Tag Archives: Sustainability

The Energy Symphony: When You Wish Upon A Star

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium. The next movement is all about being a star – an Energy Star. This program of the Environmental Protection Agency was originally created to reduce air pollution, but has now become the most recognizable […]

The Energy Symphony: We Don't Need No Education

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium. Did you know that occupants control as much as 70% of a building’s energy consumption? If you want to make your building more energy efficient, educate the building’s occupants about how to be smarter […]

The Energy Symphony: Call Mac, Maybe

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium. “Call Me, Maybe” may have been omnipresent during the summer of 2012, but the title of this movement of our Energy Symphony is “Call Mac, Maybe.”  Why? Because maybe you should change your buying […]

The Energy Symphony: Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium. Humans make errors, but robots are perfect, right? Well, if you can automate some functions, you can remove human error. In this case, error means forgetting to turn the lights off when you leave […]

The Energy Symphony: Phantom of the Opera (& Office)

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium. Our symphony continues with another dark movement. Plug load (electronics plugged into outlets) consumes 20-25% of a building’s energy use, whether or not the electronics are actually turned on!  You’ve probably heard the terms […]

The Energy Symphony: The Future's So Bright…I Gotta Wear Shades

by Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM  Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium When thinking about building energy efficiency, here’s an idea: let’s all agree to have no more bright ideas!  He can have good ones and even great ones, but no more bright ones. Why?  As […]

The Energy Symphony

By Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM Adapted from a presentation at the Central Penn Business Journal’s Real Estate & Development Symposium I was recently invited to speak about energy efficiency in buildings at the Central Penn Business Journal’s annual Real Estate & Development Symposium, which was held on September 3 at the Hershey Lodge (if […]

The Case for Commissioning

By Timothy A. Warren, PE, LEED AP BD+C When Owners look at project design fees, they often compare the design fee to the overall cost of construction.  While this comparison may be useful for some general benchmarking, the reality is that the overall operations and maintenance cost for a building dwarfs both the cost to […]

Lead by Example: Environmental Stewardship

By Timothy A. Warren, PE, LEED AP BD+C As Design Professionals, engineers have a responsibility to be stewards of the environment.  Since buildings consume nearly 40% energy and 40% raw materials, while also producing 30% of the waste output in the United States, our approach to building design has immediate and long-term impacts to the […]