Now this is the way to think. Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland, have worked out a 10 year contract to use wind power for 30% of their energy needs. As a direct result of this move, wind generated electricity is being purchased from Pennsylvania to power water and sewage treatment for 460,000 homes in Maryland.

By using the energy produced by just 14 wind turbines over the life of this agreement 10 billion pounds of carbon that would have been put into the atmosphere by coal generated energy, will be eliminated.

Maryland has put forth a mandate that the large companies doing business in the state are required to get 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The encouraging response to this mandate was real action and a workable solution to the energy needs of two Maryland counties.

I trust that this example will prove that the need for wailing and gnashing of teeth as a response to energy reduction measures is behind us. There is a task to complete that has been clearly defined, that of reducing energy usage and therefore carbon output. There are many ways to approach and complete this task and Maryland has presented one example of how it is done.

How “Green” can we get? The greening of our lives is an ongoing process that will continue to evolve and progress with the advent of new technologies and continued education on the sources and effects of Greenhouse Gas emissions. That critical first step is to get an accurate accounting of your building’s Carbon Footprint.

Your Carbon Footprint is the total carbon that is created during the daily use of your building. This requires a comprehensive audit of your building that can be achieved by the use of energy auditing software. This data will show clearly the areas that can be addressed in an effort to lower energy use and therefore carbon emissions. When the audit is complete there will be many changes that can be made from shifting fuel sources or upgrading facilities components to changes in worker habits that impact your carbon footprint. As the mindset of the company is changed and energy cost savings is realized; new ideas and technologies will continue to lead your company to a greener way of conducting business. Greening your business is one of the best public relations and marketing efforts that can be made in the growing global mindset of lowering carbon emissions.

How green can we get? The answer is Carbon Neutral. Companies that have made the necessary modifications and set up programs to offset their remaining carbon output have achieved a carbon neutral position. In the growing world of carbon trading many of these carbon neutral companies can now trade credits from their energy reductions on an open market for profits. How far is your operation from a Carbon Neutral position? Once this question is answered the next question is; how would your company profit by achieving such a position?

Hiding in the corner of many an executive office is an energy black hole; the Torchière. A Torchière is the name of that floor lamp with the Halogen bulb that everyone bought years ago because it was cheap and provided pleasing, ceiling reflected, indirect lighting.

These popular, now very dated floor lamps, burn up an astonishing 500 watts of electricity. That is the amount of wattage that is used by 40 compact fluorescent bulbs (CFB). Just the simple act of removing these energy vacuums and replacing them with lamps that use CFB’s will create dramatic savings on your electricity bill.

Incremental steps like this one quickly add up and get everyone in the mindset of seeking out ways that their department can take part in your energy reducing plans. After you have removed your Torchières, all the lighting in your building can be rethought.

With your lighting audit complete and upgrades made, your Facilities Manager will be able to replicate this audit and upgrade procedure throughout the diverse energy consuming systems in your building.

The quantifying and reduction of your company’s Carbon Footprint will become mandatory very soon. You will be asked to leave no stone unturned in a company wide effort to reduce carbon emissions. For those of you who operate large complexes such as power plants, the retrofitting that you could be asked to undertake to comply with a mandated cap on your energy use and then therefore carbon emissions, could cost millions to complete. You could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on scrubbers and refitting to convert your plant from the use of one fuel source to another.

Even Hospitals, Schools, Hotels and large Manufacturing Plants will need to invest capital to bring carbon emissions in line with carbon caps. Tools such as sub-meters will become necessary to gather a true picture of your company’s energy consumption. A review of your building’s insulation, windows and HVAC systems will need to be completed.

This is not to say that every change has to be monumental to impact your carbon footprint. There are many low or no cost changes that you make in the office areas of your plant. Remember things like recycling, passive solar, unplugging or turning off equipment, these add no costs and are easy to bring online. Motion sensors are another low cost item that can lower your lighting costs by eliminating the need for lighting to be operating in unoccupied rooms. This type of system is used widely now in the hotel business.

Shifts can also be made in an ongoing fashion inline with normal operations or capital improvements. In the regular rotation of your fleet of vehicles for example there is an opportunity to shift to the use of alternative fuels, electric vehicles or more fuel efficient conventional fuel vehicles. These shifts are part of the annual operating budget and are implemented with less impact to bottom line than something like a newly mandated retrofit.

The footsteps you hear behind you will be the echo of you own carbon footprint and it will be up to you to reduce the impact of that footprint on your workers, community and your company’s bottom line.