This Issue

features
LEED impact categories
departments

energy

Chattanooga’s Next Chapter

2016 January-February, energy, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21415" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="21416" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] By Alexandra DeLuca [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] EPB is not your parents’ electric company. Thanks to city leadership, the municipal utility operation is on a mission to eliminate waste and provide savings—and innovative services—for the city and its customers. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_column_text] The revitalization of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a story well told. In 1969, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified Chattanooga as the most polluted city in the country, and the subsequent report by Walter Cronkite—declaring it the “dirtiest city in America” on national evening news—became infamous. It was also something of a wake-up call for this industrial city along the river. Government and community banded together to bring improvements over the next 40 years—from a leading-edge air pollution control bureau to miles of greenways and electric shuttle buses—long before many of these things were mandated or in vogue. Sustainability has become something of a mission for the city, and EPB, the public electricity utility, is helping to write the municipal utility’s next chapter. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21430" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]David Wade, COO of EPB, is making positive changes at the electric company.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"...

Read More

Peer Power

2015 May-June, energy

[vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Peer Power [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] USGBC’s Performance Excellence in Electricity Renewal (PEER) program takes LEED-like strides toward transforming power systems.   By Kiley Jacques[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1431113353381{margin-top: 25px !important;}"][dropcaps type='normal' color='' background_color='' border_color='']"P[/dropcaps]EER came out of an effort led by Bob Galvin who used to run Motorola,” explains PEER Program lead John F. Kelly. “The 2003 Northeast blackout made people aware of how important electricity is to the economy, to the whole country.” The bottom line: The power industry was in need of major transformation, much like the building industry of the late 1990s. Hence development of the Performance Excellence in Electricity Renewal program—the nation’s first comprehensive, consumer-centric, data-driven system designed to measure performance and improve the regulation, design, and operation of sustainable power. Galvin assembled a team of industry leaders who initially thought policy reform was the ticket. Ultimately, however, they realized it was beyond difficult, given integral changes would need to be made on a state-by-state basis. At that point, they looked to LEED as an example of industry[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="19777" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]John F. Kelly, PEER Program lead. Photo: Marc PoKempner[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=".vc_custom_1430490957173{margin-top: 25px !important;}" row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left"][vc_column...

Read More