Honeywell Combines Energy Conservation with Profits
Roger Fradin, head of ACS, shows off a Honeywell thermostat. (image: Salem Kreiger for forbes.com)
As most companies know by now, going green isn’t simply good for the environment, it’s good for the bottom line. So it makes sense, as Forbes reports, that a company that has energy controls in 150 million homes, 10 million businesses and the bulk of the world’s largest oil refineries should emphasize energy conservation. And that’s just what Honeywell has done: its Novar operation, a part of Honeywell’s Automation & Controls System (ACS) division, provides energy and operation management consulting to support sustainability efforts and improve profitability. Besides restaurants and theatres, Novar serves 40,000 retail stores, which account for 1 percent of all US energy consumption.
About 60 percent of sales at ACS come from products and services that relate to energy efficiency such as multimillion-dollar automated combustion controls used by refiners and chemical manufacturers. ACS Chief Roger Fradin says that because refiners’ and chemical manufacturers’ biggest cost is natural oil and gas, they are desperate to attain even a half-percentage point more efficiency.
However, Honeywell’s energy efficiency tips are not all high tech; in fact, most of them are simple DIY improvements: replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescents, or installing a variable-speed fan control on a heater and link it to a programmable thermostat. Fradin says that light and ventilation account for 80 percent of retailers’ energy use and easy improvements can cut 20 percent from energy bills.
So why don’t all businesses try to conserve?
Dean Lindstrom, the head of Novar, says that on the commercial level energy costs have always been considered fixed, an assumption that discouraged anything from being done. Yet efficiency improvements have a faster payback for both the customer and the environment, he explains, than an investment in an alternative energy like solar.
Honeywell Thermostats says: says:
Although many of the tips are not high tech, they are designed for every household to take advantage, as well as the small and large businesses. It’s all about energy conservation and we should all be doing our parts.