EDF Fellows Save Firms an Average $1 Million in Energy Efficiency

January 28, 2013 by Linda Hardesty

Each summer the Environmental Defense Fund places specially-trained graduate students in companies, cities and universities to build the business case for energy efficiency.

On average, fellows in the EDF’s Climate Corps have found $1 million in energy-saving opportunities for host organizations.

The EDF is currently accepting host applications for its Climate Corps Summer 2013 program; the deadline is February 28.

Ingersoll Rand has hosted six Climate Corps fellows over the past four summers and will participate again in 2013. 
According to Scott Tew, Ingersoll Rand’s executive director at the 
center for energy efficiency and sustainability, in the last three summers, the fellows have identified:

• Annual savings of more than $1.75 million
• More than 12 million kWh of avoided energy use
• More than 10 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions

For each of the last three summers, two fellows worked at Ingersoll Rand where they conducted energy audits of various Ingersoll Rand facilities and identified areas where energy could be saved, the amount of capital investment needed to implement changes, annual cost savings, annual CO2 reductions, and overall energy saved per square foot.

The fellows also worked on other projects at Ingersoll Rand, building the business case for investments in energy efficiency, creating standardized models, assessment tools and measurement criteria, and benchmarking internal audit practices and capabilities against external tools and standards such as the emerging DOE commercial building auditing system.

The EDF has announced the first 36 organizations to sign up for this summer.

New organizations include:

1. Baxter International
2. Boston Housing Authority
3. Boston Medical Center
4. Boston Public Health Commission
5. Children’s Defense Fund
6. City of Boston
7. Colgate-Palmolive
8. Cytec Industries
9. DreamWorks Animation
10. General Motors
11. Glendale Community College
12. International Warehouse Logistics Association
13. Massachusetts Port Authority
14. Mondelez International
15. NYSE Euronext
16. Office Depot
17. PepsiCo Americas Foods
18. Sprint
19. Town of Cary (NC)

Repeat organizations include:

1. Bank of America
2. Caesar’s Entertainment
3. CA Technologies
4. City of Cleveland
5. DirecTV
6. Genzyme (a Sanofi Company)
7. Hilex Poly
8. Ingersoll Rand
9. JPMorgan Chase
10. Mack Trucks
11. New York City Housing Authority
12. PepsiCo Americas Beverages
13. QTS (Quality Technology Services)
14. Shorenstein Properties
15. Syniverse Technologies
16. Verizon Communications
17. Volvo Construction Equipment

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