Success Stories

Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Unilever North America Reduce Energy Spend by $2 Million

Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Cambridge Savings Bank Cut Energy Use by 20%

Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Papa Gino's and D'Angelo's Reduce Energy Costs by 15%

Spearheading An Effort to Return Millions of Dollars to Business from Improperly Collected Electricity Sales Taxes

Saving A Regional Supermarket $750,000 in One Year through Fiscal Control and Energy Conservation

Cutting Energy Costs for a Supermarket Chain by $500,000 through Creative Negotiations

Putting Gas Deregulation to a Client's Advantage: How Kilojolts Helped A National Retailer Avoid Close to $1 Million in Cost

Water Conservation Reduction at Leading Laboratory

Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Unilever North America Reduce Energy Spend by $2 Million in First Six Months of Power to Conserve Program

THE CLIENT
Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer products companies with a portfolio of brands that includes Dove, Q-Tips, Slim-Fast, Lipton, and Breyers. Unilever in the United States employs more than 15,000 people in 74 office and manufacturing sites in 24 states and Puerto Rico – generating approximately $10 billion in sales in 2004.

SITUATION
Unilever North America had made great headway in controlling its multi-million dollar annual utility spend, from buying natural gas and electricity from low-cost providers to making energy-smart capital equipment improvements. But the company knew it was still leaving “money on the table” by not controlling energy waste on the plant floor.

Associates (employees) at 56 of the company’s largest plants were contributing to energy waste through their every-day behaviors. Associates weren’t willfully wasting energy. They simply lacked the awareness and training to be energy smart on the job. With its $60M annual energy spend Unilever NA set a goal to achieve a $5M reduction by cutting waste.

Unilever Corporate Energy and Environmental Manager Jim Pease turned to Kilojolts Consulting Group to develop a comprehensive energy awareness program targeted to associates and plant leadership teams. The objective was to reduce energy usage across the company by a minimum of five percent.

SOLUTION
Jim Pease, along with Kilojolts Consulting Group, developed Power to Conserve, a branded energy awareness program that incorporated key elements of Unilever’s corporate culture into a compelling, successful initiative.

Program Planning
Power to Conserve is a custom program requiring “due diligence” on the part of Kilojolts including:

• 1/2-day energy audits of 10 representative Unilever NA manufacturing plants
• Comprehensive report development for each plant audited detailing Operational & Maintenance type energy conservation opportunities
• Culture assessment—understanding Unilever’s corporate culture and energy policies
• Baseline development—
• acquiring utility bills and production data for each plant location, for the current and previous calendar year
• entering data into EnerCop™, Kilojolts’ proprietary energy accounting and analysis suite
• establishing a weather and production normalized baseline of energy usage to monitor improvement/results

Program Development
Power to Conserve tackles virtually every area of energy waste within the manufacturing environment associated with human interactions: production lines, water/steam/condensate systems, and wasteful operation of lights and equipment.

every employee was encouraged to extend Power to Conserve’s ideas through existing Unilever training and educational tools such as Kaizen practices and One Point Lessons.

Program development tasks included:

• Develop five Energy Tips attacking the most common energy wasting behaviors at Unilever NA plants
• Write, design, and distribute materials to communicate each Energy Tip, including:
• Manager’s Energy Guides – “teacher’s” manual for Plant Managers
• Posters
• Informational Stickers
• Videos (one launch video and five Energy Tip videos)
• Web site articles

Program Measurement/Verification

• Track usage monthly via data entry into EnerCop™
• Produce quarterly performance reports

RESULTS
Power to Conserve has trained Unilever’s managers and employees how to identify—and redress—energy waste. As a result, to date Unilever NA has:

• Reduced energy use across participating plants by greater than 7%
• Avoided more than $2M in energy cost in first six months of implementation
• Received a nearly ten-fold return on its initial investment, with six months of implementation to go

Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Cambridge Savings Bank Cut Energy Use by 20%

THE CLIENT
Cambridge Savings Bank is among the largest community banks in Massachusetts . Founded in 1834, the company has close to $2 billion in assets, and offers a wide range of products and services to personal, small business, and commercial banking customers

SITUATION
Cambridge Savings Bank (CSB) wanted to reduce its overall use of energy for both financial and environmental reasons. Management wanted to mitigate the impact of rising energy costs on its profitability while reinforcing the bank's commitment to environmental stewardship. With headquarters in Cambridge , MA —one of the country's most progressive and environmentally aware communities—CSB was acutely aware that its customers and stakeholders cared about conservation.

The bank first established an energy conservation program in 2001. To assist management with identifying conservation opportunities and implementing initiatives the entire company would embrace, CSB partnered with Kilojolts Consulting Group.

SOLUTION
CSB's initial goal for its energy conservation program was a 5% reduction in usage. To reach that goal, the bank initiated a number of activities, including:

Employee Energy Awareness Program: In effect since 2001 at all branches, the energy awareness program (now called C onservation S aves B ucks) seeks to instill a culture of efficiency in all employees. Posters, Energy Tips and equipment labels are used to remind employees to turn lights and equipment off at appropriate times.

Senior management present the CSB Energy Conservation Program to new employees during their two-day orientation session, explaining the bank's Energy Policy, the program, and their part in ensuring its success. Including energy conservation in the New Employee Orientation resulted from the recommendation by one of CSB's employees.

Monthly Checklist: The manager of each banking center appoints an energy monitor who uses a monthly checklist to make sure that lights and equipment are off when not in use and temperature settings are correct. Energy-efficient behavior has become second nature to most employees. The checklist is faxed to the CSB Facilities Department. This also provides an easy way for branch-level staff to provide feedback to the Facilities Department.

Quarterly Rankings: Each branch gets a quarterly ranking based on its energy performance (mBtu/square foot). The branches are compared to one another and to their prior year performance for that quarter. Branches compete for the “Emerald Award,” a cash incentive that is personally distributed by the bank President to CSB employees.

Lighting Upgrades : Using utility incentives, KCG has helped CSB upgrade the illumination systems at four branches (to date) to energy-efficient lighting,

High Efficiency Design: CSB has brought its energy-aware policies to new construction or major upgrades, including efficient HVAC, lighting, and controls.

Tracking Energy Usage: CSB tracks its energy consumption in two ways. The EPA's ENERGY STAR ® Portfolio Manager program is used as a benchmarking tool for the facilities that are eligible for inclusion. Because it is Internet-based, CSB management and consultants can access it and compare facility performance continuously.

CSB also uses a benchmarking tool that encompasses facilities ineligible for inclusion in Portfolio Manager because they are not billed for all of their energy usage. EnerCop, developed by Kilojolts Consulting Group, predates Portfolio Manager. This database generates graphs that can compare each facility's gas and electric usage to historical patterns. The facilities can be compared as a group, as well. EnerCop is used to generate quarterly rankings of each branch, and monthly performance comparisons (by fuel), which serve as the basis for incentive payments to Banking Center staff.

EnerCop normalizes consumption data to account for weather variations. Summer electrical usage is adjusted based on the variance in cooling degree-days from normal. Winter natural gas data is likewise adjusted based on variances in heating degree-days.

RESULTS

CSB launched its program with the goal of reducing energy use by 5%--in 2004; the goal has been dramatically exceeded, with energy savings in excess of 20%. The bank's efforts have reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide by close to 5,000 pounds, nitrogen oxide by 1,500 pounds and carbon dioxide from electricity generation by 559,000 pounds.

Additional results include:

• Cambridge Savings Bank is proud to have achieved designation in November 2004 as one of the first 13 ENERGY STAR Leaders in the nation , as designated by the EPA, and the only one in New England . CSB has achieved recognition for both a 20-point improvement over the baseline and for achieving an overall rating of 75 (out of a possible 100) for its Portfolio.
  
  
• Seven of CSB's 13 facilities have achieved the ENERGY STAR rating . The two historic Harvard Square offices were awarded the ENERGY STAR label in both 2003 and 2004. Five branch Banking Centers were awarded ENERGY STAR labels in November 2004 once the benchmarking software tool was changed to include smaller buildings. The CSB branches were the first bank branches in the country to be so designated under the expanded program.
  
  
• All of the 13 facilities have received efficiency upgrades over the past five years . CSB continually works with its mechanical contractors to make sure building systems are operating as efficiently as possible. All replacement packaged HVAC units are Energy Star rated and all new lighting systems include electronic ballasts and high-efficiency lamps. In 2004, lighting upgrades were completed at the Burlington and Arlington Heights Banking Centers. New facilities are constructed with efficient HVAC systems, lighting and controls.
  
  
• CSB's energy conservation accomplishments have been recognized by local officials in our cities and towns, in local newspapers and in national publications such as the American Banker newspaper and America's Community Banker magazine.
  
  
• In 2005, the bank was recognized with an Environmental Merit Award by the EPA for its “outstanding efforts in preserving New England 's environment.”

With Kilojolts' help and guidance, energy Management has become a part of Cambridge Savings Bank's (CSB's) culture across all levels of the company thanks to the support and dedication of its employees. CSB employees have embraced the program, actively seeking savings and recommending program enhancements to further the bank's reductions in energy use. Many employees have taken the energy-saving lessons they have learned through CSB's energy conservation program to the next level by implementing these practices at home to reduce their own energy use and costs.

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Kilojolts Consulting Group Helps Papa Gino's and D'Angelo's Reduce Energy Costs by 15%

THE CLIENT
Papa Gino's has 166 restaurants and D'Angelo Sandwich Shops has 150 shops located throughout New England. Each is a highly recognizable brand with a reputation for quick, convenient, high-quality, and value-priced meals.

SITUATION
Papa Gino's/D'Angelo's' (Papa Gino's) was eager to take full advantage of the benefits available to its stores with the advent of gas and electricity deregulation. However, the Company lacked the internal capabilities to navigate the new deregulated marketplace. Papa Gino's decided to retain the services of an energy consultant who could act as the company's advocate and identify immediate opportunities for savings.

Papa Gino's turned to Kilojolts Consulting Group (KCG) to act as its Virtual Energy Manager and assume responsibility for the company's energy conservation and cost reduction initiatives. The company 's primary objectives were:
• To quickly reduce energy costs
• To reduce energy waste and encourage employees to conserve
• To identify and take advantage of low- and no-cost savings opportunities

SOLUTION
Gas and Electricity Negotiations
Acting as Papa Gino's Virtual Energy Manager, Kilojolts first initiated a review of the company's gas contracts. KCG assembled an RFP, invited several energy suppliers to bid, and ultimately negotiated favorable, reduced gas rates for Papa Gino's.

KCG then repeated the process for electricity, selecting a supplier and negotiating better rates.

Energy Awareness Program
Kilojolts developed a custom energy awareness program for all Papa Gino's and D'Angelo's locations. The easy-to-use program included:

Lighting Projects
An accomplished lighting designer, Kilojolts' President Mr. Markowitz also initiated several energy-conscious lighting projects for Papa Gino's, including lighting retrofits and reduced pricing on bulbs and light fixtures. A great percentage of the lighting retrofits were eligible for an instant rebate program, significantly reducing upfront costs.

RESULTS
A 15% reduction in cost!
During the first year of the program, with Kilojolts acting as a Virtual Energy Manager, Papa Gino's reduced its energy costs by 15% vs. the prior year through a combination of savvy utility negotiations and employee conservation measures.

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Spearheading An Effort to Return Millions of Dollars to Business from Improperly Collected Electricity Sales Taxes

SITUATION
While working as the Energy Manager for a leading supermarket chain, Gary Markowitz discovered that all investor-owned utilities were collecting sales tax on the commodity portion of electricity delivery. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' legislation of March 1998 specifically prohibited further collection of this tax once customers took advantage of deregulation. Mr. Markowitz contacted a number of major New England companies to determine the impact of this impropriety. His research revealed that the utilities were collecting millions of dollars from their customers, with no evidence of where the sales tax funds were going. Mr. Markowitz then contacted the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE), which referred the matter to the state Department of Revenue (DOR.)

SOLUTION
After three months of red tape and delays by the DOR, the DOR provided a clarified Letter Ruling of the tax code. Simply stated, customers taking advantage of deregulation through a third-party supplier should not be subject to taxation on the electricity commodity portion of their bill. By bringing this ruling and research to the attention of the DTE, Mr. Markowitz succeeded in opening up a case with the department's Consumer Division, dealing directly with Director Claudine Langlois. The "wheels of justice" were thus set in motion.

RESULTS
Within just two weeks, the DTE confirmed Mr. Markowitz's assertion that the major investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts were collecting the sales tax, which amounted to "several million dollars," according to Ms. Langlois. The DTE secured an agreement from these utilities to refund improperly collected taxes beginning with the October 1999 bills, which, according to Ms. Langlois, "was as a result of Mr. Markowitz's persistence." The utilities had to revamp their entire billing process to reflect this ruling, ensuring that no further improper collections would be made.

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Saving A Regional Supermarket $750,000 in One Year through Fiscal Control and Energy Conservation

SITUATION
The energy management program of a 53-store regional supermarket chain lacked direction and organization. The company's energy accounting was based strictly on cost rather than usage; energy bills were simply paid without being audited and historical consumption records were non-existent. In short, the company was not prepared to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by energy deregulation, With no on-staff resources to implement an energy program, management turned to energy expert Gary Markowitz for assistance.

The company's initial goals were to:
• Increase energy awareness among employees
• Establish a complete set of energy records
• Create performance benchmarks
• Identify the least efficient stores and work towards improvement

SOLUTION
Phase 1:
Putting the Fiscal House in Order Mr. Markowitz began his assignment by putting the Client's fiscal house in order.

The action steps included:
• Auditing and reorganizing energy consumption data; verifying energy bills; establishing normalized benchmarks
• Changing the expense accrual accounting system, allowing accruals to follow current rate and consumption patterns of all operating units
• Presenting statistical benchmarks to store managers and incentifying them to improve overall chain performance
• Auditing inefficient stores for obvious operational flaws correctible through no/low cost solutions

Phase 2:
Building an Energy Conservation Culture Using the benchmarks to measure each store's energy efficiency, Mr. Markowitz determined that most exceeded the national average for supermarket energy usage by a considerable amount. To build a culture of energy conservation, Mr. Markowitz wrote the “Supermarket Manager's Energy Handbook,” a simple, 12-step program for store managers. Written in layman's terms, the Handbook introduced no-cost and low-cost methodologies for reducing energy consumption. Mr. Markowitz conducted walk-through energy audits with store managers and established a store-level self-auditing system for tracking results.

RESULTS
In the first quarter of full implementation (4th quarter of FY 1998):
• The entire chain reduced energy usage by nearly 5.5 percent
• Several stores reduced usage by more than 15 percent
• In less than six months, total chain-wide cost avoidance savings attributable to this one program exceeded $750,000

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Cutting Energy Costs for a Supermarket Chain by $500,000 through Creative Negotiations

SITUATION
The Massachusetts electric utility industry was deregulated in late 1998, paving the way for large organizations to negotiate reduced energy rates. Energy manager Gary Markowitz proposed that the New England supermarket chain with which he worked team with its national buying organization TOPCO (representing more than 3,900 member facilities nationwide) to form a national aggregation. As a precursor to a national aggregation, Markowitz conducted a regional pilot project including the New England chain and another TOPCO member. The goal was to aggregate the two chains' electrical loads and solicit an attractive offer for the electricity commodity.

SOLUTION
Mr. Markowitz developed a comprehensive, innovative bidding process that attracted some of the largest national suppliers in the electricity field. By presenting a true picture of the combined loads and physical characteristics of both chains, and encouraging prospective suppliers to provide inventive combinations of energy services, the aggregation received extremely competitive bids.

RESULTS
The merger of the New England chain with an offshore company in late 1998 made the negotiation of a multiple-year contract infeasible. Furthermore, the merger prevented the other TOPCO member in the trial to continue due to competitive complications. (Although, using the knowledge and bid documents they acquired from Mr. Markowitz, the other chain negotiated a one-year contract with substantial savings.) In light of these changes, Mr. Markowitz was still able to negotiate a favorable one-year deal for the New England chain, netting more than $500,000 in cost avoidance savings. In summary, Mr. Markowitz was able to conclude a difficult negotiation to the benefit of both TOPCO members. A creative bid process, coupled with aggressive negotiation and persistent communication with suppliers and corporate management, resulted in highly favorable electricity rates for both companies.

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Putting Gas Deregulation to a Client's Advantage: How Kilojolts Helped A National Retailer Avoid Close to $1 Million in Cost

SITUATION
The Client, a leading candle designer, manufacturer, and retailer had recently gone public and was seeking innovative ways to rein in operating costs and maximize shareholder value. Management was particularly anxious to cut soaring energy costs, especially natural gas. The company had installed a thermal oxidizer to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) from the exhaust air at its manufacturing plant, and anticipated a dramatic increase in natural gas usage. When Kilojolts Consulting Group (KCG) approached the organization in early 2000 to discuss its energy management needs, it was ready to take action. The company was interested in addressing a number of energy management and conservation issues, but since its first priority was natural gas, which had been deregulated in the state since 1996, Kilojolts tackled the gas project first.

SOLUTION
Kilojolts initiated a fast track process for renegotiating the Client's gas contract. He believed natural gas prices were about to skyrocket and knew he had to move quickly to secure the most favorable price.

The Process
• Kilojolts issued a full Request for Proposal (RFP) to six pre-qualified suppliers. KCG was seeking not only a gas supplier but an energy partner who would also be interested in alternative energy technologies, electricity supply, conservation, and demand control strategies
• When the initial bids came in, the top suppliers were all within 5% of one another on cost. Therefore, the negotiation process centered on which company could best provide value-added energy services as well as work with the Client to insulate it from nomination/balancing penalties.
• With the natural gas market fluctuating day by day, two finalists were invited to make in-person presentations and to “sharpen their pencils” on the bid.
• After an intense negotiation process, Select Energy of Berlin, CT was chosen as the winning bidder. Select immediately locked in the Client's Basis pricing, the service portion of transporting natural gas over the interstate pipeline system.
• Kilojolts advised his Client to lock in the NYMEX (the commodity cost) price only when the pricing stabilized to his client's advantage.
• In fact, Kilojolts advised the company to lock in the NYMEX price just three days prior to an unprecedented price jump in the market in October 2000.

RESULTS
A $900,000+ Cost Avoidance!
According to the Client's Chief Financial Officer, had his company stayed with the rates charged by its local utility, instead of seeking better pricing in the deregulated marketplace, it would have paid more than $900,000 more than it did over the calendar year. In 2001, the Client returned to Kilojolts Consulting Group to negotiate its natural gas contract. Through this re-bid process, Kilojolts was again able to take advantage of low pricing and locked in a two-year Basis and NYMEX pricing. Select Energy was again awarded the contract. With a successful natural gas negotiation behind them, Kilojolts and its Client have begun to implement a company-wide energy awareness and conservation program to instill a culture of “energy thrift” among its 3,000 employees.

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Water Conservation Reduction at Leading Laboratory

SITUATION
Water consumption at a leading defense contractor's laboratory was on the rise due to the addition of personnel, new water treatment facilities, and the expansion of office/lab space. The Plant Engineering department, in conjunction with the Facilities Operations department (of which Kilojolts' President Gary Markowitz was a senior member), saw opportunities for reduction in water usage and, by extension, sewer usage, throughout the lab complex and its subsidiary installations

Past conservation efforts had focused on reducing water consumption in process-related uses. However, no attention had been paid to reducing water consumption for domestic uses, such as lavatories and kitchens.

The departments initiated a study to evaluate the possibilities of reducing water/sewage use. Team members reviewed water consumption records from the town's Water Department; past water conservation measures; estimates for water consumption by end-use; options for further water usage reduction; and estimates for future savings.

SOLUTION
The team implemented a number of solutions to rein in water usage at the lab complex:

RESULTS
The lab reaped significant financial benefit from the water conservation solutions:

Savings Normalized
4.80 CCF/occupant/year
4.47 gallons #4 oil/occupant/year (70 % Seasonal Efficiency Boilers)

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