Water Webinar Scheduled for Wednesday

Join GreenPrisons on Wednesday, June 11 at 11 AM EST for our free webinar on Effective Water Management in the Correctional Setting. Learn more about controlling water flow, waterless urinals, and rainwater management for some of America's foremost. Register at www.GreenPrisons.org

Lighting Webinar Shines A Bright Light

Our lighting webinar last month was a big hit and received a number of positive comments in the post-webinar evaluation. With more than 30 states participating again this month it demonstrates the continued interest in hearing from practitioners in the field about what other agencies are doing to save energy and dollars.

MagnaRay one of the systems presented during the webinar has announced that they will be coming to the NAAWS Conference in Springfield, MO April 15-18. You can follow this link http://www.magnaray.com/images/catalogpdf/25.pdf to see the case study they have on the Thumb Correctional institution that was mentioned during the webinar. Come by our booth at NAAWS to pick up additional materials.

Our next webinar is March 21 at 11 AM and will examine the effect new HVAC systems can have on your utility bill. We are still looking for one more agency to spotlight so if you have recently revamped your HVAC system or if you are a vendor who would like to see your products featured please contact me.

Register now to join us on March 21.

Savings and Security Through Enhanced Interior and Exterior Lighting Modifications

Be sure to join us on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 11 AM Eastern time for our next webinar exploring various lighting options that enhance security while resulting in significant utility savings. Kevin Orme and Jim Basinger from the Indiana Department of Correction will talk about new technology employed by the Department and the performance contracting process that was used. Ed Vallad of the Michigan Department of Corrections will also present new Florescent technology.

Register for the webinar at www.GreenPrisons.org and remember it's free.

Upcoming Events

We have a busy two weeks ahead. The latest edition of the newsletter will be out this week and we are currently finalizing the detail on our next webinar, Feb 15. Be sure to register soon as slots are limited and they are filling up quickly.

As we noted in the last blog we had a busy week at ACA. We learned this week that the workshops GreenPrisons was involved in were the best attended of the conference reflecting the growing interest in sustainability by the corrections community. We have been asked to propose additional workshops for the Congress in Denver. If you would like to join us and talk about your sustainability program let me know ASAP. Our proposals are due to ACA by Feb 13.

Registration for the 2nd National Symposium on Sustainability in Corrections is now open. That means you can also propose a workshop and if it is selected you can attend the Symposium for free. If you have any questions give me a call at 859-629-6116.

If you have a program you would like featured on GreenPrisons.org be sure and send an email to info@GreenPrisons.org

ACA Recap and Upcoming Events

We just finished up a super ACA conference in Phoenix and sustainability is rapidly becoming the watchword of the profession. We had the chance to speak in three different workshops along with our friend Paul Sheldon, we also provided training to ACA auditors on the new sustainability standard, and thanks to John Rees had the opportunity to speak to the policy committee of the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA).

In every presentation folks had more to share about what they were doing in their agency and were equally eager to hear what was happening in other parts of the country. There was genuine enthusiasm for what we are doing and support for the overall goals of sustainability.

We attended a workshop early on Saturday morning presented by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that focused on a model that can be used to assist agencies to determine what makes sense for them regarding sustainability when considering new construction or retrofit. It is a model I think that could be utilized by large and small institutions alike. We hope to have it available on GreenPrisons.org in the coming weeks to share with you.

We are indebted to a lot of individuals and companies who made our travel to ACA possible. First on the list is the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents (NAAWS) and their leadership Art Leonardo, Gloria Hultz and Pat Keohane, and President Daryl Vannoy. They gave us space to operate out of and encouraged their membership to check out what GreenPrisons had to offer. We will be presenting at their conference in Springfield, Mo in April along with Commissioner Bruce Lemmon of Indiana and we hope you can be with us for this very special event.

CorrectPac, Solaris, I-Con, Pabs Management, Energy Systems Group and Zone 3 all, not only helped us to get there, but were ready and willing to answer questions and informally discuss their products and services. I encourage you to visit each of their websites to learn how they can not only save you money but in some instances create revenue streams as well. All of these companies have a true commitment to corrections and in addition to their products have developed training programs that can help prepare inmates for green collar jobs. We encourage you to check them out and support the companies who support GreenPrisons.

Our next webinar is only two weeks away and registrations are limited. We have almost maxed out the number we can accommodate. Register now for any of our upcoming webinars by going to www.GreenPrisons.org and clicking on the link on the home page. February’s webinar is on Lighting and Energy. Be sure to join us!

Doing More with Less

On a mission to find out as much about energy savings in corrections as possible, we attended an ACA workshop on "Best Practices: A Review of Facilities" presented by Robert Schwartz, VP of the Justice Group at HOK, Inc., and Eric Hackman, Project Manager with Tower Pinkster. They reviewed three facility projects in three separate counties in Michigan and gave us project highlights including the energy savings established due to the new construction. Here are a few notes:

Midland County Jail:

• Created with a compact floor plan which encourages energy efficiency
• Designed with extensive day lighting to reduce the need for artificial lighting, saving electricity
• Installed a ground source heat pump
• Ozone laundry system, allowing cleaner laundry washed with cold water, reducing the demand for warm water
• Light harvesting - system automatically turns the electric lights off when a pre-determined amount of light is detected in a given space
• Design avoids inmate cells on the exterior wall, thus reducing the amount of energy needed to heat the cells in the winter
• Polished concrete floors can be cleaned with a wet mop, reducing the need for chemicals

Midland county energy costs:

• $185 annual energy costs
• $1.75 per square foot/year
• $740 per bed/year
  
• $57K annually in energy savings
• 25% savings of a "typical" building

Washtenaw County Justice Complex:

The new Justice Complex added 30% more space to the building's footprint but created a 20% energy savings from $2.43 to $1.93 per square foot by using the following practices:

• Installed new "air handling" units
• High efficiency boilers
• Ozone laundry system
  

"Know thyself..."

ACA Workshop: Energy Management & Conservation

Sunday's session on energy management was presented by Mike Brasovan, Executive VP at Rely Energy. Mr. Brasovan's presentation emphasized the need for institutions to collect data about their utility usage in order to create a baseline and benchmarks for comparison. Institutions tracking their information can compare themselves to similar size institutions to see if there are gaps in their efficient use of energy. By tracking this information over time facility managers can implement products and technologies to mitigate the expenses by seeking energy-saving best practices. In addition, understanding energy pricing and potentially available discounts can create more saving opportunities. Several states have "choice" programs where institutions can purchase natural gas and/or electricity from non-utility, "3rd party" suppliers at substantial discounts. Energy audits and Tariff Analysis are great ways to begin the process of saving money through energy efficiency. Know your data, look for discounts and subsidies, and control your energy usage.

Energy Savings with an ESCO

We started this morning off right with a session on "Energy Savings, Operational Efficiencies Reinvested into Facility Upgrades".

Energy Performance Contracting is a complex process, and this session, presented by ESCO Johnson Controls, helped identify the key points of an energy audit by citing examples of their work with the Virginia Department of Corrections. Johnson Controls emphasized the benefits of making comprehensive changes to an institution instead of piece-mealing the various solutions.

The largest potential savings lie in the areas of Lighting, Space Heating and Space Cooling. In addition, water costs are on the rise - specifically sewer costs. By retrofitting older water systems and insulating pipes, institutions save money on energy as well as water usage. ESCOs provide a guarantee of energy savings making sure that the investment has a long-term ROI.

One of the more interesting examples of reducing water usage was an electronic shut off system so that inmates cannot abuse the system by multiple and continuous flushes. By installing this system, the toilet will shut down and eliminate the ability for the inmate to flush if the system detects a certain number of flushes in a specified time frame saving the institution thousands of gallons per inmate.

Creating a comprehensive approach, Johnson Controls has also created a "HVAC Learning Lab" so that inmates can be trained on the maintenance of the new systems. The most important thing to note about the Learning Lab is that it was built and supported solely through the savings created by installing the energy saving systems.

The bottom line of savings is documented over time by a variety of methodologies including utility bill comparison. The ESCO is responsible for ensuring and guaranteeing the energy savings.

Sound bites:

• Energy Performance Contracting will be a $5 Billion industry in 2011
• Savings must be sufficient to cover the costs
• Executive level buy in is essential - in VA, the governor issued orders that ensured that any energy savings would be returned to the institution and not back to the general fund.
  
• Energy Performance Contracting is about "Risk Management"
• Including any training costs in the estimate is essential