Page 117 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

96 CHAPTER 3

Each company will need to determine a methodology for normalizing emissions. It
could be per employee, per square foot, per unit produced. Those sorts of goals can be
worked out with whichever resource (e.g., Climate Leaders, WRI) your firm uses to
audit emissions. However, the overriding factor is that greenhouse gas generation
must be slowed and then stopped to prevent global climate change, so we will begin
moving toward looking at absolute emissions, 245 tons of eCO for 2006 vs. normal-
2
ized emissions. In fact, Melaver, Inc. has pledged to become carbon neutral—mean-
ing we will reduce and offset our emissions until they are balanced at zero, a goal we
have achieved and will continue to achieve going forward. (More on this later.)

OK, Now What?
Once the baseline audit of emissions is completed, an organization can begin to estab-
lish a GHG reduction plan. It could be an absolute reduction (e.g., we will hold emis-
sions to 2005 levels going forward). Or GHG emissions can be normalized, based on
per employee, or per square foot occupancy. The audit also allows you to focus on the
areas where conservation and efficiency will have the most impact. For Melaver, Inc.
(see Figure 3.4), electricity consumption was the leading contributor to our carbon foot-
print, accounting for almost 40 percent. This became the logical place to start reducing
emissions.
Fortunately, reducing electricity consumption offers the opportunity for a financial
return. Investments made to reduce energy consumption result in lower operating
expenses, which adds directly to the bottom line. At Melaver, Inc., over the past four
years we have invested in many quick return opportunities to both save money and
lower our environmental footprint. Such opportunities include lighting retrofits that
reduced our lighting demand by 60 percent, switching to laptops and LCD monitors,
installing low-flow aerators on our faucets (to reduce hot water demand), and install-
ing window film on our office building in Atlanta to reduce solar heat gain and
decrease our air conditioning demand. This resulted in a 5 percent reduction in abso-
lute emissions and a 31 percent reduction per staff person. This is a win/win—saving
money and reducing emissions. Also included in our overall strategy were the reno-

Business Travel: Air Electricity
22% 37%

Business Travel:
Ground
12%

Employee Commute
29%
Figure 3.4 Melaver, Inc. 2006 eCO emissions.
2