U-Haul International, OPOWER and Danfoss were among the winners of the recently announced 2010 Stars of Energy Efficiency by the Alliance to Save Energy.
U-Haul won in the over $150 million annual revenue category for its leadership in energy and climate stewardship. To date, the company’s Energy Management Team has funded 215 energy-efficiency projects, resulting in an estimated average monthly energy savings of 5,723kWh per site in U-Haul Centers across North America.
The company’s Sustainable Modular Storage Program reuses detached van bodies from retired U-Haul trucks to build sustainably engineered self-storage units. Every thousand square feet of reused storage-unit space eliminates 17.3 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To date, the U-Haul Sustainable Modular Storage Program has resulted in the avoidance of more than 10,554 tons of GHG emissions.
In 2007, U-Haul partnered with Ford to create and implement an innovative 3-Wet Paint technology designed to manage GHG emissions and decrease energy usage. Allowing three layers of wet paint to be applied in immediate succession, 3-Wet Paint eliminates the need for using high-temperature ovens between each coat of paint. The 3-Wet technology reduces GHG emissions by an estimated 15 percent per paint job, and decreases overall energy consumption in maintaining the company’s fleet of more than 178,500 trucks and trailers.
Danfoss won this year’s Innovative award for the company’s patented EcoFlow valve, Performer VSD compressor, and ERC102 control, all designed to advance energy efficiency.
The Danfoss EcoFlow distribution system improves efficiencies in air conditioning systems. The Performer VSD is a variable speed compressor solution for ducted residential air conditioning systems. Energy savings of up to 35 percentare typically achieved compared to other available compressor technologies.
The ERC102 control manages all energy consuming parts in a refrigeration appliance and is designed to cut energy consumption in all commercial refrigeration appliances globally. Energy savings are approximately 35 percent on a standard 1-door glass door merchandiser.
Environmental Leader recently reported on some of Danfoss' energy saving initiatives.
Meanwhile, OPOWER, an energy efficiency and smart-grid software company, was recognized in the under $10 million revenue category. OPOWER embeds motivating elements such as neighbor comparison, smiley face messages, and relevant, personalized feedback in all customer-facing products, resulting in customer engagement rates of as much as 85 percent.
Currently, OPOWER is deployed at 18 utilities across the country and more than one million homes. At every utility where OPOWER’s program has been implemented, it has delivered between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent in energy savings across the entire targeted population and as much as an average of 500 kWh per customer per year.
