the organization. I can't second-guess that . . . We all have a lot of confidence in Margie and what she's been able to do."
Separately, and unanimously, the board allocated up to $750,000 for targeted market research to be determined by the board's portfolio development committee. Prospective research areas include lighting, industrial, commercial construction and HVAC, and residential appliances, which have been identified as priorities.--Mark Ohrenschall
More Information:
Why energy efficiency? For commercial buildings a compelling answer could be improved worker productivity, health and comfort.
This message is much more likely to resonate than environmental benefits, resource sustainability, long-term cost savings or the common good.
The productivity/health/comfort angle comes out of extensive regional market research--including interviews, focus groups and resource reviews--conducted for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's Efficient Building Practices Initiative by Portland-based advertising and public relations firm Cole & Weber. This theme could be the central focus of the Alliance's $3 million public information campaign to promote energy-efficient new commercial building around the Northwest, planned to begin early next year.
Cole & Weber officials shared research highlights and prospective marketing themes with the Alliance board Oct. 28 and at the Idaho Energy Conference in Sun Valley Nov. 5.
It's All About "Me"
Cole & Weber vice president Steve Kokes summarized the market research findings: "It's all about 'me.' This is what we need to be talking about, the benefits of energy efficiency that are personal and do have a connection, that do something directly for that person. Do it for yourself, not the greater good, not for neighbors, not for kids and future generations. Comfort, health and productivity are the big benefits."
This conclusion arose through 72 interviews with building professionals, including architects, developers, building owners, engineers and home-builders around the Northwest; 18 focus groups involving people in those fields, as well as business decision-makers and home-owners; and a review of more than 100 available resources.
Kokes said, Energy efficiency "is not real top-of-mind in what people look for in a new home or office space," although some people cited it indirectly in mentioning good light or comfort.
The term energy efficiency "still conveys a sense of 'don't waste it' rather than 'the best thing to meet your needs,'" according to a written summary. It lives in the popular mind in the Jimmy Carter/gas crises era of the 1970s, which conjures thoughts such as turning down thermostats and wearing sweaters. "For the most part that is not a real positive mindset," said Kokes. "It has a for-the-greater-good thing about it, which is admirable and good, but it's got a limit in terms of how motivating it is."
Energy efficiency's connection to environmental benefits is not highly inspiring, either, Cole & Weber found. "It's a box people want to check, but they're not going to do too much for the environment, unfortunately," said Kokes. "They will not pay too much personally and they will not go way out of their way." And the term "sustainability" apparently has not penetrated the public consciousness, he noted. "Talking about sustainability isn't the way to get there for 99.9 percent of the population."
These findings led Cole & Weber to emphasize "me" in the public information campaign.
"So far in energy efficiency we haven't made the 'me' connection quite enough to get into the circle of me and my community and the environment," said Kokes. "The research told us we need to focus on things that are a little bit more 'me'-oriented. Productivity is where we're going."
Productivity
"The connection between energy efficiency and productivity is really easy for people to follow," Kokes said.
Employees understand the personal benefits from a comfortable and healthy work environment.
It makes sense for employers, too, since labor costs are as much as 100 times higher per square foot than energy costs. "It reframes the magnitude of the benefits of energy efficiency," said Kokes. "The old math is, 'Cost and payback; can I bear that? In doing the Earth a favor can I put up with that?' The new math is, 'Energy costs are low, labor costs are high.' A small change in productivity . . . can have huge financial implications."
Nearly 75 percent of the Northwest labor force works in office or retail settings, according to Kokes. Low unemployment rates give employees more leverage in seeking better working conditions. And thermal discomfort is a top complaint lodged by employees.
"We're going to be evangelists for a better place to work," said Kokes.
This information campaign is likely to focus on the employees and employers in the commercial sector, since productivity isn't a selling point in the residential market and home-buyers generally assume new dwellings will be comfortable and healthy. In addition, Kokes said, residential builders are generally more resistant than their commercial counterparts to embracing energy efficiency.
As it tries to stimulate demand for more energy-efficient buildings, the information campaign also should work the supply side by providing case studies and other information resources on a Web site. This will offer solutions for building professionals who find growing demand for energy-efficient buildings, according to Kokes.
"Many commercial professionals, especially architects, are familiar with the benefits of energy efficiency and are willing to provide them if given the opportunity," according to the written summary. However, "It was unclear . . . whether these professionals actually possessed the skill and specific knowledge to execute a truly energy efficient project."
Other communications elements are likely to include public affairs, advertising, public relations, and business and trade publications.
Workers of the World, Arise?
Employees have many other issues to consider in their working lives, said Alliance board member John Hines at the Oct. 28 meeting. "You need a significant amount of empowerment and push for employees to influence top management," he said. "I don't get the feeling that's possible" in this case.
Board member Norm Beckert noted many buildings already offer fine working environments. "To my mind it's highly inconceivable that 72 percent of the work force will rise up to demand better working conditions and productivity improvements."
Kokes described this as "a long-term thing. We want to start making a cultural shift in the mindset about this stuff. We're not really running a $2.99 special on buildings this year."
Other board members cautioned that comfortable buildings that foster productivity are not necessarily energy-efficient buildings, if, for example, they apply oversized HVAC equipment or excessive lighting levels. "In order for this to work at our end, we have to hitch our wagons to productivity and hitch it in a way that's inseparable," said board member Charlie Grist. "We could easily end up selling the productivity message without energy efficiency, and we've got nothing."
Kokes believes the Web site will help promote the efficiency aspects of better buildings.
At the Idaho Energy Conference, Boise mayor Brent Coles wondered whether the public information campaign could help encourage communities to adopt energy-efficient building codes. Another Idahoan noted that home-buyers generally don't know how much energy their home consumes. This suggests a home energy rating system, which Kokes acknowledged as a good idea--"The missing link in most energy efficiency programs in the last 20 years has been getting pull from the demand side"--but beyond the scope of this particular initiative.
The Alliance board is scheduled to review details of the public information campaign--including the creative content, timeline and budget--at its next meeting, in January.--Mark Ohrenschall
More Information:
A new organization to help local utilities foster solar energy applications has risen in the Northwest.
The Western Solar Utility Network Cooperative offers member utilities discount purchasing (25 percent-plus) of ready-made solar systems as well as training and education in their service territories.
The fledgling non-profit organization recently incorporated in Washington and already has seven Northwest utility members: city of Ashland, Chelan County PUD, Clark Public Utilities, Ferry County PUD, Okanogan County Electric Cooperative, 
Pacific County PUD and Umatilla Electric Cooperative.
Spearheading Western S.U.N. are founding board members Mike Nelson of Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program, Ellen Lamiman of the Okanogan co-op and K.C. Golden.
"What I see it doing is giving utilities a local direct way to meet any customer demand they might have for solar equipment, and also an easy way in that there's technical assistance and training available," said Lamiman, whose utility sports a 504-watt-capacity sun-tracking solar photovoltaic system to help power its headquarters in the north-central Washington community of Winthrop. Solar power with battery storage also has load-management potential for utilities, she noted.
"This is really uncharted territory for utilities, and they need hand-holding," Lamiman said. "They needed an organization in the Northwest."
Curtis Framel of the U.S. Department of Energy's Seattle office agrees. "We see this group adding value to the application of distributed energy throughout the region," said Framel, who works on the federal Million Solar Roofs Initiative. "We think an organization coming from the Northwest, selling to the Northwest, directed to utilities, might have some value."
Western S.U.N. Rises
Western S.U.N. arose from a 1998 solar energy conference near Winthrop, and discussions on how to lower solar-system costs as cost-effectively as possible, according to Nelson. What emerged was a wholesale cooperative purchasing directly from manufacturers and selling at cost to utilities that would sell at cost to their end-use customers (with nominal markups for the co-op and utilities). "It struck us all as real natural that rural electrics and PUDs and munis would be ideal customers for this technology," he said. "It would give them a chance to sell it to their customers."
The cooperative plan drew an enthusiastic response from utility participants at the same conference this October, according to Nelson.
"The co-op is going to revolve around prepackaged systems, pre-designed, pre-engineered," he said. Nelson thinks Western S.U.N. members will initially focus on off-grid but utility-supported applications. A 2-kilowatt grid-connected residential PV system will likely cost the cooperative $12,000-$13,000, he estimated. A 1-KW system, common for off-grid applications, should be about $10,000. With line extensions typically costing $30,000 a mile in the Northwest, any solar application more than a few hundred yards from the nearest electric wire looks economically favorable.
"This is something the small utility can grab ahold of and they can get in front of," he said. "Small utilities are light on their feet and they've got a lot of rural, currently cost-effective applications."
The utility economics could become more favorable with Bonneville Power Administration's proposed energy conservation and renewable energy wholesale rate discount, Nelson noted. Western S.U.N. also plans to seek government and private funding, in addition to revenues from annual membership rates divided into six categories ($50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000) based on a utility's total electric revenues.
"Basically what we're going to need to do to bootstrap it in the first couple of years is to find some of the overheads from foundations, etc., and be able to pass the hardware on to co-op members at the least possible cost," said Nelson. Lamiman said the cooperative expects to have a paid director, and will have other expenses such as educational materials, travel and the like.
The Supply Side and Education
On the supply side, Western S.U.N. already has interest from a number of solar manufacturers. At the recent solar conference, Nelson said, "Virtually every major manufacturer of solar in the U.S. was there and virtually all of them approached at one point saying they'd like to supply the co-op. That's real significant; it gets us behind that distributor barrier and gets us down to the best price for the systems. That's a real key to making it work."
"At this point what we've arranged with BP [Solarex], which we expect with other suppliers, is BP will act as a fulfillment house for us," he continued. "We won't have to have inventory and we won't have to buy them in any prescribed volume initially."
Members will be able to order systems off the Western S.U.N. Web site, or by more traditional phone, fax or mail. Initially the utility's price is likely to be more than 25 percent below standard retail rates for packaged solar systems, according to Lamiman.
In addition to bargain prices, Western S.U.N. members can take advantage of training and education opportunities for utility staffers, local professionals (such as installers and electricians) and the community at large. Training classes could, and should, involve actual installations, Nelson believes.
Although the cooperative eventually could expand to offer other renewable energy applications, it will initially focus on off-grid, prepackaged solar systems, Nelson said. "If we do that well, then we can look at other things to do, too."
Lamiman believes Western S.U.N. can contribute to moving the solar market. "There are people out there already doing [off-grid solar] on an individual basis. They're actually applauding this. Having the utilities involved is just one more piece of the pie."--Mark Ohrenschall
More Information:
On Feb. 2 of 2000, Bonneville Power Administration and a host of sponsors, including Energy NewsData's Energy Dynamics Online project, will present a one-day conference titled "Distributed Resources, Renewables and the Environment."
The conference will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel Jantzen Beach in Portland, and is a box-lunch no-frills conference with a $35 admission price. Its purpose is to discuss and study the ongoing rush of transformational distributed energy resource (DER) products and technologies in a plus-and-minus context of environmental concerns.
This conference comes almost a year after BPA staged its comprehensive two-day Electric Revolution conference in March. BPA is currently working on a follow-on conference for May or June (Electric Revolution: The Energy Web) in Portland. And there will be many more conferences throughout the world as interest in these cutting-edge developments grows and grows.
Co-sponsors with BPA include Renewable Northwest Project, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, 
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northwest Energy Coalition, Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, Northwest Public Power Association, Northwest Power Planning Council and the Public Power Council. NewsData's Energy Dynamics Online project is an organizing co-sponsor.
Two big low-price conferences in the recent past serve as the model for this one. First, in April of 1994 in Portland came the "Present Shock" conference cooperatively co-sponsored with BPA's lead. The second was a conference in July 1996 in Seattle to report on progress of the Regional Review. Both attracted hundreds of people. The two-day Bonneville conference in March, at a higher price, still attracted more than 500 people.
Those of us involved in organizing the February conference believe that timely involvement in DER issues of three special and related energy interests--renewables, energy efficiency and environment--is very important. The diversity of DER and related energy options represents an opportunity to couple meeting energy demand with net environmental benefit directly and indirectly. Direct benefit comes from deployment of cleaner generating hardware; indirect benefits range from coupling new generating hardware with energy efficiency and demand-side management measures to forestalling (or even eliminating) new power line construction.
Moreover, DER enthusiasts need to hear environmental concerns early in the game. I would like to believe that emergence of the energy products that BPA indexes as an electric revolution (and for which our company is developing a news service) represents an extraordinary opportunity for cooperation between the energy industry and the environmental community.
We have early commitments from speakers and panelists, including BPA administrator Judi Johansen; California consultant Carl Weinberg, widely hailed as the godfather of distributed generation; Eric Heitz of the Energy Foundation in San Francisco; Karl Rabago of the Rocky Mountain Institute; Rachel Shimshak of Renewable Northwest Project; Ken Keating of BPA and the Alliance; Alison Silverstein of the Texas Public Utility Commission; and Ralph Cavanagh of NRDC.--Cyrus Noë
More Information:
Bonneville Power Administration has encountered a new barrier in its efforts to help expand federal energy efficiency outside the Northwest, although BPA officials believe it will have only minor impacts on the agency.
The latest constraint on BPA's so-called "market development" activities for energy efficiency comes in the fiscal year 2000 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton on Sept. 29.
Section 314 reads: "No funds are provided in this Act or any other Act for the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration to enter into any agreement to perform energy efficiency services outside the legally defined Bonneville service territory, with the exception of services provided internationally, including services provided on a reimbursable basis, unless the [BPA] Administrator certifies that such services are not available from private sector businesses."
This provision arose out of complaints that BPA was competing with other energy efficiency services providers outside its Northwest service territory, a congressional staff person told Con.WEB. "I'm aware of at least one utility that was especially vocal about it," said the staffer, who didn't identify the utility, and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bonneville's market development work already is circumscribed by Regional Review-recommended principles, which intend to minimize BPA competition with private-sector firms and establish the agency's goal as expanding the overall market for energy efficiency services.
The FY 2000 appropriations language doesn't affect Bonneville in the Northwest or beyond United States borders, but it does apply in non-Northwest states, where a majority of BPA's current 120 projects--predominantly with other federal agencies--are in progress.
"This is the law of the land. We've got to comply," BPA energy efficiency vice president Terry Esvelt told the BPA Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee Nov. 2 in Portland. "We are in the process of developing guidance for our operations, our own staff, to implement this new law."
However, Esvelt also said, "I don't think it will have a big impact. We are going to move carefully and test how others feel about it almost on a project-by-project basis."
Bonneville proposes to focus on work considered "inherently governmental," meaning any function that must be performed by a government employee, such as overseeing contractors or making decisions on behalf of the government. Esvelt said this definition covers "the vast majority" of BPA's current energy efficiency activities with other federal agencies.
"In applications where we're called in by other federal agencies it's because they don't have the staff to do it, or perhaps the expertise," Esvelt told Con.WEB in October. "Often we're putting together requests for proposals and hiring private-sector firms on behalf of other federal agencies."
BPA typically provides federal entities with project development support--identifying energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities, developing proposals, procuring private businesses to implement projects--and in some cases limited engineering and technical support, according to a BPA background paper. "BPA does so only in response to agency requests for such support," notes the paper, adding, "BPA does NOT function as a consultant or energy services company (ESCO) when providing such project support."
Disappointment, Discouragement
Esvelt expressed disappointment and discouragement at the appropriations language. Only circumstantial evidence exists as to who was behind the provision aimed at BPA's energy efficiency activities outside the Northwest. "We really probed," he told the advisory committee. "Nobody was willing to name names." He suggested the language reflected a "theoretical, conceptual issue" for Congress, based on lack of information about BPA's actual role.
Bonneville officials believe the agency is succesfully fulfilling its mission to expand the efficiency market--to "grow the pie without eating it," as described by Tim Scanlon, BPA's federal agency lead for energy efficiency.
"I'm still puzzled as to what it is we're doing wrong," Esvelt told Con.WEB. "We keep thinking we're doing really good work, saving energy and helping federal agencies save on their power bills, sav[ing] taxpayers' money, creating work for the private sector."
From July 1995 to July 1999, according to a new BPA report, Bonneville "facilitated and/or directly contributed to" at least $22 million of energy efficiency contracts to performance contracting entities, investor-owned utilities and other private energy services businesses. These came from 129 project support requests completed by BPA. Another $7.4 million worth of requested project support activities were under review by federal agencies as of Oct. 15.
BPA spent nearly $3.1 million on its federal market development activities in FY 1999, of which more than $2.5 million went for subcontractor equipment and services. The federal sector accounts for substantially more than 90 percent of BPA's market development projects, according to Scanlon.
"BPA leverages small amounts of focused project development and direct engineering support expertise and is delivering important, valued results," according to the BPA background paper. "More federal energy efficiency and renewable energy projects are getting implemented faster and better than if BPA were not involved, and tens of millions of dollars of work is being delivered to the private utility and private energy services company markets."
BPA's customers, meanwhile, appear to be happy with the agency's energy efficiency help, according to a recent Bonneville survey of 12 federal agencies and eight publicly owned utilities. BPA's energy efficiency group earned an overall customer satisfaction rating of 8.4 on a 10-point scale. And 80 percent of the federal customers surveyed ranked BPA's customer service better than other energy services providers.
BPA's advisory committee, originally formed to provide guidance and advice on Bonneville's overall efficiency activities and market development in particular, reported in a December 1998 letter to the Northwest Power Planning Council that it is "generally satisfied with [BPA's] progress toward . . . Regional Review objectives."
Stan Price, executive director of the energy efficiency business trade group Northwest Energy Efficiency Council, called the FY 2000 appropriations language "unfortunate. It's clearly much less elegant than what we tried to do with the principles . . . to script the rules with a great deal more precision on the ability each party can bring to the table and respectful of the roles and relationships as well as strengths both Bonneville and private-sector businesses can bring to the marketplace . . . There is a government role for Bonneville to play. That's the appropriate one, and we've been working on how that works."--Mark Ohrenschall
Energy-saving electronic ballasts would become the national standard for fluorescent lighting in commercial and industrial applications over the next decade, under a negotiated agreement between lamp ballast manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates.
The mid-October agreement, if accepted as anticipated by the U.S. Department of Energy, would gradually eliminate virtually all magnetic ballasts and T-12 lamps in favor of electronic ballasts and T-8 lamps, which are considerably more energy-efficient.
"The impact here [in the Northwest] will be somewhat less than across certain other parts of the country," said Charlie Stephens of the Oregon Office of Energy, who helped negotiate the proposed standard. Many Northwest utility programs have promoted T-8 lamps with electronic ballasts, he noted. "It's still going to have a significant impact. It basically means magnetic ballasts and T-12 lamps are obsolete."
Stephens estimated that magnetic ballasts/T-12s now have about 50 percent of the national market for commercial/industrial fluorescent lighting, in 4-foot and 8-foot tubes, while the Northwest share is probably in the range of 35 percent to 40 percent. Washington and Oregon energy codes generally preclude magnetic ballast/T-12 applications in new buildings, he noted, and the agreement would phase out their use for fluorescent lighting replacement.
The energy-saving impact would be substantial. "30 to 40 percent is the minimum [efficiency gain] you should be able to expect" from switching to electronic ballasts/T-8s from magnetic ballasts/T-12s, according to Stephens.
Electronic ballasts have lower losses and operate at a much higher--and more efficient--frequency, he said. T-8 lamps, meanwhile, have a smaller diameter tube and use less energy than T-12s to produce lumens. “We’re hoping eventually to push almost everybody to a T- 8 lamp in part by requiring ballast technology to be very efficient,” Stephens said.
Nationally, DOE forecasts the agreement would save enough energy over 30 years--between 66,000 average megawatts and 167,000 aMW--to electrify an estimated 12 million to 26 million U.S. homes for a year.
"Lighting accounts for 20 percent to 25 percent of all electricity consumed in the United States, and as a nation, we spend billions on it each year," said U.S. energy secretary Bill Richardson in a DOE news release announcing the consensus agreement, which he called "a victory for consumers, for the environment and for industry."
The agreement is still subject to final DOE rule-making, but, said Stephens, "Most of us feel whenever DOE receives a consensus recommendation that fits with its program and has been agreed upon by the warring sides, they'll probably consider it expedient to accept that as probably the best course of action." He foresees the agreement becoming official by next spring, assuming "it doesn't receive too much flack of a serious nature." The DOE news release noted "it is expected that the joint recommendations will be accepted and written into the final standards."
These standards would take effect April 1, 2005, at which time "the manufacture of magnetic ballasts for new fixtures will cease," according to Stephens. Manufacturers would have to sell any remaining magnetic ballasts by July 1, 2005, and incorporate them into a luminaire by April 1, 2006. And by July 1, 2010, "the manufacture of magnetic ballasts designed for replacement use in existing luminaires has to cease," he said. Among the exemptions are some outdoor and dimming ballast applications, and certain magnetic ballast/T-8 combinations.
Standard Delay
National standards for commercial/industrial fluorescent lighting are five years late, according to Stephens. A congressional moratorium on new standards in the mid-1990s, analytical errors earlier in the process, and resistance from manufacturers all contributed to the delay, he said.
"The equipment for making magnetic ballasts is long ago amortized and the profit margin is pretty darned good," according to Stephens. However, only two manufacturers--Advance Transformer Co. and MagneTek--still make magnetic ballasts.
DOE was set to propose a new ballast standard this fall, according to an Oct. 19 memo from Andrew deLaski of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. "Industry only came to the table to negotiate when it became apparent DOE was resolved to upgrade the standard," according to deLaski. Stephens was joined by representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance to Save Energy in negotiating with representatives from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and other lighting industry officials.
"We believe the energy savings would have occurred naturally as businesses responded to market forces, but we think this agreement secures those savings," said NEMA president Malcolm O'Hagan in a news release. "Our lighting equipment manufacturers advocated a prudent and balanced approach, and ultimately their work and that of other negotiators will lead to wiser energy efficiency policies that will help consumers, protect the environment, while not unduly burdening the lighting industry."
Stephens believes DOE wants to wrap up ballast standards and focus its attention on standard-setting processes for clothes washers, water heaters and air-conditioners and heat pumps. "They have a lot going on," he said. "They didn't want this hanging around anymore."--Mark Ohrenschall
[Editor's note: This is the prepared text of an Oct. 27 talk by Seattle City Light superintendent Gary Zarker to the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance board of directors.]
Thanks for the nice words about City Light. We're proud of the tradition we've established at our utility and we intend to honor those past efforts by continuing our commitment to energy efficiency as the resource of first choice.
The history of conservation funding is one of constant struggle. Back in the mid-1970s, energy efficiency had to deal with the perceptions of a Bonneville Power Administration administrator who said that all the cost-effective conservation in the region would set back the construction schedule of a nuclear plant six months.
Then there was the high cotton period of the 1980s: Reddy Kilowatt on the run; large regional conservation programs that brought tremendous home improvements to existing homeowners and better, more efficient buildings through energy codes; utilities hand-in-hand with customers and early adopting municipalities facing an incremental cost of energy constantly on the rise. Then, we struggled with spending the budgets we had.
Now, the 1990s: marginal power costs dropping; competition and restructuring dominant; investments in efficiency dropping. Let's call this phase, "Day One at the Betty Ford Clinic." That's when I first came to City Light.
And it has been pretty grim:
In the rush to restructuring, most utilities were getting lean and mean for the impending realignment by throwing out conservation and other beneficial investments. Maybe it wasn't the right thing, but it was the necessary thing, the new thing, the savvy thing to do.
Tradition is helpful in hard times. Tradition helps keep you focused on the big things--the really important issues--and helps put in perspective those 15-minutes-of-fame issues that are always yelling at us. Together, City Light's roots in public power and energy efficiency kept our utility on a different path and a better one. In 1998, Seattle City Light's conservation investments totaled just under half of utility conservation investment in the entire state of Washington.
As a citizen-owned utility, Seattle City Light is committed to do more than provide low-cost, reliable energy. Our customers expect us to act as stewards of our resources, and efficiency is a big part of our stewardship. It supports our bottom line because it means we have to buy less power in the increasingly tight spot market. It supports our fish-first policy by providing a little more water when our fish need it. It puts us in partnerships with our customers that make both customer and utility feel special.
Two years ago, we were in a battle with one of our biggest customers--Birmingham Steel. It wanted access to the open energy marketplace and its promises of significantly lower cost, and it figured the way to the market ran through Olympia. With the help of a couple of skilled lobbyists, Birmingham Steel marked us up pretty good.
Over the last year, conservation became the means of rebuilding an important City Light relationship. When the legislative session closed, we both decided to work together on conservation investments that would help the company meet its competitive requirements and still keep revenue in our system. On Friday, we're presenting Birmingham Steel with a check for nearly $400,000, its share of the return for cost-effective conservation investments made in the company's plant. (See a City Light news release for more details.)
There's peace in the valley today because of the efficiency tool in our kit bag.
We're on track to meet this year's goal of just over six average megawatts of conservation acquisition, and our plans call for similar cost-effective conservation accomplishments in each of the next three years.
Not only does our conservation tradition help us adapt to a different marketplace, it helps us define the marketplace. When I served on the steering committee of the Comprehensive Review [also known as the Regional Review], I became a strong supporter of the recommendation to mount a regional effort to transform markets for energy-efficient technologies and practices.
Markets cut across utility and state lines, and it makes powerful sense to pursue market transformation as a regional effort. Thanks to you, the vision of market transformation is alive and well in the Northwest. It's supporting a variety of potentially valuable new technologies in every sector.
The regional approach has helped us at Seattle City Light to reallocate resources to efficiency investments in end-users that we had previously directed toward market transformation efforts in efficient clothes washers, residential lighting and other strategies.
That doesn't mean we're out of the regional game. We continue to work in partnership with the Alliance to operate the Lighting Design Lab, provide energy code support as well as support for the other Alliance programs that affect our service territory.
So, we're at another watershed time for our regional conservation efforts. The question is whether we continue to have a robust regional conservation program focused on market transformation that works in cooperation and with the support of individual utilities.
It's certainly a part of our tradition. The idea survived the rigorous Regional Review and, in fact, did more than survive. It made some new friends. For me, the concept of market transformation driving the Alliance brings together the two powerful ideas of public power--affordable electricity and the interests of the consumer.
In the face of a new challenge, we have to figure out how to keep the Alliance and its mission healthy and vibrant. We have so much to do, such as projects like the sustainable building strategy that is emerging from our partnerships with the city of Portland, Avista, Puget Sound Energy, Portland General Electric and others.
Beginning soon, you'll need a different mix of funding. Bonneville is planning to reduce its funding support for the Alliance, and this will cause a shortfall of about $4 million to $5 million annually that would be offset by funding from partial requirements customers of Bonneville.
It's a lot of money. We'll need to do some hard thinking and some serious talking together. Market transformation is one dimension of a comprehensive energy strategy, a part of an overall efficiency portfolio. Our City Council is presently reviewing a draft update of our utility's Strategic Resource Assessment that may well call for increasing our demand-side efforts. So at the same time we're asked to do more on one part of our portfolio, we're asked to do more in another part. And we're mindful that some of the utilities who may support a regional effort are making only token efforts within their own communities.
As I've learned in my five years of work at City Light, regional issues are always even more complicated than the totally complicated jumble you observe at first glance. So we need to start a conversation soon about how we do this. And we'll be there. It's part of our tradition.
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance has launched a new Web site with detailed Alliance project information intended for local utilities, Alliance contractors and others with a direct interest in the market transformation collaborative's work.
"Our goal is to provide our partners with an easy to use tool that will help facilitate the coordination and dissemination of project activity and ultimately, the effective delivery of our Market Transformation Programs," according to the Alliance's Project Coordination Web Site.
It contains extensive information related to Alliance projects, including events, evaluation activities, contact people and marketing resources. It also offers details about Alliance projects and links to project Web sites.
"The Alliance encourages you to share information, read about other programs and check out their web sites," according to the site. "Know what documents exist and what events are occurring. Share this information widely."
For more information, visit the Project Coordination Web Site and/or contact Alliance communications coordinator Elaine Miller: phone, 1-800-411-0834, ext. 246; e-mail, EMiller@nwalliance.org.
Pacific Northwest individuals and government entities have earned honors in the annual Federal Energy and Water Management Awards.
The awards, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program and the Federal Interagency Policy Committee, were presented in late October to 51 groups and individuals. They were selected from 166 nominations submitted by federal agencies, according to a DOE news release.
From the Northwest, Barry Brazzell, Raul Carreno and Ray Gerk of the U.S. DOE office in Richland, WA, received a water management award for small groups, for their work in using "innovative technologies to modify the existing cooling water system servicing four electron microscopes in various DOE laboratories," according to DOE.
C. Don Juhasz of the Idaho Army National Guard in Boise earned an energy efficiency/energy management award for individuals, based on a "comprehensive and aggressive" energy reduction program he started and managed, DOE reported.
An alternative financing award for small groups went to Kori Bertino, Peggy Crossman, Mark Levi, Rene Quinones and Mike Rose of the General Services Administration and Bonneville Power Administration, for their work on refinancing a project at the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, CA. (See Con.WEB, April 28, 1998 for a story on this initiative.)
More Information:
Applications are open for the 2000 BEST Business Awards honoring Portland-area businesses that save energy, conserve water, reduce waste or offer transportation alternatives.
The awards are jointly sponsored by the city of Portland, the Association for Portland Progress, the Business Journal of Portland, the Environmental Federation of Oregon and the United States Green Building Council.
Applications are due Feb. 20, and the annual awards will be issued in April.
For applications and/or more information, visit the Portland Energy Office Web site.
Nominations are open for an award recognizing outstanding achievement in promoting building commissioning.
The second annual Benner Award, named in memory of the late building commissioning advocate Nancy Benner, "recognizes individuals, programs, and/or organizations for outstanding achievement in educational, demonstration, policy, or actual commissioning activities that successfully promote building commissioning," according to the Portland Energy Conservation Inc. Web site. "Nancy's mission, personal dream, and her challenge to each of us working in the commercial building industry was to make commissioning business as usual."
Nominations are due March 3. For more information, visit the PECI Web site.
A Sustainable Building Advisor Certificate Program will begin in January in Seattle through Seattle Central Community College.
The six-month program is "designed to allow graduates to advise employers or clients on how to improve a building's economic and environmental performance," according to the program's Web site. It is intended for architects, engineers, tenant and developer representatives, project managers, resource conservation specialists and other building industry professionals.
The program offers classes on sustainable building, energy efficiency, lighting, materials use and specification, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, siting and transportation, sustainable landscape design, sustainable building practices and building operations and maintenance.
Classes will include interactive presentations, guest experts, case studies, group activities and application of the LEED Green Building Rating System, according to the Web site. Classes run from Jan. 11 through June 24, Tuesday evenings and one Saturday a month, at Seattle-area locations.
Registration fee is $900, which includes tuition and materials. Deadline for registration is Dec. 10.
For more information, call program coordinator Michael Boyle at (206) 587-4076, or visit the Sustainable Building Advisor Certificate Program Web site.
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