Business Resources
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The 101: Carbon footprint & climate basics
Every business has a carbon footprint that contributes to climate change. The first step to taking action is understanding what it is, where it comes from, and how reducing it can help your bottom line.
Why is it important for businesses and organizations to understand their carbon footprint?
Climate action for small business
Energy 101 Action: Understanding your energy use
If you have utility bills, gather at least one year of info and track usage/cost over time.
When is usage highest for each utility? When is it lowest?
What are the trends over time? Are usage and costs going up? Holding steady? How to they relate to your organization’s growth?
If you have multiple meters, how different is the demand among them? There are always lessons to learn by tracking data across facilities or meters, and identifying where your biggest impacts are.
Use a tool like Energy Star Portfolio Manager (it’s free!) to track data over time, and determine how your facilities compare to each other and to others in your sector.
Standardize data by calculating impact per square foot, per employee, per client served, or per unit produced - whatever makes sense for your industry.
Consider getting a professional energy assessment.
Zeroing in on your biggest energy uses
Use your energy bills to determine whether heating or cooling drives more of your energy use, or whether other processes make the biggest impact.
Natural gas is primarily used for water heating and space heating. It’s generally lower in the summer, and higher in the winter.
Electricity is usually used for cooling, lighting, and other equipment. If your facility doesn’t have natural gas, electricity can also be used for heating.
Do you also use fuel, refrigerants, or other materials associated with carbon emissions? If so, quantify these uses as much as possible.
Vehicles 101: Reducing fleet emissions
Vehicle energy use is just as important to business emissions reductions as buildings are. Start with a vehicle and needs inventory. Make sure you’re using the right vehicle for the right job, that vehicles are maintained and operated efficiently, and that you know what types of low- or no-emissions vehicles might replace them at end-of-life.
The pathway to electrifying trucks
EV charging incentives from VA Clean Cities
Ready to really dig into a fleet conversion? Check out C3’s guide!
You’re already taking action. Keep learning.
Consider exploring our other crash courses
BUILDINGS 101
The number one energy waste in most buildings we audit is HVAC systems running 24x7. If your building is empty on nights and weekends and your HVAC doesn’t know it, you’re throwing money out the door (or ductwork). Programmable thermostats are one of the single most impactful, affordable, yet misunderstood ways to cut energy bills by 20% or more.
Programmable thermostats are very likely the easiest, most powerful solution we have to reduce energy costs, energy-related pollution, and climate change.
Start with these basics:
Do you have programmable thermostats controlling your HVAC equipment? (Not sure? See our detailed thermostat guide here.)
If so, are they programmed?
If they aren’t programmed, program them with set points that make sense for your operations.
If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, get one!
See Dominion Energy’s Building Optimization program for more resources and rebates related to building controls.
More details here.
Basic setpoint guidelines:
Cooling: 76-80F when occupied, 80-82F unoccupied
Heating: 68F occupied, 63-65F unoccupied
For heat pumps, avoid aux/ emergency heat with gradual temp changes (i.e. 2-3F increments)
Additional resources:
For simple buildings: programmable thermostats
Preventive maintenance for commercial HVAC equipment (DOE)
Equipment maintenance for restaurants
Energy demand management (RMI)
BUILDINGS 101 (continued): LED LIGHTING WILL SAVE YOU MONEY
Major advances in LED lighting technology over the last decade mean that facilities that still use incandescent, fluorescent, or other old fixtures can dramatically reduce costs and energy usage. You can also reduce risk by removing mercury-containing fixtures from the facility. Often, these investments pay for themselves quickly with energy cost savings.
-Sometimes you can determine whether a light is LED by its temperature – if it’s too hot to touch, it’s not LED.
-LED lighting upgrades will pay for themselves within just a few years – or just a few months if you can replace an incandescent bulb with an LED (rather than changing a whole fixture).
-LEDs are available in multiple color temperatures - no longer just in tones that feel “cold.” Look for bulbs described as “warm”, or for 2700K or lower (the higher the number, the bluer the color).
-LEDs last much (much) longer, and don’t require “reset” time like metal halide lights often do.
-Learn more about lighting and other rebates from Dominion Energy’s prescriptive rebate program.
Buildings 202: Air sealing & insulation
Along with equipment controls, building envelope improvements (like air sealing and insulation) are the unsung heroes of energy efficiency. They’re often inexpensive, and can have a big impact on comfort, cost, and emissions.
These are the top three energy wasters to look out for: inadequate sealing and insulation in the attic/roof, poor window and door seals, and single pane windows.
Building envelope solutions (Building Energy Exchange)
Research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found the following priority actions for small businesses. Key takeaway: don’t start with your windows!
- Lighting, daylighting controls, and plug load efficiency measures have the greatest effect on reducing small office building energy use.
- Occupancy sensors also show strong energy savings in most of the small office building models.
- Reducing building leakage is highly impactful in older buildings, primarily pre-1980 vintages; upgrading roof insulation and HVAC equipment is also highly impactful in pre-1980s buildings.
- Upgrading to high-efficiency windows has the least impact on building energy use.
KEY ACTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Grad School: Climate Action Planning
Whether you’re just getting started, or building on ongoing activities, climate planning can help you move from the basics to a long-term strategy to build resilience and save money.
Business strategies to address climate change
Sample plans: