Guardian Energy Management Solutions
“Guardian’s experience in the procurement process, utility incentive programs and planning within the framework of the Green Communities Act provides support and guidance that a town requires to make educated decisions."
Marlborough, MA (PRWEB) August 06, 2012
In July of 2008, Governor Patrick signed The Green Communities Act (GCA) into Massachusetts’ law as one of the most proactive and effective moves of his governorship. Created by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), the act was the result of the active and nation-leading sustainability efforts within Massachusetts. Since its initiation in 2008, 103 cities and towns have been designated Green Communities.
In order to qualify as an established green community a town must make a long-term commitment to the sustainability of their town, including a 20% reduction in energy usage for school and municipal buildings over a 5 year period. Once designated as a Green Community a town must apply for grant funding with a prioritized list of detailed energy conservation projects. This process requires a great deal of work and commitment, and is often tackled either by volunteer committees or added to the busy workload of town employees. To help municipalities in Massachusetts with their Green Community goals, Guardian Energy Management Solutions has launched a new Green Community Roadmap program.
Guardian Energy Management Solutions is a Massachusetts based company that specializes in providing turn-key solutions that contain, lower and control utility expenditures. Under the new Green Community Roadmap program, Guardian’s team will focus on school and municipal buildings as a whole to provide a comprehensive energy management plan that includes detailed information on each project including cost, estimated savings data, potential utility incentive funding and return on investment information.
Chip Goudreau, Director of Energy Management Solutions for Guardian explained, “Guardian’s experience in the procurement process, utility incentive programs and planning within the framework of the Green Communities Act provides support and guidance that a town requires to make educated decisions."
Whether a town is trying to build support and explore the possibilities for their town, applying for designation, creating a list for grant funding, or actual implementation of projects, Guardian’s Green Community Roadmap program offers a turn-key approach designed to create a long-term relationship with the municipality. Guardian’s new program can aid a town ranging from their initial interests in sustainability through Capital Planning that will encourage both growth and efficiency over the next several years.
Goudreau also noted, “We have been fortunate to have worked with several towns in nearly every phase of the process. Since the majority of our development, planning and design services do not incur a cost, communities can move forward quickly on the ‘roadmap’ phase while reserving precious grant funding for actual project implementation.”
In the town of Auburn, Guardian worked with Town Planner, Adam Burney to explore possible opportunities for energy savings in town which ultimately led to their application for designation. Guardian performed widespread preliminary audits of each town building investigating all possible energy conservation measures (ECMs). Such measures include: lighting retrofits, weatherization, HVAC upgrades, automated building controls, power management, and other measures to reduce energy usage. The roadmap audits provided the town with the guidance they would need to apply for designation and to prioritize their energy savings projects.
Similarly, in the town of Maynard they were awarded Green Communities designation but were struggling under a time limit to compile a comprehensive list of shovel-ready projects for their grant funding application. When they reached out to Guardian for help, the company was able to perform audits and yield a list for the town to utilize in their application all within two weeks. An extraordinary relief for Gregg Lefter, Maynard’s Facility Manger, who stated “all of the leg work and audits required to get such approvals {from the DOER} would have taken our committee and internal staff months to complete”. By utilizing a company, who specializes in whole building comprehensive energy saving studies, the town was able to obtain the necessary audits and vital information quickly and efficiently – leading them to approval for $162,000 worth of funding. Lefter credits Guardian’s “complete and thorough understanding of what is required” to the successful relationship between the town and the company. Guardian is now working with Maynard to implement those specified projects and they will soon be well on their way to achieving savings both in energy usage and utility costs.
These savings have already been realized in Amesbury Public Schools, where Guardian is in their third year of work with the school district. This is a town that has yet to apply for Green Community status, but recognized the tremendous opportunity available to cut costs and save energy. By utilizing the various incentive programs available in the state, the town was able to capitalize on incentive funds that provided a significant reduction to the overall project cost. Brad Ford, Director of Operations for Amesbury Public Schools, is excited about the work completed thus far and looking eagerly towards the future, “we are now on our fourth project with Guardian, and each project continues to pay for itself in a very short time while providing substantial cost savings for our tax payers…we’ve achieved $50,000 in cost savings so far, but there’s more to come”.
To learn more about Guardian’s Green Community Roadmap program, please visit them on the web at http://www.guardian-energy.com or call (800) 825-6460.