The ever-changing solar market continues to move ahead with enormous strides. While such innovations such as the new “plug ‘n’ play” solar panels are creating buzz, there are a number of other significant innovations that are helping homeowners fulfill their energy-saving goals.

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation recently introduced a material that enables the walls of buildings (and other structures) to generate electricity. Unlike solar panels or films, the energy is produced within the actual building materials, integrating them into the structure of the facility.

According to the company, each square meter of the material is capable of generating about 80 watts of power, with an efficiency of 11% (most solar panels are 10% to 20% efficient).

When you consider the potential for commercial and industrial applications, in particular, this technology could prove to be a significant step.

…To the Top of the Wall
And if solar-capable walls aren’t enough, keep climbing up the walls. And no, it’s not a solar panel you’ll see.

Those are shingles.

Looking for an alternative to traditional solar panels, but don’t know where to turn? You’re in luck. The Dow Chemical Company launched its POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle late last year in Denver, (they are expected to expand to other markets this year).

The new, three-part solar roofing system package includes shingles, an inverter and an energy monitoring system. The shingles can be customized to fit budget and energy goals, and can be arranged to integrate with the style and form of the home and roofline. Moreover, they provide the same functionality and protection as a traditional shingle.

An inverter then converts Direct Current (DC) produced from the shingles into Alternating Current (AC), which is then fed to the home’s appliances (or back to the power grid). And a real-time monitoring system provides readouts to homeowners to assess energy usage, production and the amount of excess power flowing back to the grid.

What Could Be Next?
With significant improvements to window and door solar technology, and the potential for solar-powered sidewalks and roads, what will be the next frontier for the solar-powered home? Printable solar strips for your inkjet, perhaps? Let’s hear your ideas!

Article by Tim Laughlin, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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One of the key drivers for community and residential energy storage is distributed solar photovoltaics (PV). This is because distributed PV causes fluctuations on low-voltage networks (the end of the line of the grid, essentially). In order for the residential side of the market to take off, customers need an incentive to prioritize either onsite consumption of renewable energy or dynamic pricing for residential electricity rates. Either will work, but both will require customers to have better information about energy and how they are using it.

To that end, California-based solar PV developer and manufacturer SunPower has introduced a smartphone application for Android that delivers information to customers on the energy performance of their residential solar system, their home’s energy usage, and environmental savings on an hourly, monthly and annual basis. The app also gives users access to historical data and the option to share data. This mirrors the tracking data available on the firm’s website, but delivers the information more conveniently and without the need to log into a website.

Although this doesn’t present a financial incentive for residential energy storage, apps like these improve the energy awareness of homeowners much in the way that smart meters do. Presenting residential PV owners with more information about their energy generation and use is the first step in helping customers understand whether or not they would benefit from optimizing distributed renewables by using storage.

Other apps in a similar vein include Radio Thermostat, which lets users who have installed physical radio thermostats in their homes to remotely manage the temperature from a smartphone. Many more applications are educational, teaching users how to improve energy efficiency and perform energy audits. These apps are just scratching the surface in terms of home energy management, but are nonetheless important because they are making information accessible, easy to understand, and most importantly, easy to use.

Article by Anissa Dehamna, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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The worldwide movement toward sustainability has made significant progress over the past half-dozen years as companies and cities have pursued strategies that balance future and current societal needs. Now, sustainable development is entering a new phase, characterized by greater alignment within and between the public and private sectors.

The road to sustainability has been plagued with roadblocks, including an unprecedented global financial crisis and attempts by entrenched business and political interests to deny climate science. Perhaps the greatest obstacle has been the lack of consistent and comparable standards for defining and measuring sustainability. Although these issues have yet to be fully resolved, many well-coordinated initiatives in recent years have pointed the way forward for companies and cities..

In 2012, major trends shaping the sustainable development movement include:

Transparency – Buildings, companies and cities are measuring and disclosing energy usage, carbon emissions and other information relating to sustainability. Commercial building owners don’t always have a choice: Five major U.S. cities and two states have enacted energy performance measurement and disclosure policies to date, and nine more cities and states have bills under considerations, to help tenants and investors make better informed decisions. Buildings in Europe are required to display energy performance certificates, and Australia is implementing similar requirements.

Corporations don’t require legal mandates to encourage disclosure. In 2011, more than 3,000 companies, including 404 Global 500 firms, voluntarily reported their carbon emissions, water management and climate change policies to Carbon Disclosure Project in 2011, perhaps swayed by CDP’s 551 investor members, who use the information in deciding where to place more than $71 trillion in investment capital.

Transparency is also on the rise at the city level. CDP invited 58 cities worldwide to report sustainability related data for the first time in 2011, and 42 responded, with 38 of them making their responses public. This year, CDP Cities is expanding its request to 150 cities and continues to see a high response rate, as well as extraordinary awareness and commitment on climate change issues by city leaders. These leaders recognize that managing energy, water and waste not only helps attract residents and business growth but also enhances quality of life in a variety of ways.

Global Consistency – Deeper sustainability reporting by cities and multi-national corporations has intensified the need for consistent ways to measure the effectiveness of energy, water and other sustainability strategies on a worldwide basis. Given the wide regional variation in environmental priorities around the world, the end goal may not be a single global standard, but a way to translate local government and business practices into a common global vocabulary for measuring effectiveness and recognizing achievement..

LEED, the building sustainability rating system originated in the U.S., is now frequently pursued in many countries with their own systems, as owners seek to attract international tenants. ENERGY STAR, the U.S. EPA energy benchmarking standard, will soon be able to provide accurate ratings across North America, thanks to a new cooperative agreement with Canada. And in 2011 the International Organization for Standardization released the ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems, which includes specifications for measurement, documentation and reporting on energy consumption.

Consistent measurement is important to corporations as they focus on sustainability not only in their own operations but, increasingly, throughout their supply chain as well. And while CDP Cities is not attempting to rank the sustainability of cities, it is developing a globally cohesive framework for understanding the effectiveness of sustainability strategies pursued by different cities.

Public/Private Collaboration – 2011 stood out as a year when government and business organizations explored their shared green goals and realized that public-private partnerships and collaborative initiatives are often the best way to overcome obstacles to sustainability. Some of these joint efforts will start to bear fruit in 2012.

A clear example is the December announcement of a $4 billion energy retrofit commitment by the U.S. federal government and 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders. Called the Better Buildings Challenge, the eight-year initiative includes $2 billion in energy upgrades of federal buildings and another $2 billion of private capital to improve energy by 20 percent in buildings totaling 1.5 billion square feet. (Jones Lang LaSalle joined the Challenge with a commitment to work with owners on improvements at buildings totaling 98 million square feet.)

The Better Buildings Challenge illustrates the alignment between business and government goals in seeking energy and carbon reduction. Achieving those goals also requires cooperation; for example, groups ranging from the World Economic Forum to Greenprint Foundation have called for changes to loan underwriting guidelines set by governmental bodies to facilitate financing of energy retrofits. More directly, U.S. states have found they can increase renewable energy installations at buildings by offering incentives that would make solar power cost-effective for owners within a relatively short period.

As a firm that serves government and business entities, Jones Lang LaSalle sees tremendous untapped synergy between the two groups in achieving energy and sustainability goals, particularly in the area of public-private partnerships. As just one of many examples, airports and other government entities often have surplus land that’s unsuitable for commercial property development but could be leased to private companies for development as large solar energy installations;

Focus on Solar Energy – Speaking of solar power, 2011 was a breakthrough year for new installations in the U.S., and continued growth is seen for 2012, albeit at a slower pace. More than 1 gigawatt of photovoltaic solar energy capacity was installed across the U.S. in the first three quarters of 2011, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). By comparison, 887 megawatts came online in all of 2010, which represented a doubling of the total installed base at the time.

Solar energy installations at commercial properties drove much of the market growth in 2011, but the pace of new installations dropped significantly in the third quarter, SEIA reported. The big story going into 2012 is the unprecedented rise in utility-based installations, which jumped by 325 percent from the second to the third quarter.

The strength of the solar market in 2012 and beyond will be affected by several variables, including basic supply and demand economics, technological improvements, and the amount and type of available incentives. It is clear, however, that interest in solar energy continues to grow as payback periods grow shorter and fossil fuel costs continue to rise.

2012: Taking Sustainability to the Next Level

The common theme to all these trends is of an industry poised to break through to the next level. The industry has moved swiftly through initial phases of understanding the basic costs and benefits, implementing low-cost initiatives, exploring more sophisticated strategies, and navigating around roadblocks. Today, it is easier to see the opportunity for dynamic progress by cities, property owners and corporate tenants that have laid the groundwork for growth and success.

Article by Dan Probst, Chairman of Energy and Sustainability Services at Jones Lang LaSalle, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers recently released a study examining the future of the U.S. electric grid.  MIT concluded that developing a modern grid through the anticipation of needed improvements can facilitate the integration of renewable energy resources, accommodate a growing number of electric vehicles, improve resiliency, and enhance efficiency.

The President and his Administration agree on the importance of a modernized grid – and in June the National Science and Technology Council released A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid.  The Policy Framework provides a roadmap to ensure that all Americans benefit from investments in the Nation’s electric infrastructure, and it features four policy pillars:

• Enabling cost-effective investments to catalyze the development and deployment of new technologies and infrastructure;

• Unleashing the potential of innovation in the electricity sector through a greater focus on standards and interoperability;

• Empowering consumers and enabling informed decision making by responsibly expanding access to energy usage information;

• Securing the grid from cyber-attacks and improving its recoverability in the event of one.

The Administration is taking a number of concrete steps to put these principles into action, building on the Department of Energy’s $4.5 billion in Recovery Act investments that are improving grid performance across the Nation. For example:

• The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service is investing up to $250 million in cost-effective smart grid technology in rural America by June 2012.

• To advance flexibility and interoperability within the grid, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its Draft Standards Framework 2.0 for public comment.

• The Administration has also launched Energy.Data.gov, an open government platform that brings together free high-value datasets and tools, maps,and apps to increase awareness of and deepen insights into our Nation’s energy performance.

• And through its “microgrid” initiatives, the Department of Defense is working to test distributed generation and electricity distribution systems that will help enhance the security and efficiency of military bases both at home and abroad.

To empower consumers and foster innovation, the Administration will continue to promote the common-sense idea that consumers should be able to get access to and download their own energy usage information. That’s why U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra recently issued the Green Button challenge to industry—and utilities in California are already stepping up.

In a similar spirit, I am excited to see this week’s announcement from the Biggest Energy Saver competition, which challenged electric utility customers in Texas to reduce their energy use. The top 10 percent of consumers cut their electric use by an average of 26 percent – and the grand prize winners in each region won a Chevy Volt.

And finally, the Administration is working to improve the overall quality and timeliness of electric transmission infrastructure permitting through the interagency Rapid Response Team for Transmission.

In his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, President Obama outlined a vision for safely and responsibly developing energy supplies while providing consumers with choices to reduce costs and save energy. In addition, as MIT’s new study confirms, modernizing our electric infrastructure is essential to America’s clean energy future.

Article by Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer

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Sixty days ago, U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra challenged the utility industry to enable consumers to download their detailed energy usage with the simple click of a “Green Button.”

The concept of a Green Button—inspired by successes in getting Americans their own health care data, but developed by the energy industry in a consensus process and adopted voluntarily—builds on policy objectives in the Obama Administration's Blueprint For a Secure Energy Future and Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid to ensure that consumers have timely access to their own energy data in consumer-friendly and computer-friendly formats.

With this information at their fingertips, consumers would be enabled to make more informed decisions about their energy use and, when coupled with opportunities to take action, empowered to more actively manage their energy use. Furthermore, making this information available—in standardized file formats—will help spur innovative new consumer applications and devices from entrepreneurs, large companies, and students. Here are just a few ways data from the Green Button might be put to use today:

* Insight: entrepreneur-created web portals to analyze usage and provide actionable tips;
* Heating and Cooling: customizing thermostats for savings and comfort;
* Education: community and student energy efficiency competitions;
* Retrofits: improved decision-support tools to facilitate energy efficiency retrofits;
* Verification: measurement of structural energy efficiency investments;
* Real Estate: energy costs for tenants and/or new home purchasers; and
* Solar: optimizing the size of rooftop solar panels.

Since the call-to-action at GridWeek, a lot has happened.

Industry is already stepping up to empower consumers. California’s three largest utilities—Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison—are working together to create a “Green Button” that would allow customers to download their detailed energy usage with one click.

While these utilities are still working towards the final details, significant progress has been made towards a single format (an xml file). To make this early information readily available to a broader community of app developers, a Green Button webpage has been created on NIST’s smart grid wiki with useful material such as the current “working” file format and other technical background.

Article by Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer.

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The tech world is abuzz about the first new product from the man who led the teams behind the first generations of iPod and iPhone.

A newer, sleeker super-phone you ask? Perhaps a teleportation device?

No. Even better! Drum roll please…

It’s a thermostat!

Yes, you read right. The next greatest thing to come from the mind of former Apple VP and leader of the iPod and iPhone divisions, Tony Fadell, is called Nest.

Turns out, there’s a good reason for the buzz.

Just as the iPod isn’t like any other music device, Nest isn’t like any other thermostat. The Nest is the world’s first learning thermostat. And this could be the ultimate game-changer.

The Nest is designed to transform the way we heat and cool our homes and businesses by absorbing multiple pieces of information and delivering a multitude of features and benefits – all tied together with a sleek design (of course).

Imagine a device that understands how and when to keep you comfortable, while also saving optimal energy – day or night, summer or winter. Sound too good to be true? The proof is in its built-in Nest SenseTM.

Nest Sense is a combination of built-in sensors and algorithms that help Nest understand what’s happening around it. Those sensors detect activity, temperature and weather.

Simply put, the Nest operates as if it has the ability to learn your behavior, anticipate evolving conditions and change heating or cooling settings to keep you comfortable. Most importantly, the Nest will save you a significant amount of energy by programming itself.

Of course, the Nest will have the ability to communicate with your smartphone, just in case you forgot to turn down the heat on your way out of town.

What’s more, the Nest not only will learn and anticipate your habits at home, but it also will share energy usage data online. The Nest technical team will use the information to develop better, more sophisticated software to avoid potential problems in the future.

According to the company, software updates will come automatically via the web, and users can perform analytics to better understand their own energy consumption.

And while this device sounds complicated, one of its most attractive features is its ease of use.

With this device – and perhaps other products to come – the company says it wants to change the world. If the excitement I have for the Nest is any indication, they may be on the right track.

Article by Tim Laughlin, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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Last year, my wife and I went through the delightful process of buying a home (I also had to sell a home, but that’s a post for another time). While we can look back and laugh about it now, there were many times when we thought the deal would fall apart.

The home which we now own is an older home, built in the 1920s. We knew going into it there likely would be issues – just a given for a home nearly 100 years old.

We did our due diligence and consulted a home inspector. His report came back with a slew of issues we expected – adventures in electric wiring, improper grading, cracks in the pavement – the usual.

But there were a few things from the report that did give us pause, particularly those that focused on the home’s energy efficiency. While most of the windows were new, there were other capital-intensive upgrades that needed attention, including a new furnace, re-worked air ducts and updated insulation, among other items.

Living in Minnesota, I can deal with a cracked driveway. But living without a furnace? That’s just not an option.

As we considered all of the updates needed to make our home as efficient as possible, our heads began to spin. Ultimately, we realized we would need to make a sacrifice, but it was frustrating to have to make such significant short-term sacrifices when our end goal was saving long-term energy – and dollars.

If only there was a way to purchase and install the energy-efficient equipment in our new home while still staying within our original budget.

Well, it turns out for many Americans, there is a way to do just that.

A number of programs are available that can help homeowners make energy-saving improvements to their homes. The FHA Energy Efficient Loan program helps current or potential homeowners significantly lower their monthly utility bills by enabling them to add the cost of making energy efficiency improvements into their mortgage. The program is designed to eliminate the need for homeowners to take out an additional mortgage loan to cover the cost of the improvements they intend to make to their property.

How the Program Works
Similar to a more traditional “home renovation” loan, a home’s energy savings are calculated using the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) index, which calculates what the average energy usage would be in the home once the improvements are made compared to a similar home that did not have the work done.

It’s a great option for qualified home buyers/owners looking to make a dent in their annual energy usage. And it’s a great option for people like me that love the character of older homes. Even newer homes can benefit from a program like this.

What do you think? Is this a good idea or yet another hurdle in the dizzying home-buying process?

Article by Tim Laughlin, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

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A white paper authored by Schneider Electric suggests that meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets will fail unless “Active Energy Efficiency” becomes compulsory. They define “Active Energy Efficiency” as “effecting permanent change through measurement, monitoring and control of energy usage,” and contrast this to “Passive Energy Efficiency,” which is regarded as the installation of countermeasures against thermal losses, the use of low consumption equipment and so forth.

The paper concludes, “Without proper control, these measures often merely militate against energy losses rather than make a real reduction in energy consumed and in the way it is used.”

I suppose this is really the crux of the political debate about CFLs versus incandescent lightbulbs, and the many other similar points of discussion. Do we have some sort of “right” to use energy in any way we please? We understandably resent government telling us what to do, but can’t we see the legitimacy of standards that are aimed at ensuring a clean and life-supporting planet?

Obviously, the ideal situation is one in which people don’t need to be forced to do the right thing. But how close are we to that? In the meanwhile, I think we need to support the idea of environmental standards for all our business and consumer products – to the degree that they can be established fairly, without the undue influence of money and power.

Of course, that doesn’t sound like a piece of cake either ….

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While the U.S. is known around the world for innovative companies like Google and Facebook, there is a new vanguard of American companies creating and exporting clean energy technologies,” said Jim Kapsis.  His company, OPower, an information-enabled energy efficiency company, is one of them. Opower is transforming the relationship between consumers and how they use energy in their homes.  According to Kapsis, Opower is on track to save households more than $100 million next year and enough energy to take the equivalent of more than 100,000 households off the grid.

Founded in 2007 by two college buddies, the company started out with a simple idea: utility bills are too difficult to understand.   The friends, co-founders, Dan Yates and Alex Laskey, bet that if people had better information about their energy usage, they would use less of it, save money, and improve the environment.  “It was an innovative business idea, but given the complexity of the energy market, they weren’t sure at first that it was going to work,” said Kapsis.  By working with utility companies to deliver better information to their customers, OPower not only helps people understand how they are consuming energy, but how they are doing relative to other similar homes in their neighborhood. By coupling this context with personalized energy saving advice, Opower is giving households the tools to make more informed choices about their energy use.

The company now has utility clients in 25 states and is providing 10 million U.S. households with home energy information through its multi-channel platform, which includes paper-based reports, emails, text messages, and an interactive web portal. The company also recently acquired its first global client in the UK and has an ambitious plan to expand globally. OPower has been working closely with the Commerce Department’s foreign commercial services, the International Trade Administration and the Trade Development Agency to establish contacts with potential foreign clients and governments by participating in trade missions and meeting with foreign delegations in the U.S.

Aside from its innovative business model, OPower’s corporate culture is another reason for its success. Kapsis described this culture as “double bottom line”, where it is not enough to just make a profit: the company must also make good on the larger goals of saving energy and money for households, which is good for people’s pocketbooks and for the planet. “The great thing about working at OPower is that you don’t have to pick between making money and doing good for society; they are one and the same here,” said Kapsis. Because of this commitment, OPower has been able to attract many bright, capable people, including Kapsis who was motivated to move his career into clean energy after working on Middle East policy at the State and Defense Departments.

Kapsis attributes a lot of Opower’s success to smart government policies in more than 20 U.S. states that set standards for energy efficiency and give utilities an incentive to want their customers to use less power. “When the right policy is in place, it creates a market for companies like us provide households with the cleanest and cheapest form of energy there is — the energy they don’t use.” Indeed, OPower has grown to over 200 employees from just 60 a year ago and expects to open its first international office later this year. “Without smart policy,” says Kapsis, “we would still just be an idea. Instead, we’re creating jobs, giving families relief on their energy bills, and exporting our product overseas.”

Article by Ari Matusiak, Executive Director of the White House Business Council

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While every forward-thinking company has certainly become aware that it’s good business to be more efficient, to create less waste, and to monitor energy usage and expenses closely, what’s going to drive real changes in behavior that lead to those ends: public policy from federal and local governments, or free-market innovation and pragmatic self-interest?

At an intriguing panel discussion last week in New York City, SAP pulled together four voices representing various points of view on that question, and each of those four panelists shared a range of opinions on how and why corporate sustainability programs are inextricably tied to the competitive success of not only those individual companies but of the United States as a whole.

I use the word “intriguing” because while each of the panelists came at the subjects from different points of view, they also shared the common goal of working to identify ways to stimulate and spread innovation, to boost job creation, and to spur economic competitiveness locally, regionally, and perhaps even nationally.

Each of the four speakers was passionate, knowledgeable, and deeply engaged—yet it was also clear that each believes in a very different approach toward achieving the laudable goal of sustainable corporations and communities.

Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, emphasized repeatedly that the biggest risk facing the U.S. is the lack of a federal policy. Katz warned that in the absence of such a policy—and in the absence of significant federal funding for “green” R&D and advanced technology—“We run the risk of falling behind not just Germany but also China and some other rising economies” in the pursuit of viable “clean” technologies.

Katz also seemed tie himself in a knot with the juxtaposition of two points that he himself made: first, he emphasized that the vast majority of innovative ideas and technological breakthroughs are coming out of American cities and major metropolitan areas—probably more than 85%, he said. Those major urban areas, Katz said, are the engines of innovation for the clean/green-energy industry.

But later he said he couldn’t fathom why cities and regional governments were outpacing the federal government in developing policies that would encourage such growth, and yet again reiterated that the United States is in for deep trouble without an overarching federal policy.

If cities are leading the way in innovation, shouldn’t they also be at the forefront of legislative actions as well?

The next panelist was New York City director of long-term planning and sustainability David Bragdon, who spoke of the city’s multiple roles as a provider of assets, as not only a regulator but also a deregulator, as a financier, and as an advocate.

Bragdon described a broad and highly active set initiatives being undertaken by New York City, including solar empowerment zones, the banning of certain types of heating oil, the tailoring of regulations to allow for solar panels since none existed when the original rules were written, and the putting up $37 million in financing for efforts to “prove the market.”

Given Bragdon’s position in the NYC administration, it was not surprising to see his perspective that city government should be a leading player—perhaps the leading player—in setting policies and initiatives with which businesses and individuals must then comply.

If you’re a government-first advocate, Bragdon’s highly activist stance will appeal to you; if you’re in the private sector, well, perhaps not so much. But either way, Mayor Bloomberg’s administration is clearly determined to play a major role in shaping that future.

From the private sector, Steve Corneli, senior vice president for sustainability, strategy and policy for NRG Energy, attempted to blend free-market principles with an unquestioning belief in claims by climate-change advocates that have yet to be backed up with conclusive proof.

Corneli, whose company is a major provider of electricity in New York City and other markets, said that consumers will be more likely to begin making the transition to electric cars if car companies and energy providers can make electric cars that can perform as well or better than traditional vehicles while also matching them in price.

But Corneli also based much of his belief in the inevitability of this transition on the fact that the Earth is heating up and that human beings are responsible. It’s clear that many people believe that, but it’s also clear that many do not believe that because of the lack of conclusive, verifiable evidence.

Corneli also cited other factors, including the dependency of the U.S. economy on stability/unstability in Middle East that results in Americans having to pay higher prices either way. He also mentioned adverse public reaction to the “shocking” series of major disasters around traditional energy production: the BP Gulf oil spill, coal-mine disasters, and the tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear reactors.

So it was unclear to me what Corneli thought NRG Energy’s strategy might be if the hypothesis of man-made global warming gets shot down: will consumers still want to make the move toward electric vehicles that can be recharged by the power stations that NRG and other energy providers are rolling out?

The final panelist was SAP vice president Scott Bolick who cited examples of a few companies using SAP sustainability tools that have saved tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in energy usage.

For energy company Valero, the savings were $200 million over two years, Bolick said, while mining company DeBeers is deploying SAP’s sustainability solutions to monitor fuel levels and expected usage at its extremely remote mining operation near the North Pole to ensure it doesn’t run short, which in that location would be not just inconvenient but possibly deadly.

Bolick also cited the example of specialty-gas supplier Air Products, which has been able to save large amounts of energy by using analytics tools to monitor and predict consumer demand and thereby optimize timing and efficiency of delivery routes.

Touting the pragmatic approach of basing decisions first and foremost on economic benefits, Bolick described tools that allow one SAP customer to monitor and measure the “embedded energy” and related costs of the 35,000 products it makes. And with that sort of insight, he said, companies can begin to leverage energy efficiency as a source of significant competitive advantage.

From that starting point, Bolick said, all of the various stakeholders across the sustainability spectrum—private industry, federal government, and local governments—can begin to collaborate to frame reasonable goals and initiatives that will help establish the appropriate balance between what are often the competing interests of policy and pragmatism.

Article by Bob Evans of The Innovation Business, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.

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