BCI says "Don't Save the Planet..."

BCI asks: “What is our Nation’s Energy Policy”?

We came up with the following answer: “DON’T”.

- “DON’T” drill for more oil in the country
- “DON’T” look for more oil off our country’s shores
- “DON’T” build nuclear power plants we need
- “DON’T” worry about importing foreign oil.

So, if our “Nation’s Energy Policy” is “DON’T” and we are concerned about our supplies of energy, then we thought:
- “DON’T” use so much energy.

How can the Nation’s 7,800 Credit Unions with over 21,000 locations “participate” in this “Energy Policy”?

We are told that nearly 40% of today’s energy consumption occurs in the 114 million households and more than 7.4 billion square feet of commercial building floor space. And, that these buildings account for 71% of the Nation’s electrical consumption.

Our Nation’s Credit Union buildings are in these numbers.

So, we ran some numbers using very conservative assumptions to see what would happen if our Credit Unions participated in an “Energy Conservation Plan”. Here is what we found:
Credit Unions could get $23 Million in annual energy cost savings and would generate $57 Million in local construction projects.

To put this in perspective, these volumes of energy savings are equivalent to:
· The electricity used to power 32,500 of our Nation’s homes
· The gas to heat 9,200 homes
· And this Energy Conservation Plan would also reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 58,400 cars off our roads.

The Nation’s Credit Unions could have a significant impact on our Nation’s energy use and, at the same time, improve their bottom lines by saving money.
Maybe we should consider this another risk-management strategy. After all, do we know what our energy costs will be in the future?

BCI Explores Potential Energy Savings in Credit Union Buildings

We decided to take a look at a client of ours to see if we could save some energy. They have 7 total service locations of which, 5 are qualifying buildings.
After getting the approval from our client, we sent our engineers down to assess those 5 qualifying buildings. Our engineers reported back with 23 suggested corrections and estimates of energy use reduction. BCI’s construction department developed an estimate of cost for each suggested correction and then calculated simple payback periods for each of them.
We then developed a Basic Recommended Plan which included 13 of the 23 corrections from our engineers’ report.

Very Interesting Reaction From Our Client


The President of the Credit Union was very nice to allow us to come down and show him our Basic Recommended Plan. We had just completed a new 35,000 sq. ft. Administration Center for him and he was very happy with us and the building. However, given today’s economic environment, he was in no mood to hear about “Saving the Planet” nor was he interested in spending the Credit Union’s money on some “Green Initiative”.

He was, however, very interested in improving the Credit Union’s bottom line and saving money.

We showed him the following:
Estimated cost of the 13 recommended corrections:......$142,156
Available rebates and grants.........................................$60,097
Net Cost.......................................................................$82,747
Estimated annual energy savings..................................$72,375
Simple payback period.................................................1.1 years

Life cycle savings........................................................$950,350

All of a sudden, the president was interested in “Saving the Planet”.

More to come…