Board of Advisors: Jigar Shah

JIGAR SHAHCEO, Jigar Shah Consulting

ENERGY IN MY OWN WORDS. Energy affects everything. Water, transportation, cost of business, heating, cooling, warmth, communication, food and more.

Think about eating a piece of lettuce. Probably something a person might never think about. While you gain energy from that food source, it took a lot of wasted energy to arrive to you.

It was watered and grown in the field. It was harvested, and transported by field tractor, packaged in a plant, trucked to a store, stocked in a lighted refrigerated case, put in a grocery bag (made at a paper plant), then transported back to your home – often by automobile.

The transportation cost of lettuce in New York that was grown in California is 70% of the total. If that same lettuce were grown in a hydroponic garden near New York, transportation cost would be 30% of the total.

The same can be said of energy transported over power lines to a building versus solar panels on the roof of that building.

Energy has to become massively local. Energy affects literally everything. To me, nothing is more important.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS WE CAN MAKE MOVING FORWARD? Energy and infrastructure are important. For that we need a plan, not just any plan, one that ensures that we reduce oil prices and control natural gas price volatility – the goal is sufficient energy with much less environmental destruction.

WHERE ARE GREAT IDEAS COMING FROM? Great ideas come from everywhere large corporates and small entrepreneurs. But it is only the small entrepreneur that is willing to shake up the status quo and disrupt the current system with their great ideas.

WHAT IS OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE MOVING FORWARD? We have invested billions of dollars into innovation since the 1970s into solutions to our current problems. We need to keep investing in innovation, but refocus our effort on to deployment.

HOW DO WE ENSURE GROWTH AND INNOVATION? Deploying the thousands of solutions that we have invested since the 1970s represents the largest wealth creation opportunity on the planet.

To learn more about Jigar Shah or to buy his new book, Creating Climate Wealth, click here.

Improving on Energy Efficiencies – The Jordan Institute

When it comes to sustainability, most buildings in the U.S. over-consume resources. At The Jordan Institute, a New Hampshire-based non-profit organization, the primary mission is reducing the consumption of energy in commercial buildings. It sees that by addressing energy usage in buildings, building owners soon realize a cascade of other benefits. The Institute works to make the buildings across New England energy efficient, environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing for the surrounding community. Historic, multi-family, commercial, industrial, warehouse, mixed use, office buildings, dormitories—it doesn’t matter what the building is designed for—The Jordan Institute and its new for-profit subsidiary, Resilient Buildings Group, Inc., have the expertise to reduce their energy consumption. This work in turn leads to myriad other benefits including improved operations and maintenance costs, durability, comfort, occupancy rates, indoor air quality and aesthetics.

The Back Story

The not-for-profit Jordan Institute was founded in 1995 with an initial gift from Doyle E. and Lenore M. Jordan. Its initial objective was to conduct research and engage in policy initiatives that connect environment, public health and the economy. Since its early days the organization has grown to include consulting services, energy audits, building modifications and energy savings verification.

As the Institute’s successes multiplied, and demand for its building retrofitting services increased, it came to recognize a pressing need for a sister organization capable of providing in-the-field project management services. The company introduced the for-profit Resilience Buildings Group, Inc. in July 2013.

Making Buildings Energy Efficient

New England buildings use local materials, clay bricks for construction and oil-based boilers with steam radiators for heating. From the founding of the country through the middle of the 20th century that model was practical. However, today those buildings are energy sieves, losing heating and cooling faster than the HVAC units can operate. It is highly impractical to tear the structures down, especially so when many of them are treasured historical jewels. The work of the Jordan Institute leads to market-driven improvements in individual buildings, spurring greater community improvements.

How the Process Works

After a building owner contacts Jordan Institute for a preliminary audit, the Institute sends a team out to conduct a complete energy audit that includes building structure, windows, HVAC, lighting and air exchange. They develop a short report with recommendations on where the owner can maximize investments in improvements and what the impacts of the improvements will be in terms of reducing heating, cooling, maintenance, lighting and electric costs. By making the changes a building operator can reduce and stabilize the building’s operations costs.

An Historic Building Example:

Take for example the historic district of Claremont, New Hampshire. With stimulus funding, Gary Trottier borrowed funds at a low interest rate and combined other grants and his own savings to make a $1.2 million upgrade to this 1890s mixed-use, three-story, 32,365 square-foot building, the Union Block. With seven retail spaces on the ground floor and 34 low-income apartments upstairs, the building is very attractive from the outside. However, its energy use was abysmal and the building was very uncomfortable. Trottier only leased one retail space, and rented apartments on a week-to-week basis; the building was never fully occupied. One thermostat “controlled” the heat for the entire building, meaning that the retail spaces were bitter cold in the winter, while occupants on the third floor had their windows open, wearing tee-shirts even in January.

After an energy audit and lengthy discussions with the local and State historic preservation leaders, building operators developed a plan to improve the building. After addressing strategic air sealing in the basement, attic, and other glaring voids, 12 inches of cellulose now insulates the attic. Renovators enclosed a large stairwell to reduce the “stack effect” where warm air rises up and out, and replaced the antiquated oil-fired steam heating distribution system with a high-efficiency, bulk-stored, wood-pellet hot-water system. A solar hot water system provides a portion of domestic hot water to the residential units. Each unit now has a thermostat to control temperatures in individual units and each is properly ventilated.

Net results:

- Energy costs reduced: 30 percent - BTU savings: 53 percent - Occupancy: nearly 100 percent with 6-month and 1-year leases

Community benefit: Preservation of a beautiful historic building, comfort and dignity for the residents and tenants, and a business model which allows the building owner to remain solvent. Across the street, friend and former college roommate, Andy Dauphin exclaimed “I want what he got!” And so began the quest to improve the Moody Building, another beautiful brick historic building. These projects led to other creative ideas, including the launch of a small district-heating system using waste heat from local industrial sources like the paper mill. And without much ado, an urban revitalization was underway.

The Money Side of Building Efficiencies

The Jordan team has worked on hundreds of buildings in New Hampshire and across New England—energy audits, energy monitoring and verification, building commissioning, LEED consulting and certification, and owner advocacy—and by launching subsidiary Resilient Buildings Group, it can now scale-up the impact by adding energy-centric construction management services to its offerings.

Since Jordan’s start, public policy initiatives have been at the core of its work. Projects in the field have informed the Institute’s work so that it can address legislative and regulatory barriers to market solutions. With the bulk of projects now being handled by Resilient Buildings Group, Jordan can return its attention to public policy and developing programs to liberate the market into making good decisions without public dollars.

Current legislative efforts are centering on solutions to finance these projects. New Hampshire is notorious for its state motto, Live Free or Die, and for investing few public funds into energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. When public funds become available they must be leveraged to the hilt.

Says Laura Richardson, Jordan’s new executive director, “We think we can make some legislative and policy tweaks which will allow the private market to finance these projects over longer terms so that they are more comprehensive. Ultimately, that is the biggest challenge we now face —financing. With stimulus funds, we built the know-how in the state and there is interest to make these improvements. But public funds will never be enough to cover these costs; the private market needs to help us solve this problem. Most of New Hampshire’s buildings are heated with oil, and our electricity rates are among the highest in the nation. Finding solutions to reduce energy use in buildings is critical for us.”

The Bottom Line

Energy-efficient buildings are more value than simple operational cost reductions. An efficient building reduces energy demands, enabling utilities to support more structures with the existing power infrastructure. Efficient buildings improve occupancy comfort levels increasing lease retention. And the ability to improve historic buildings adds value to the surrounding community by retaining its heritage.