CAPEXPLAN
The Costs and Benefits of Being Green
Published on Monday, 9 June 2014 09:59:10
Written by Marc

Sometimes being green pays quick returns. Other times, you need a little patience. As environment issues take more of the spotlight, large companies, especially public ones, seem to be constantly striving to make themselves look green. This is especially true if the nature of their business is generally seen as the opposite of green. Take the coal industry, for example, or paper manufacturing. These are not the types of industries that we usually call green, yet if you look at the messages they show people, they look so green. You might think they are actually improving the environment.
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What is a Good Payback and What to Include in a Project
Published on Tuesday, 3 June 2014 16:43:56
Written by Marc

Ah paybacks… paybacks… It seems that for some companies this is the Holy Grail. Do you have a project with a great payback? Come on down, you are the next contestant on the Price is Right (for those that remember this game show). More seriously, the guys in finance often bless or kill a project on the sole base of the payback. I think it is some kind of a shame. Of course, companies need to make money and in selecting a project from a list of 10, the natural logic is often to take the one with the best payback.
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Energy Management is a Great When Done Together
Published on Wednesday, 2 April 2014 07:36:09
Written by Marc

Energy management is a great innovation. First, it allows companies to save money, which often goes directly towards their bottom line. Second, because it has additional beneficial effects such as helping the environment. It is not surprising then that more and more companies have decided to work towards reducing their energy consumption. However, the first thing they often do is to mandate a person or a small group of people within the company to go after energy saving opportunities and implement them.
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Commissioning Your Building
Published on Wednesday, 19 March 2014 04:53:27
Written by Marc

In order to optimize your operational costs and to limit the carbon footprint, many companies are introducing new HVAC technologies and equipment into the market. They are making them so sophisticated and complex that the building owners and operators might easily get lost when trying to select a system for its efficiency or simply try to understand how some of the systems operate.
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Appropriate Level of Building Maintenance
Published on Saturday, 22 February 2014 06:26:27
Written by Marc

I traveled a lot in the past years and had a chance to see a wide range of commercial, industrial, and office buildings. One of the first things that I noticed when I tour a site is the maintenance; or, more specifically the quality of the maintenance that is being performed on the site.
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