Explore trends and issues impacting our industry
The recently released report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made it clear that unless we achieve net-zero carbon emissions and reduce additional greenhouse gases over the next decade, we may be facing pronounced environmental changes, including weather extremes and severe weather events. Conversations at both the state and federal level are
Host John Sheff is joined by guests Jenna Cramer and Chris Cieslak of the Green Building Alliance to discuss the Green Building movement. Their conversation covers the GBA’s work to improve energy efficiency and lower carbon emissions in buildings in western Pennsylvania.
Host John Sheff is joined by guest Keith Dunnavant, VP of Data Center Sales at Munters, to discuss data center cooling technology. Their conversation covers the latest advancements in cooling technologies, why efficient cooling is so important to data center operations and cooling trends on the horizon.
Rapid advancements in technology are continuing to alter the way we view the world. Over the past few hundred years we have transitioned through several different industrial revolutions and gone from work performed by steam, water, or horsepower to electrical motors. Looking back half a century, process control primarily focused on variable DC, complicated multi-pole
Guest Bio Marc Chupka, Vice President of Research and Programs at US Energy Storage Association (ESA), has over 30 years of experience analyzing and advising on the market impacts of both domestic and international energy and environmental policy, including serving as the acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs for the US
Host John Sheff speaks with Charlie Fletcher, the founder and Executive Vice President at Mesa Energy Systems about current and expected innovations in energy efficiency. Their conversation covers such topics as Danfoss Turbocor™ oil-free compressors, bipolar ionization air filtration, reducing office spaces, load-modifying resource technology, and more.
Host John Sheff is joined by Markus Lempp, Danfoss Director of Public and Industry Affairs of Central Europe, for a conversation on hydrogen power. Since hydrogen is much more established in Europe than it is in the US, Lempp is able to provide real-world examples of how hydrogen is already being used. Lempp also describes hydrogen fuel cells and what some of the different hydrogen colors mean.
Jake Elder and John Sheff discuss sustainability, the kinds of goals cities should make, the challenges in implementing those changes, and provides real-world examples of cities that have had success. Jake also makes suggestions on easy and cost-effective ways cities can improve sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has added the motivation to make changes to improve health safety, many of which will also improve sustainability.
Electrification is a trend transforming every significant corner of the industrial economy in the U.S. From power generation and transport to infrastructure and buildings, industry and businesses are seeking to become more efficient and resilient while producing fewer emissions. Policies and regulations driving this transformation are emerging at the state, local, and utility levels as
Electrification is a trend transforming every significant corner of the industrial economy in the U.S. From power generation and transport to infrastructure and buildings, industry and businesses are seeking to become more efficient and resilient while producing fewer emissions. Policies and regulations driving this transformation are emerging at the state, local, and utility levels as
The pandemic has upended way of life around the world — and the impact on the future of buildings, building performance, and building use is in many ways still unknown. Pre-pandemic, building design was already experiencing early waves of transformation. Now, a shaken world economy, new public health priorities, evolving standards, and a possible shift
Scott Foster, Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Sustainable Energy Division, joins host John Sheff to discuss the future of sustainability. Some of the topics they cover include reducing the environmental footprint of existing systems, investing in sustainable resource management, and reforming current energy systems for future needs.
It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work. Many offices are either totally empty or operating at a fraction of their intended occupancy. Remote work, once thought of as a drag of productivity, has proven so successful that it’s likely here to stay in some
Growing technology enhancements are providing new opportunities for power conversion and variable speed motor control. With improving efficiencies across system architecture, technology is helping to economically move industries forward into an energy transformation. By using less energy to perform work throughout product lifecycles, new opportunities with strong returns on investment arise — and serve as
A recent report from Navigant shows that just from implementing existing technology solutions for electrification of transport, energy efficient heating and cooling of buildings and sector integration – urban areas can bridge half of the gap needed to reach the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target in urban areas
Guest bio Ian Stonington, Marketing Manager for Danfoss Editron, has been in the electric vehicle industry since 2012. Much of that time has been with UQM Technologies, which was acquired by Danfoss Editron in mid-2019. Stonington’s previous positions include Account Manager and Global Sales Account Manager. Stonington is passionate about electrification and what the future
Buildings — with their thirst for electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil — are a major contributor of atmospheric carbon. However, the building stock in the United States turns over, on average, every century, meaning today’s carbon emission output cannot be resolved without deep changes in existing buildings. The task is transformation. The challenges are
Many organizations today are working to identify ways to meet decarbonization goals, reducing their dependence on carbon-rich fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil, and propane. Their goal: to dramatically reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in climate change, while, hopefully, also decreasing their energy costs and bolstering organizational reputation at the same time. For
A safe transition to low-GWP refrigerants in the US is made more complex by the Montreal Protocol, the original international treaty finalized in 1987 to phase down Ozone Depleting Substances, or ODS, which included HFC predecessors CFCs and HCFCs. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol amended the international treaty in 2016 to reduce greenhouse
In the previous post, we looked at the global path to a safe transition to low-GWP refrigerants, and the impact that actions by states like California are having on creating a patchwork of regulations and move us toward the use of highly flammable refrigerants. Here, I trace how the move impacts standards and codes, as
The global transition to low-GWP refrigerants is beginning in a disorderly manner in the United States — the world’s most mature HVAC market. In the absence of a federal framework, individual states are beginning to regulate HFCs. A handful of states are following SNAP Rules 20 and 21, the EPA regulations that were vacated by
Central to the life and operation of any community is its infrastructure. From its roads and other transportation platforms to its sewers and waste treatment facilities, and from its telecommunications and power generation and distribution networks to its building stock, a community’s infrastructure not only defines its quality of life in the moment, but also
For vessel owners interested in reducing fossil fuel consumption to meet IMO 2020 international marine emission standards, hybridization and electrification technologies complement or offer an effective alternative with many benefits. A basic definition of hybridization is any system with two or more sources of energy acting together to accomplish a task. In the automotive world,
The American building stock as a whole turns over at a rate of only one percent per year. Transformation that takes a century to complete is not transformation. That means the existing building stock needs to be retrofitted for efficiency and resilience—and those retrofits need to be deep. With the lack of federal leadership, states
With Congress and the Administration still plotting their next moves in the wake of the federal courts’ vacating of SNAP rules 20 and 21, many states are pledging to regulate HFCs themselves. And while the risks of this approach, particularly the fracturing of the U.S. HVAC market, have been well documented, one aspect remains relatively
In order for the world to meet the climate goals of limiting global warming temperature rise to no more than 2oC, we will need to make a significant investment in energy efficiency and renewable forms of energy. On the other hand, the cost of doing nothing would likely run into the many trillions of dollars
The dialogue on buildings and energy is quickly shifting. Not that many years ago the focus was on the push for more efficient equipment—an HVAC unit with a higher SEER. Then came the recognition that such progress had both practical limits and limits written into the laws of physics. Attention began to shift to systems thinking—how
Currently, 282 cities have signed on to the ‘We Are Still In’ Group, and in support, the C40 Cities initiative (now actually 94 cities around the globe) and American Cities Climate Challenge are just two of the organizations that provide for cities to share best practices. Among those best practices are energy benchmarking and disclosure
If you’ve been in facility management long enough, you’ve encountered a few of these problems before: variable speed pumps that run close to 100% much of the time; a chiller that labors with low Delta T; or, worst of all, complaints of hot and cold spots in occupied spaces. So, what do you do? Look
One of the barriers to the new refrigerants is the recognition of flammable refrigerants in building codes. Codes dictate so much about building construction and what mechanical equipment can be used. There are codes for fire protection, building construction, mechanical systems, and other aspects of buildings; all affect the HVACR system. A good article on
Henry Ford once said, “You can have any color you want as long as it’s black”—a slogan that launched the early industrial model. And still today industry relies on economies of scale—and scaling means as little product differentiation as possible within a product line. Industrial efficiency thrives on product commoditization, but in a competitive global
Host John Sheff is joined by guest Ted Wilke, Vice President at SPOC Automation, to discuss manufacturing automation in the US. Their conversation covers how automation can enable innovation, facilitate better efficiency, and allow the US to compete with overseas factories.
Guest bio(s) Sasha Wedekind is a senior research analyst leading Guidehouse Insights’ Building Efficiency and Decarbonization solution. Wedekind specializes in global market analysis and market forecasts for energy efficient building technologies and energy services. Her areas of focus are building decarbonization, energy efficiency, electrification, financed energy services, including EaaS and ESPC, as well as go-to-market
