How one small business cut its energy use and costs

The results of these simple steps have been extraordinary. By the end of 2008, we had reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 65 per cent, gasoline use by 63 per cent, landfill waste by 45 per cent, and water use by 18 per cent. We cut costs for electricity by 40 per cent, gasoline by 59 per cent, and water by 20 per cent. But the net savings are even more impressive: When vehicle and equipment maintenance, paper and toner, and other related costs and savings are considered, the company saves about $9,000 annually, which we can apply to further energy-efficiency upgrades.

In addition, we are experimenting with telecommuting, and we rescheduled supplier visits to coincide with commuting. We continue to learn lessons about maintaining teamwork in this process, and we have reduced employee driving by 43 per cent, and reimbursed mileage costs by 29 per cent.

The implications could not be clearer: there is a strong business case for slashing carbon emissions through simple, low-cost energy efficiency improvements. Energy efficiency upgrades look expensive when the payback comes entirely from energy cost savings, but we found additional savings on maintenance, supplies, and more. This finding is important because it belies the myth that reducing emissions necessarily requires investing in systems with high up-front costs and very slow payback. We are now approaching the threshold where solar PV will make sense for us, but we cut our emissions by nearly two-thirds before reaching that threshold.

Neither building ownership nor financing for expensive upgrades was a prerequisite for success in our case. But the scarcity of information about which actions work was an almost prohibitive barrier. Small business owners cannot afford to hire energy consultants, and it is unrealistic to think that many business owners will duplicate our research efforts. Even with all of our success, my company is not sure which efficiency upgrades to pursue next.

We will continue to reduce electricity demand by replacing older computer equipment that is obsolete anyway. Thereafter, we must turn to our building itself, and we will probably need help to be successful with that. Like every other small company, we would benefit from information that helps us prioritise options. Which of the following investments is likely to provide the best balance of up-front costs, fast payback, and emissions reductions: cooler roofing, window and wall shading, better natural ventilation, water-conserving landscaping, flash water heating, or solar water or PV? We simply do not know, and finding answers is beyond challenging.

Regulators have told me that they are confounded by the sheer diversity of small businesses and their circumstances, which may be why current information resources merely report anecdotal achievements. But our experiment suggests that they could do better with further analysis. Developing information that is genuinely useful to small business owners should be a top priority for government agencies.

Reducing energy demand and carbon emissions is everyone’s business, and we have shown that it is good business, too. Our 12.3 metric tons reduction in emissions is not significant compared to total US emissions of nearly 7 billion metric tons, but this comparison misses the point. In the end, these reductions were absurdly easy to achieve, and they pay dividends. Duplicating them across the nation’s 29.6 million small businesses would yield significant gains.

More importantly, people create new behavioural norms when they tackle problems together. Small businesses employ half of the private-sector workforce, so engaging the nation’s small businesses can create a new culture of energy efficiency quickly, if the proverbial cats can be harnessed in this challenge.

The contributions that small businesses can make to America’s energy and climate future are being squandered through inattention. The time has come to energise the workforce that we employ and get it working on the problem. Moving quickly to save money is what small businesses do best. With better information and encouragement, small businesses can become humanity’s first responders in the climate crisis.