Industrial Energy Stars

Owners and managers of manufacturing facilities used to be heavily focused on managing the costs of process and production. They always were thinking about lean manufacturing and 'six sigma.' And while energy efficiency—and cost—is a concern, they tended to defer to others on the issue. But with programs like the EPA's ENERGY STAR geared toward the plant, the best and the brightest of the industrial world are putting their collective minds together to think about energy efficiency.

Automotive manufacturing plants have often taken the lead in energy efficiency. One of the best examples is Toyota, which has weekly meetings where the energy management personnel make a presentation to management detailing what happened the week before.

The lead-off panelist in the roundtable was Fred C. Schoeneborn, CEM, president, FCS Consulting Services, Inc. Schoeneborn's firm provides facility and energy management solutions to global clients. In his 38-year career, he's managed the construction of Mobil's office facilities worldwide, including the Mobil headquarters facility in Fairfax, Va. He also supports the EPA ENERGY STAR program, assisting partners in improving their energy efficiency performances, and he performs workshops on “Train the Trainer For Energy Assessments” for the Oak Ridge National Lab.

“Today, energy is the issue that I'm delighted to be a champion of and helping with,” Schoeneborn says.

Schoeneborn supports the the U.S. EPA's ENERGY STAR program. The key word is “voluntary,” he explains. He believes this is one program that works. “It's literally something that is identified by a lot of households today. I'm sure you've seen the tag on refrigerators and so forth where appliances meet an actual design criteria for energy efficiency—and now you'll see how we have taken it into plants.”

Of course, one must distinguish the various ENERGY STAR programs. When he talks about public awareness, Shoeneborn is mainly referring to the program for devices. The ENERGY STAR for facilities needs greater awareness among building owners.

For a long time, people have been teaching us that energy is something that is just a given, Schoeneborn says. You can't manage it. However, he argues, energy is definitely a manageable item. It is not something that managers should just let happen. It is manageable, and it should be managed with the same expertise that is used for the rest of the industry or for the rest of the company. “It shouldn't just be something that the walking wounded handle. The brightest people in the company should be involved in energy efficiency,” he says.

In fact, Schoeneborn claims, the planning of energy efficiency is so important that plant managers and their consultants need to have a plan within a company that allows for the various steps to more efficient use of energy. His theory is that the energy person or the person that owns energy consumption at a plant must be part of the organization.

“I've seen more programs fail where some zealot all of a sudden becomes a tree-hugger and loves energy efficiency for whatever reason; and, lo and behold, six months from now, it's gone because somehow, the overall energy management program has not become part of the culture of the company or the culture of the plant, just some of my own understanding of what it is,” Schoeneborn says.

As far as technology, he explains, one hears quite a bit about it, but if the engineers can't get the ear of management at the plant, it doesn't happen. “One of the greatest examples that I have been involved with is Toyota. Toyota has an 8:40 a.m. meeting once a week where the EMO of the plant makes a presentation to management exactly what has happened … the week before. So there is a real understanding to top management. 'Here's what happened to energy last week.' So this is not after the fact, like an annual report given on energy. These are actionable items,” Schoeneborn says. He further explains that he had the pleasure of being involved with Toyota's Georgetown operations.

Schoeneborn says that they have put together a simple matrix that is available online on the ENERGY STAR website (go to energystar.gov and click on “Buildings & Plants.” It lists the various components that make up a corporate program. He realizes that not everyone is necessarily interested in a corporate program, but these are systems that should be in place in order to have a functional corporate energy program. When one goes online, he or she can look at it.

“And what is the energy director, for example, and these are three conditions. This, obviously, here is the desired state if you have it in place. Just looking at director—I'm sure you may not be able to read it. It says “no central or organized source or decentralized engineering is in place. That's for indirect energy. You just keep scrolling down, and at the end, and it is empowered control and organizational with senior management support. So that would be the desired state.”

The energy manager can go online at the energystar.gov site and download the Energy Program Assessment matix with tools and resources to help every step of the way.

“It allows you to highlight where you truly are in your program,” Schoeneborn says. “It's a very graphic way to get something to management. I found this is a great tool to give to managers and to say—or to your plant manager.”

Just regarding plants and plant performance, Schoeneborn says, his firm is much involved with giving people tools so they can manage their program at the plant.

“How do you know that your plant is really working? I remember one thing, when I started managing a program at Mobil, I would go in the plant, and the person that had been given energy efficiency and say, 'Fred, I don't even know if I'm doing a good job or not because, for the most part, energy people have nothing to measure against. So now, we truly have a device that is measurable.'”

“This [assessment matrix] is something where you plug in your numbers. It gives you all kinds of opportunities for doing it, and it is really, really easy. At the end, you come out with a curve, where your program stands with the rest of the area. Now, this was put together by Argonne Lab. They put this together for the EPA, and this is in total confidentiality between Argonne Lab and anybody else that wants supply information.”

Schoeneborn once again refers to the example of the auto industry, which thought that the information that had gathered using the census data was just not good enough for the automobile manufacturing folks. So they decided to provide their own information that would be specify to their industry.

Finally, Schoeneborn points to the advertising power of an ENERGY STAR accreditation: “That's not a bad advertisement for your neighbors or people that you're working with in the community or what have you. Now, the people that are there, I can tell you because all five companies are companies that I personally worked with, you had Nissan up there, you had Toyota up there, you had Ford up there.”

In short, the advantages of an Energy Star label for an industrial plant cannot be underestimated. It goes beyond cutting production costs to creating community goodwill.