This month I completed 30+ hours of training to become a Certified Energy Auditor from the Association of Energy Engineers.  This allows me to complete audits with plant operations teams and estimate retrofit energy project savings for health systems.  Over the past 4 years, I have participated in 10 energy audits covering over 10 million square feet.  In my career, I have completed thousands of complex technology audits, and I am thrilled to be able to help hospitals reduce energy and pollution with this new certification!

Each building has an energy use intensity (EUI) number.  According to the Department of Energy Building Technologies Office, most hospitals are above 250, but the best practice is below 180.  The target for Denver is 165.  Most of that score comes from electricity (72% from lighting and ventilation) and natural gas (86%) used for heating.  Like other consultants, an energy auditor frames the interventions to reduce energy, pollution, inefficiency, waste and the EUI score of a hospital.  For CFOs reading this, the EUI tells you the opportunity for savings!

SION60 differs from other auditors because we have spent 33 years in hospitals and are very low cost.  We complete an ASHRAE Level 1 audit with retrofit savings estimates and a sustainability plan for $7500.  We know where energy is being wasted in the “capital plant” and operations of buildings.  We listen to the plant operators, your building’s experts, who need a framework to tell their story, quantify it and present it to leadership.   Why are we so low cost?  Because our mission is to help hospitals, which produce 9% of the carbon pollution in the US, reduce pollution and improve their margin.

Hospital buildings are the complex foundation that save lives.  Hospital facility operations teams are mechanically talented people whose department suffers from staff turnover and can get distracted from the strategic energy and pollution story of their plant.    We are not an expensive mechanical engineering firm.  We can help you build a low-cost, long-term business case and sustainability plan.