Governor Sununu Highlights State Employee Energy Efficiency Efforts

Concord, NH - On Friday May 10, 2019, the Governor’s Excellence in Energy Efficiency Awards were issued and presented by Governor Chris Sununu, along with Jared Chicoine, Director of the Governor’s Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and Bob Scott, Commissioner of New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) at the State’s 11th Annual State Energy Conference. This event, entitled, “The Energy Connection: Buildings, Transportation, Materials, and You!” was hosted by the New Hampshire Adjutant General’s Department and planned by staff from NHDES, OSI, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), and the NH Public Utilities Commission. This conference, which brings together state agency staff involved in managing the State’s buildings, vehicle fleets, and waste materials, serves to: celebrate the great work being done to reduce the State’s fossil-fuel energy consumption; provide information on additional ways to manage energy use; and enable staff to network with their colleagues across other agencies. 

Since it began tracking energy consumption data in Fiscal Year (FY) 2005, the State has avoided over $39 million in energy costs through energy conservation and efficiency measures and by switching to lower-cost fuels. Between FY2005 and FY2018, the square footage of building space used by state government has increased by 10%, while overall energy use decreased by 7.5%, and the total fossil-fuel energy use decreased by 18.6%. This means that the energy used per square foot of building space (i.e., the Energy-Use Intensity or “EUI”) fell by 15.6%, and the fossil-fuel EUI fell by nearly 25.8%. The state has also been actively pursuing reductions in fuel consumption by its vehicle fleet. Since 2010, the state fleet has reduced annual vehicle mileage by approximately 12%, which translates to 1.72 million fewer miles per year. As the State’s energy supply is largely derived from fossil fuels, which are sourced from outside of New Hampshire borders, the avoided fleet and building energy costs represent dollars that were retained within the state’s economy as well as a monetary savings to New Hampshire’s tax payers. 

This year’s awards were given to Peter Sun of the New Hampshire Department of Administrative Services; the Division of Parks and Recreation within the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. 

Individual Recognition Awardee Peter Sun assisted in updating the energy management database used by the State Energy Manager’s Office to track the State’s energy use.   Peter’s changes included many “bug” fixes and enhancements that have made the tool more user-friendly and less prone to human error. Peter’s knowledge of database programming and his ability to understand the needs of the system allowed him to suggest many of the changes to the State Energy Manager’s Office. Peter’s changes to the data entry process have improved the productivity of energy coordinators across state government. These changes will also improve the integrity of the energy data that is used for analysis and decision making related to the State’s energy usage. Peter Sun’s dedication and forward thinking, while developing the changes to the database, will assist the State in energy management for many years to come. 

The Outstanding Project/Initiative Award was presented to the Division of Parks and Recreation for its recent Waste Management Project, a multi-year initiative to reduce its volume of solid waste.  A waste management task force, which included business analysts, accounting staff, regional supervisors, park managers and park staff, was formed in 2017 and charged with developing a plan to reduce waste and encourage recycling. For the 2018 season, they completed an audit across all Parks and Recreation sites in the state to gather insights relating to the solid waste and recycling management system. Based on the audit results, the task force developed a program that has diverted approximately 75 tons of material from landfills each season. As hauling recycling can be up to 50% less expensive then hauling waste, the program has brought significant savings to the State, in addition to the environmental benefit.  

For the final award, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) was chosen as this year’s Model Energy Agency for their energy work during recent years, which has resulted in a 40% reduction in NHDOT’s building energy use as compared to the FY2005 baseline. Some of the steps NHDOT has taken include: installing wood boilers, reducing fossil-fuel consumption; replacing large hot-water tanks with smaller more energy-efficient tanks; and installing a high-efficiency boiler at their Bureau of Traffic facility. NHDOT has also “buttoned up” many of their buildings by adding and upgrading insulation, adding motion sensors, and replacing garage doors with models that open and close faster to reduce heat loss. They have also installed energy-efficient LED lighting in many of their buildings, as well as at all the traffic signals and beacons in the state. In addition to the physical changes and upgrades, NHDOT has also saved a significant amount of energy and energy costs by identifying unnecessary and inoperable lights on the New Hampshire turnpikes that could be shut off while still meeting safety requirements. Furthermore, NHDOT’s Bureau of Traffic has developed a zero-waste initiative with the state recycling coordinator to reuse boxes, pallets and scraps of reflective tape that would otherwise be bound for the landfill.  

The conference began with a morning plenary session, which included a welcome from the NH Adjutant General, Brigadier General David Mikolaities, as well as the State Government Energy Committee Co-Chairs, NHDES Commissioner Robert Scott and OSI Director Jared Chicoine. Charlie Arlinghaus, the Commissioner of DAS, delivered the morning Plenary remarks in keeping with the conference theme. The conference also featured workshops on relevant topics, an energy fair where energy efficient technologies and services were displayed, and an LED lightbulb sale for attendees.