Industry and Company News

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Happy Holidays!

Posted December 22nd, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

Holiday greetings and best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year from all of us at GreenTech (and our talented pets).

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Training for Tomorrow

Posted December 16th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

GreenTech is closing out the year with training sessions for sales and operations staff. We have hosted presentations on new products by lighting technology experts, brainstormed over ways to deliver better service to our customers, and brought in a consultant to help us find ways of making internal operations run more smoothly and effectively. We’re looking forward to putting our ideas into action in 2012!

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Staples Earns Accolades for Energy Efficiency

Posted December 7th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

When the  2011 Platts Global Energy Awards were handed out at a gala dinner in New York last week, Staples stepped up to the podium for the second year in a row to be recognized for its Energy Efficiency program, coming in first in the “end-user” category. GreenTech was pleased to be a participant in the celebration; as a Staples vendor, we have designed and installed lighting retrofits in the company’s distribution centers and retail stores across the country.

The lighting projects are just one component of the “Staples Sustainability Program,” which has made waste reduction and energy efficiency a core value of the nation’s leading office supply company. Other pieces of the energy efficiency puzzle include “smart grid” technologies, heating and air-conditioning optimization techniques, automated demand-response technologies, and “green IT” initiatives.  Staples has also launched a multi-year educational campaign designed to teach all its stakeholders that energy-conscious behavior is good for the environment, society, and the company’s bottom line.

Staples was among 21 winners announced in 19 categories at the awards dinner. Nearly 500 energy executives from around the world attend this annual black-tie event, often described as the “Oscars” of energy. Platts, the producer of this event, is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information.

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Shedding New Light on Community College

Posted November 29th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

GreenTech is designing and installing an energy conservation project at Hartnell College, in Salinas, California. Lighting is being upgraded in the gym complex, visual arts and theater arts buildings, the garage, and other areas of the college’s two campuses.  A rebate from the utility company will offset 50% of the cost of this upgrade. In addition to annual energy and operational savings of $119,748, the college will be reducing its carbon emissions, enhancing the safety and security of outdoor spaces, improving the aesthetics of interior spaces, and complying with new Federal energy efficiency standards.

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Community Outreach

Posted November 21st, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

At GreenTech Energy Services, our planet-friendly philosophy is not restricted to promoting energy efficiency and recycling. We also support a number of community causes, including food drives for the homeless, the annual Multiple Sclerosis bike race, and even efforts to reduce animal overpopulation. We recently got an opportunity to put our words into action when a family of young cats took up residency on the grounds in front of our office building. We brought the mom and her kittens to the local Animal Welfare Association, which operates a low-cost spay/neuter clinic, and are currently seeking to place them in good homes.

We wish all our customers, along with our four-legged friends, a happy Thanksgiving!

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On the Road Again

Posted October 13th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

GreenTech will be exhibiting at the annual Green California Schools and Community Colleges Summit & Expo, taking place October 17-18, 2011 at the Pasadena Convention Center. This promises to be a great opportunity for California school officials to hear about all aspects of going green, from funding to new building technologies to implementing green curriculum. Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive chairman and co-chair of the newly-formed Blue-Green Alliance, will be the keynote speaker. For information and to register for the summit, log on to www.green-technology.org or call Cindy Dangberg at 626-577-5700. And if you go, be sure to visit us at booth #114!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, we will also be exhibiting at the Mid-Atlantic Buildings and Facilities Management Show and Conference on Nov. 2 & 3 in Somerset, NJ. This conference will focus on LEED, sustainability, energy, building design and much more, for facilities in a wide range of markets, including healthcare, education, industrial, commercial and entertainment. Again, if you plan to attend, please stop by booth #416.

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Sustainability Boosts Bottom Line

Posted August 23rd, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

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Hunting for Eco-Treasure

Posted June 13th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

GreenTech recently participated in a General Electric “Eco Treasure Hunt,” (ETH) hosted by a Staples distribution center in Orlando, FL. This was one of over 250 EHT’s run by GE at corporate sites across the country, ranging from manufacturing plants to theme parks to office buildings. In these events, GE sends a team to the site to study the facility’s energy use and to identify and recommend energy savings opportunities. Included on these teams are GE employees as well as outside energy experts like GreenTech who have worked with the facility owner. In this case, GreenTech was brought onboard by Staples, for whom we have done numerous lighting projects over the past several years.

A typical hunt, running from Sunday through Tuesday, utilizes small group activities, with each team being assigned a specific focus area, such as operational processes (cutting, washing), energy sources (electricity, steam, natural gas) or types of equipment (motors, HVAC, lighting). Following tours of the site, teams analyze and document all potential areas of energy waste, using GE’s ETH calculators to quantify potential energy savings, capital investment cost, return on investment, and payback schedule.

Companies interested in participating in a treasure hunt are required to provide detailed facility energy use data, and must demonstrate a high-level environmental commitment. They must also show that they have the resources and time to host the event as well as implement the results. “Follow-up is key,” says GreenTech’s vice president Paul Haviland, who participated in the Treasure Hunt at Staples. “The event will result in a wide variety of recommendations for cutting utility bills and reducing carbon emissions, but it’s just words on paper unless the company has the commitment and resources to implement the recommendations.”

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Less Power for Lighter Loads = Lower Utility Bills

Posted May 24th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

Think about it: a plant or distribution center could have six miles or more of conveyor belts. The motors running those belts are sized and designed for maximum load conditions, but those conditions rarely occur. The result? Lots of wasted energy. To take another example, an escalator – which is a type of conveyor belt – is typically designed to carry 250 pounds on every step. How often have you seen 250 pounds of human and/or equipment on every step of an escalator, even in a busy airport?

Even when fully loaded, motors generally operate at about 80 percent efficiency; unloaded, their efficiency plummets. Inefficient motors generate energy waste in the form of heat, vibration and noise. To put it another way, the actual cost of a motor only accounts for about 3% over the lifetime of the equipment…the other 97% is energy!

If you could control that energy consumption, you could significantly reduce maintenance costs and lengthen the life cycle of the motor. That’s where motor efficiency control systems come in. A typical system uses a digital signal processing to monitor the motor, sending data about the load every three seconds or so. This allows the motor to be provided with the optimal amount of power required to perform the mechanical work. Voltage is reduced during lighter loads, cutting energy use without changing the speed of the motor.

• For every ten degrees they reduce the temperature, controls literally double the life of the motor.
• Controls installed on motors with larger voltage (three horsepower and up) and on conveyors with steeper inclines, provide paybacks of less than three years, with energy savings ranging between 22-27%.
• Typically, a strong surge of current rushes into a motor when it’s started up. Over time, this causes wear and tear on the motor, and also incurs high demand charges from the utility provider. The “soft-start” capabilities integrated into most motor controls prevent that from happening.

Pictured above is a Three Phase Motor Efficiency Controller manufactured by Power Efficiency Corporation. This motor control system has a variety of applications, from conveyor belts and escalators to moving walkways and elevators – basically any equipment driven by motors that don’t need to be geared up to 100% capacity 100% of the time.

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Philly hosts LIGHTFAIR – and GreenTech will be there!

Posted May 11th, 2011 by GreenTech Energy Services

Next week, GreenTech will be touring the exhibit hall at LIGHTFAIR 2011, getting the scoop on the latest lighting technologies to hit the market. This trade show and conference, taking place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia from May 15-19, is one of the lighting industry’s most renowned educational programs.  Our staff members will be taking a variety of seminars, ranging from “LEDs: Fact vs. Fiction,” to “Lessons Learned from Recent Lighting Audits: The Good, and Bad, and the Ugly!” Afterwards, we’ll send a summary of all the information we’ve gathered to our customers – let us know if you’re interested!

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