Sieben Blog

"Carbon Nation" Nominated for Environmental Media Award

Sarah Barnes — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:11:00 GMT

A nominee for best documentary at the Environmental Media Awards, “Carbon Nation” is a film very close to Sieben Energy Associates. CEO Craig Sieben was a producer on the film which was released in February 2011. The Environmental Media Association (EMA) advocates for environmental responsibility in the entertainment industry. EMA’s annual Environmental Media Awards honors films and television programming that demonstrates achievements in delivering effective green messages. “Carbon Nation” discusses the issues and the solutions surrounding climate change through interviews with a diverse group of people combating climate change. The film documents how a low-carbon economy would provide not only solutions to climate change, but also address current pressing social and economic problems; including job creation, public health, and national security. The EMA presents their awards October 15, 2011.

SEA Shares MBCx Success with BOMA Conference Attendees

SEAadmin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:35:00 GMT

On Sunday, June 26^th, Jerry Burin and Chris Philbrick presented “Monitoring Based Commissioning Success” at the International Conference of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in Washington, D.C. Their presentation explored the monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) process, an innovative, data-driven approach to achieving improved energy efficiency. SEA’s MBCx assignment at 311 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago, served as a case study for the presentation. 311 S. Wacker is one of the city’s most recognizable skyscrapers.

The presentation provided attendees an overview of the new technologies driving MBCx and the benefits of tracking and acting on building performance data. MBCx uses web-based data tracking that enables SEA to identify energy saving opportunities. Jerry and Chris demonstrated how MBCx generates information that enables building owners to optimize HVAC performance while maintaining occupant comfort. Data-driven energy management is nothing new to SEA. MBCx is an emerging trend in the industry, however, and Jerry and Chris were pleased to present SEA’s success in MBCx to the international conference audience.

For more information about SEA’s 311 S. Wacker Drive MBCX assignment, read our press release announcing it.

SEA Founder Chosen for Emanuel's Transition Team

SEAadmin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:10:00 GMT

Craig Sieben, SEA’s founder and CEO, has been chosen to join Chicago Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel’s Transition Team. As a member of the Energy, Environment, and Public Space Committee—a team of community, business, and non-profit leaders from the Chicago-land area –he will help draft and provide recommendations to Mayor-Elect Emanuel concerning a number of issues facing the city . The insight and expertise of the Energy, Environment, and Public Space committee will help the Mayor-Elect address the impact of environmental and energy policy on Chicago’s economy, public safety, efficiency in social services and healthcare, and energy use.

Inspiring Impact at the MEEA Conference

Chris Philbrick — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:23:00 GMT

I attended the 2011 Midwest Energy Solutions Conference January 12-14 in Chicago. This annual gathering, produced by the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) and sponsored by the utility industry, brings many of the region’s experts together to network and strategize about energy efficiency.

As a MEEA member, Sieben Energy Associates follows the energy efficiency marketplace very closely so that we can provide our clients with the best service and information. This conference makes us aware of the latest utility programs, products, and new players in the region. This year we were updated on the progress of energy efficiency programs from several Midwestern utilities, including Detroit Energy, DTE, Ameren, and ComEd. And we were reminded that the U.S. will invest more than $1 billion in energy efficiency in 2011. This annual amount is expected to double by 2015.

The highlight of the conference for me was attending the Inspiring Efficiency Awards Dinner. The awards dinner is a chance to honor and recognize the Midwest’s leaders in energy efficiency. Awards for outstanding achievement were given for Education, Leadership, Marketing, Impact, and Innovation.

I was delighted to see the award for Impact go to ComEd for its Retro-Commissioning Program. Sieben Energy Associates has been a proud Service Provider for this program since its inception, and we feel a special connection to this honor. So congratulations to ComEd, Nexant, and all the Service Providers and clients that made it possible.

CAN You Believe It?

SEAadmin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:15:00 GMT

Sieben Energy Associates (SEA) was proud to sponsor Team CANopy from Nagle Hartray Danker Kagan McKay Penney Architects in the recent CANstruction design/build competition in Chicago

Canstruction^® (a foundation of the Society for Design Administration), holds competitions in hundreds of cities around the world benefitting shelters, food pantries, and elderly and day care centers. The 4^th annual Chicago competition took place May 14- June 2 at Merchandise Mart Plaza. The event brought together the design and building community to raise awareness and benefit the 678,000 people the Food Depository feeds each year.. Teams of design and building professionals created sculptures made entirely of canned food items. After the event, all 70,000 cans were donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Team CANopy took home Honorable Mention for their impressive giant tree (made of tuna and baked beans). Congratulations! It’s amazing what an innovative design, a supreme team, and a remarkable amount of baked beans and tuna can do… SEA was happy to be part of it!

See a photo of Team CANopy and their creation.

Pew Center Conference Review

Jerry Burin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:45:00 GMT

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change held an energy efficiency conference in Chicago on April 6 and 7. This year it was entitled From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency and coincided with their release of a report on the best practices in corporate energy efficency.

Interesting keynote and luncheon speakers ranging from Suzanne Malec-McKenna, the City of Chicago’s Commissioner of its Department of Environment to John Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, to former Senator John Warner, helped set the context for the conference—that the world is changing, and that fossil fuel-generated carbon emissions will surely become an economic factor within our society—with an associated cost borne by consumers.

Sustainability and environmental representatives of household name companies such as Toyota, IBM, Best Buy, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, Coca Cola and the Mars Candy described their companies’ efforts to establish and attain sustainability goals. A significant focus of their respective strategies was reducing energy consumption through energy efficiency—the notion of optimizing energy use in everything from heating and cooling of buildings to product manufacturing processes.

Several notable takeaways:

Establish big reduction goals—even if you don’t know how they’ll be met. Big goals inspire people.
Increasingly carbon will be measured as part of the manufacturing and delivery process of bringing a product to market—lots of carbon is embedded in the supply chain—expect to see carbon indices on consumer products as commonly as we see the ingredients of food products listed on their packaging labels.
Electric utilities will be big drivers of energy efficiency to offset the need to build more power plants—increasingly utilities will de-couple their profit motive from the sale of power and find the means to remain profitable as they reduce power sales.

Over the course of two days, speaker after speaker took the opportunity to demonstrate how their organization was focusing on energy efficiency to help meet sustainability goals. The conference served as a wake-up call for companies that, to date, have failed to heed the signs that sustainability, and by inference energy efficiency, is a mega trend at our doorstep.

America’s Building Stock – The Second Saudi Arabia

Dan Bailey — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:29:00 GMT

The energy (reduction) potential in America’s building stock is a tremendous resource, equivalent to tapping a second Saudi Arabia. The energy appetite of America’s buildings is enormous, but we can begin to cut back on the excess without sacrificing comfort or performance.

Craig Sieben spoke to this theme last week before the Realty Club of Chicago in a speech entitled “America’s Building Stock – The Second Saudi Arabia.” Craig referenced the excellent work of Art Rosenfeld, an award-winning scientist, one of the earliest promoters of energy efficiency in the U.S.—and one of Craig’s personal mentors.

In his speech, Craig emphasized smart and simple examples of what building owners and managers can do to cut back on their energy consumption. Reducing the energy appetite of our buildings is one small step towards a goal of U.S. energy independence. How can this be? Let’s do the math.

In 2008, the U.S. imported 1.5 million barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia. We consumed about 19.5 million barrels per day, which means that 8% of our appetite was satiated by Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves. Also in 2008, total U.S. energy consumption (all types) was 100 quadrillion BTU—3% of that total, or 3 quadrillion BTU, was the oil imported from Saudi Arabia. Our nation’s buildings accounted for 40 quadrillion BTU, or 40% of our total energy consumption in 2008.

If we’re able to cut the energy consumption of our buildings by just 15%, or 6 quadrillion BTU, we would reduce our total energy consumption by 6%, and we would offset twice the amount of energy that we import each year (in the form of petroleum) from Saudi Arabia. That’s a huge opportunity.

Retrofitting existing buildings is essential to reducing their energy consumption. Even simple steps, however, such as painting roofs white so that they reflect rather than absorb a greater amount of sunlight, can help mitigate cooling costs. Chicago alone has over 23,000 commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings—in addition to over one million residential units that range from single-family homes to condominium towers.

From the experience of hundreds of projects that Sieben Energy Associates has completed over the years, the energy consumption of a typical commercial, institutional, or industrial building can be reduced by 2–10% with very inexpensive (or even essentially free) energy efficiency measures. With a little more up-front investment that pays for itself with two or three years through lower energy bills, a reduction target of 15%, or even greater, is often easily achievable. Reducing energy consumption also reduces corresponding greenhouse gas emissions.

Trends show that America is moving in this direction. In June 2009, The U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, or Waxman-Markey bill. For new buildings, this legislation calls for a national commercial building code with energy use reduction of 30% relative to ASHRAE 2004 (upon signing), 50% by 2015, and 75% by 2030. And for existing buildings, the bill requires implementation of a Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program, administered by the states, to help spur retrofitting throughout the country.

In July 2009, McKinsey & Company projected a 23% decrease in energy demand and energy savings of $1.2 trillion (net $680 billion) through 2020 from energy efficiency improvements in our nation’s buildings.

And in December 2009, New York City passed a substantial energy legislation package with energy audit and lighting retrofit laws that apply to existing buildings.

As more and more building owners and managers work to understand their energy usage and environmental impact, more and more are turning to energy efficiency as a cost-effective solution for their business and their community. Sieben Energy Associates has over two decades of experience in the energy efficiency industry and can help your organization improve the performance of your buildings while reducing your operating expenses.

Craig Sieben to Address Chicago’s Historic Realty Club

SEAadmin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:55:00 GMT

What is the realistic potential for energy and cost reduction in our nation’s buildings through energy efficiency? Craig Sieben will be answering that question during an address before the Realty Club this Friday, March 19. This private event will be held at the Union League Club of Chicago. The Realty Club, celebrating its 100th birthday this year, consists of a group of developers, architects, attorneys, economists, brokers, appraisers, and other professionals involved in real estate. They invited Craig to speak about the value inherent in making our existing buildings more energy-efficient. The title of his speech, "America’s Building Stock – the Second Saudi Arabia," hints at a value that may greatly surpass most people’s expectations. What does Craig mean by the "second Saudi Arabia" in our buildings? Check out this blog again the week after this event for a summary of his message to the Realty Club.

Sieben Energy in Attendance at North American Energy Conference

Dan Bailey — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:23:00 GMT

On Wednesday, March 3, Jerry Burin and I will be attending the North American Energy Conference sponsored by Enbridge Gas Services. This annual event, to be held this year at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, provides background on the U.S. natural gas market—where it has been, where it is now, and where it may be going.

The first of two scheduled keynote speakers is a director from the American Gas Association. He is expected to provide fundamental analysis of natural gas supply, demand, production, and consumption. The second speaker, a vice president from United ICAP, is expected to provide a technical and financial perspective on the natural gas market and the economy as a whole. Previous conferences have provided a wealth of information. This year, it will be particularly interesting to hear what the speakers may have to say about prospects for climate legislation, including cap-and-trade.

Over the past few years, the natural gas market has certainly been in flux. Prices rose to multi-year highs in the summer of 2008 before plunging to multi-year lows just over a year later. We are constantly monitoring the pulse of the market to help our clients manage their exposure to energy price fluctuations. Sieben Energy Associates has developed energy purchasing strategies for a number of large organizations to help them minimize the impact of high energy prices.

If Enbridge’s North American Energy conference this year is as good as it has been in previous years, we can expect to come away with a great deal of insight that will inform the work we at Sieben Energy Associates perform on behalf of our clients. Of course, nobody can predict the future with 100% certainty; for that reason, we are continually capturing energy commodity market news from a variety of sources, reviewing and filtering it to understand the consensus position, and communicating the relevance of it to our valued clients.

Craig Sieben to Lead Discussion at Wall Street Journal Conference

SEAadmin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Next week, March 3-5, the Wall Street Journal is once again hosting its premier environmental event for chief executives and policymakers "who are shaping the green business market." This year’s ECO:nomics Creating Environmental Capital Conference will be held in Santa Barbara, California at the Bacara Resort and Spa.

Just a few of the many leaders who will be participating are Dr. Steven Chu (Energy Secretary), Robert A. Iger (President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company), Peter Voser (Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell), Michael G. Morris (Chairman, President, and CEO of American Electric Power), T. Boone Pickens (Chairman of BP Capital Management), and Amory Lovins (Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute).

The Wall Street Journal describes the motivation for the conference as follows:

At this critical moment, with prospects for a global carbon emissions regime in flux, there is an urgent need for new answers. Corporate CEOs and entrepreneurs alike must alter their strategies to address a continuing recession and extended regulatory uncertainty. Where should decision makers focus? Find out at ECO:nomics, where the best minds in business and policy uncover the real risks and opportunities in the fast-changing world of environmental capital.

Craig Sieben, who participated in the event last year, was once again invited to serve as a Discussion Leader on the third day of the conference. He will be in attending events throughout the conference. Besides sharing his own expertise on energy efficiency with others, Craig is sure to come away with fresh insights from leaders and speakers that will help shape the valuable strategic perspective that we at Sieben Energy bring to all of our client engagements.

The three-day event promises to be a highly informative, influential, and entertaining. Attendees should come away with a better understanding of today’s strategic opportunities and risks at the intersection of business and environment.