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.