Starting a New Fire!

The thought of $5 or $6 gas is often generated when we hear about fuel shortages, and everyone then reacts to the though by considering how we can discover more oil to refine into fuels and plastics for use the world over...

But are there alternatives?

The Rocky Mountain Institute through their recently released book, 'Reinventing Fire', offers a wide array of alternatives for use in the four primary areas where we use energy. The areas are Transportation, Building and Building Management, Industry, and Electrical Generation...and the alternatives are all worth considering...

Let's take just one for review... the refurbishment of the Empire State Building in NYC. Anthony Malkin and his company own the Empire State Building and over the past several years they have conducted a refurbishment of the site... $500M in refurbishment. This project brought the 81 year old building up to sustainable speed... and defined how large projects can successfully reduce costs. Consider this... initially the update on energy distribution and delivery was budgeted at $93M and was going to put in new, improved versions of the old equipment...including complete overhaul of the sub level chillers located under the streets of New York. Malkin however looked at the costs from several vantage points...and in the end he decided to completely redesign the energy structure for his building in a fully integrated way. The cost was $106M...or $13M more than initially planned. As a result the Empire State Building received all new double glazed windows (manufactured on site), under floor ducting for A/C and heating, improved natural lighting, energy capture from elevators and more...

What was the payback...? An annual savings of $4.4M in energy expense ...that's ANNUAL! He recovered the added expense in 3 years and is realizing that 'internal profit line' from now on. Add to that the reduced carbon footprint from lower fuel use at the power source, internal energy generation and the improved work environment and you begin to see the value added opportunities Malkin envisioned.

What if every realestate management team were to do the same...

The book is Reinventing Fire... and the ideas for how to reduce our oil use to near ZERO in 40 years are real and accessable now based on existing technologies...Just ask Anthony Malkin.

Earth really is a small planet...

As we look on to earth from the surface of Mars we come to understand that Earth really is a small planet. Too small for us to just keep heaping it with pollution.
This NASA photo taken by the rover Spirit in 2004 offers us the ability to witness our place in the universal expanse. But with all of that it also helps us to understand that man can do some amazing things, and that even one man or woman can make a difference.
We each need to find our path, and walk our path towards helping to change the world. Me? My choice is seeking out real, doable sustainable threads for all organizations and communities to do, and then working with them to get those things done.
What's yours'?

Saving $$$s and Diesel on the road...

Replacing the standard two thinner tires per wheel normally found on 18-wheeler Trailers with a single wide-base tire improves the fuel efficiency of heavy-duty tractor-trailer trucks and allows them to be made to run with more stability, according to studies by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Interstate tests by ORNL’s National Transportation Research Center show gas mileage increased nearly 3% with use of wider single tires on tractor-trailers. Bill Knee, who headed the study, said the change also allows widening of the trailer frame by six inches, providing a much more stable configuration.We noticed that there was about a 2.9% fuel saving in using the new generation single wide tires over the standard dual tires.

These trucks do 125,000 miles per year on the average. They currently get five miles per gallon. You can see there is a considerable amount of savings dollar-wise that can be realized through tires like this.—Bill Knee With those figures, a 3% improvement in fuel economy would reduce fuel consumption by about 728 gallons per year per truck. The wide base tires improve fuel efficiency by decreasing weight and rolling resistance. Knee said tire formulation and the design of the tire are likely contributors to the fuel savings.

Diesel costs over $4 a gallon today, and these savings will yield upwards of $1000 annually in fuel savings per trailer hauled. Now multiply that by the number of 18-Wheelers on the road and we see lots of gallons and dollars saved due to a shift in standard equipment.