New Year, New Energy Plan
by Amy Fleischer

How much energy does your business need to run effectively and profitably? It’s very likely that the amount of energy you need is less than the amount you’re actually using. In essence, you’re buying more energy than you need. Yikes! This problem is easy to fix. Your utility company offers energy audits for small businesses free of charge. The assessment report will pinpoint how you can save energy in a few simple steps.

Florida Power and Light and Lee County Electric Company, the primary energy providers for southwest Florida, are reaching out to their customers through two programs: online energy audits and walk-through audits, both accessible here:

Walk-through audits can generally be scheduled within a week of your inquiry, and can be completed within one-to-two hours, depending on the size and complexity of your facility.

An energy auditor starts with the big picture: how much energy are you consuming per square foot, and how does that number compare to the statistics of a benchmark facility designated by the U.S. Department of Energy? Next, the auditor will develop a profile of your monthly, and even daily, energy use, in order to look at how different factors, such as seasonal climate change or production schedules, affect your bill. Finally, the audit will assess the distribution of your appliance use, including air conditioning, refrigeration, office equipment, and lighting.

“The number one thing is always the A/C,” reveals Annemarie, a Florida Power and Light customer service representative. FPL encourages business owners to lock in A/C settings with programmable thermostats – available at major retailers, such as Home Depot – in order to enjoy up to $100 in savings each year. They also recommend that you upgrade your appliances – newer models are more energy efficient; they note that the initial investment can be recovered by energy cost savings over time, typically within two years.

If your company leases its office space, you may be more constrained in the types of changes you can make. We recommend sharing your concerns with your landlord and working with them to implement a cost-sharing program on major fixes. In the meantime, you can focus on small things:

Two Good Reasons to Get an Energy Audit

Why is energy conservation an important goal, beyond our business’ bottom line? Here’s the real bottom line:

1. The energy we use to power our workplaces is derived, for the most part, from the burning of fossil fuels. Because our supply of fossil fuels is limited and cannot be replenished, we’re saving energy today so that we can keep the lights on tomorrow.

2. The burning of fossil fuels has a by-product: greenhouse gasses. An excess of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere traps the heat from the sun’s reflection on our planet, and the heat generated by our planet’s molten core, in our own atmosphere. As a result, the air temperature near the surface of the Earth and the water temperature are rising at rates that endanger plant and animal life in all of our ecosystems.

Bring It Home

A typical household spends about $1,900 a year on energy bills and contributes twice the amount of greenhouse gases to the environment as an average car. What can you do?

Your Feedback

In the coming months, we’ll be talking about innovative ways to increase your energy efficiency. Let us know what you’d like us to focus on, and what has helped you the most: e-mail your topic suggestions and article feedback to rbeck@audubon.org and be entered to win two complimentary day passes to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Audubon of Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a watershed system that is managed to maintain the native plants and animals and preserve the natural processes that have been occurring for thousands of years. The 13,000 acre property includes the last stand of virgin bald cypress trees existing in the United States. Visitors can enjoy the Sanctuary from a 2-1/4 mile boardwalk and expand their knowledge of ecosystems in southwest Florida at the Blair Audubon Center. Learn more at www.corkscrew.audubon.org.