Operation and Maintenance (O&M) practices are at the heart of sustaining green improvements.  O&M practices drive the long-term efficiency of green building systems.   In the next series of articles, I am going to cover best green practices to include in a green O&M plan.  In this article, I am going to discuss how to get the most from your O&M plan and how to do green capital planning. 

Plans litter the shelves of offices across the country, so it’s important to make sure your O&M plan is implemented and followed.  Here are some tips:

•  Identify Green Goals – Identify your goals to reduce consumption and improve efficiency, for example, energy savings goals, water reduction goals, etc.  Communicate these goals to your team and tenants.
• Make an Organizational Commitment – Going green and staying green involves everyone. 
• Designate Green Champion – Designate a team member or green committee to lead the green charge.
• Educate – Increase participation and buy-in from tenants and staff members through green education and training. 
• Impact Values – Motivate lasting green practices through programs that recognize and reward green values. 
• Integrate Green Values and Expectations – Integrate green practices and expectations across organization policies, job descriptions, service contracts, etc.
• Ongoing Communication – Start a green column in the building’s newsletter. 
• Signage – Reinforce green behaviors with signage and placards. 
• Awareness – Include green awareness and training in orientation programs for new tenants, staff members, and contractors.

How to do Green Capital Planning – Conventional capital planning anticipates equipment replacement based on observed condition and expected useful life.  However, considerations of the annual costs of operating equipment are equally important.  It may be more cost effective to replace inefficient equipment sooner than expected.  To optimize financial return, energy savings from equipment upgrades should be factored into capital plans.  A simple payback analysis can be used to determine the cost-effectives of replacing less energy efficient equipment with higher energy efficient equipment:

Simple Payback – Calculating the simple payback, or number of years to recoup an investment, is one way to determine the cost effectiveness of a proposed equipment upgrade:

 Cost of Energy Efficient Equipment / Annual Energy Savings = Simple Payback 

Equipment upgrades with paybacks greater than 10 years are generally not considered cost effective.   Note that this calculation does not consider discount rates, inflation, replacement costs, or maintenance costs.  Use a life-cycle cost analysis to account for these factors.

 The U.S. Department of Energy provides cost calculators for several types of building equipment, appliances, and lighting technology to estimate a product’s lifetime energy cost savings at various efficiency levels: 

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/calculators/buildings.html

Check back in a week for my discussion on best energy efficiency practices.