News

Our May Lunch and Learn focused on energy management and energy efficiency strategies for businesses to reduce usage and save on utility bills. We heard from Evan Heil and Kate Whitbeck from kW Engineering, a partner of Rocky Mountain Power’s WattSmart program, and from Ben Liegert and Allan Hilton with Basin Recreation’s Facilities team. Read below for some key takeaways and lessons learned from kW Engineering, Basin Recreation, and the MARC.

Key takeaways:

kW has free energy management services to offer Park City and Summit County businesses and can advise on efficiency upgrades, including available utility incentives.

• kW Engineering is here to help: At no-cost and with cash incentives available, kW can help businesses improve their building’s energy efficiency through multiple pathways including energy benchmarking, improvements to building system controls, and upgrades to building envelopes, HVAC systems, and lighting.  
• Understanding your utility bill: The “Demand Charge” on your Rocky Mountain Power bill is where energy management and efficiency projects will produce the most savings for your business. This charge represents the highest amount of energy used in 15-minute intervals during a billing cycle. By focusing on reducing your building’s greatest energy loads, you can achieve monthly savings while also helping to extend the life of building equipment. 
• How to get started with energy benchmarking and management: Start tracking your building’s energy use using your monthly utility bills. You can do this through Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager or by starting a simple spreadsheet that looks at monthly electricity and gas usage over the last few years. Need help? Reach out to Celia Peterson or Megan Nick to get started. 

Basin Recreation continues to see the benefits of energy efficiency improvements at the Fieldhouse. 

• The facilities team at Basin Rec has been working on improvements to their buildings over the last 18 months. This included a no-cost building walkthrough with kW Engineering at the Fieldhouse, where multiple actions were identified to reduce energy use and improve the building control systems. 
• Since updating their building control software system, Basin Rec has seen a consistent decline in monthly energy usage. They are also seeing energy use go down from repairing solar inverters and implementing other efficiency measures.
• A key to Basin Rec’s success is internal support for facility improvements. By having a sustainability team made up of staff members from different departments who are passionate about driving change from within, Basin Rec continues to make sustainable improvements across their organization. 

The approach to energy efficiency at PC MARC continues to evolve through lessons learned at its facilities.

• Keeping an eye on electricity AND natural gas usage is critical for effective energy management. During the wintertime, natural gas use is considerably higher than electricity in Park City. As a major source of emissions, and without a feasible renewable alternative (yet), natural gas must be included in energy benchmarking and efficiency measures.
• The MARC has taken advantage of several incentives over the years, including lighting controls and fixture upgrades, installation of sensors in the basketball courts, and efficient pool pumps.
• A focus on practicality and occupant needs is essential. While lighting sensor technology can be a nuisance in office spaces, simple solutions – like hanging a thermal blanket over a drafty door – can result in considerable savings. As a business, take the time to evaluate which efficiency upgrades will be most cost-effective for your operations. And remember, efficiency, especially related to heating spaces, is the cheapest form of energy you can use!

Stay tuned for our next Lunch and Learn in August on the topic of water! 

Abode Luxury Rentals won the Zest for Zero award which recognizes a company that has made fast progress entering the program. As they have done in their properties, their eco-friendly suggestions include reducing their heat to 55 degrees in unoccupied home; eliminating bottled water and liquid soap pump bottles; using timed aerated faucets; using dissolvable laundry detergent sheets; following local no-idling regulations; providing guests recycling bins and recycling guidelines; utilizing transit schedules and maps.

Park City Mountain Resort, performing at the highest black diamond level (now called GOLD), is the 2023 Green Business of the Year. Perhaps the most noticeable of their sustainability initiatives is their waste diversion operation. Restaurant guests take their food trays to sorting stations and staff sort it into compostables, recyclables, soft plastic wraps and snack wrappers. This system keeps contamination from improper sorting to a minimum. There are trash, recycling, and snack wrapper cans for guests to use outside. Last year, Park City Mountain diverted a whopping 546 tons of waste from the landfill with 185 tons of it being food waste! To work, it takes our cooperation.

When the new Green Business program categories were unveiled, one may have stood out to you as an outlier: Thriving Community & Equity.

We often think of sustainability as ‘meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Of course, part of this means ensuring that the natural environment is healthy, but it also means ensuring people and communities have what they need to thrive. 

From a business perspective, social sustainability is about understanding the impacts of businesses on people and society. For your business, social sustainability may not always be as clearly defined or tangible as environmental sustainability, but it’s vitally important for the health of your business and our community. Directly or indirectly, companies affect what happens to employees, workers in the value chain, customers and local communities, and it is important to manage impacts proactively. 

Our business community has a huge impact in how our community embraces human rights, fair labor practices, living conditions, health, safety, wellness, diversity, equity, work-life balance, empowerment, community engagement, and philanthropy. Remember, all aspects of sustainability are about continuous improvement. As with environmental sustainability, social sustainability has no endpoint. If we keep working, we can find our way together. 
 

A local distiller for whiskey and gin since 2016, Alpine Distilling has committed to eco-friendly practices from the beginning with transparency and openness. They support multiple non-profits in Park City via time and money, hire locally and purchase local products as much as possible. They’re always seeking new innovations in production and manufacturing, sustainable purchasing, and water conservation. Alpine Distilling consistently strives to reduce its carbon footprint, and they encourage suppliers, affiliates, and partners to do the same. They were the recipients of the Green Business Leadership Award from Utah Business, Blue Sky Renewable, and Rocky Mountain Power in 2021. Congratulations!

Accomplishments:

• Switched gas furnaces to heat pumps and invested in chillers to cut water demand in half.
• Rerouted water through a steam boiler to limit electrical demand for heating units.
• Sent all spent grains for distilling to Wasatch Recovery, which turns compost into methane for a renewable energy source.
• Retrofitted buildings to include low flush toilets, faucet aerators and a state-of-the-art water reuse system.
• Reduced turf by 25% to replace with native, drought tolerant and firewise landscaping where possible.
• Diverted 80% of their waste from the landfill.
• Sourced all products from local vendors and prioritized vendors with sustainable packing and reuse principles.
• Implemented a trip chaining policy and incentives for carpooling, bus passes, and e-bikes.
• Paid all employees and contractors a living wage with health insurance to employees.