Vermont Businesses Share Energy Saving Strategies at Annual Best Practices Exchange
Killington, VT
On Tuesday September 27 more than 150 people representing some of Vermont’s largest commercial, industrial, and institutional businesses gathered at Killington Grand Resort Hotel to participate in Efficiency Vermont’s fifth annual Best Practices Exchange. Each year the event brings Vermont business leaders and facility operators from across the state together for a day to network, learn, and share the best approaches to energy efficiency investments and energy management.
Liz Gamache, Director of Efficiency Vermont, welcomed attendees to the event by thanking them for partnering with Efficiency Vermont and thinking strategically to achieve big energy savings year after year.
“The Best Practices Exchange is a great opportunity for large businesses in Vermont to learn from each other about effective strategies for reducing energy use and, ultimately, improving their bottom lines,” said Gamache. “The energy that our commercial and industrial customers save is significant and helps reduce Vermont’s overall demand for energy, while returning those saved energy dollars back into the local economy.”
“The team at Efficiency Vermont has taken a proactive and entrepreneurial approach to working with us to problem solve and become more efficient operationally,” said Mike Solimano, President and General Manager of Killington Resort. “We appreciate their help in realizing substantial energy and cost savings at our resort.”
The event featured workshops covering a wide range of topics including specific energy-saving technologies, deep energy retrofits, and kaizen energy treasure hunts. Following the workshops Efficiency Vermont hosted an in-depth panel discussion about current trends and future outlooks in the energy industry. Leadership from Vermont Electric Power Company, Green Mountain Power, Renewable Energy Vermont and Bourne’s Energy shared insights into the challenges, benefits, and opportunities resulting from Vermont’s rapidly changing energy landscape.
Efficiency Vermont concluded the event by recognizing businesses who demonstrated leadership in energy efficiency investment. A total of seven businesses were honored. Three organizations received recognition for their longstanding achievements in the areas of manufacturing, commercial operation and institutional facilities. The four other recipients were awarded for specific energy efficiency projects they undertook that demonstrated innovation, high return on investment, positive impact, and energy savings achieved through employee engagement. Here are this year’s 2016 Energy Leadership Award recipients:
Continued Leadership in Energy Efficiency
- Commercial Operation: Mount Snow, Ltd., Dover, VT
- Institutional Facility: Central Vermont Medical Center, Berlin, VT
- Manufacturing: Cersosimo Lumber Company, Inc., Brattleboro, VT
Energy Leaders for Specific 2016 Projects
- Innovative Project of the Year: Built by Newport, Newport, VT
- Impactful Project of the Year: Agri–Mark/Cabot, Middlebury, VT
- Return on Investment Project of the Year, “Shut it Off” campaign: GE Aviation, Plant 2, North Clarendon, VT
- Employee Engagement Project of the Year: Mack Molding, Cavendish, VT
Efficiency Vermont partners with commercial customers throughout the state to help them move their businesses forward by working to identify savings opportunities, recommending efficient technologies, and providing incentives and financing tools to reduce energy costs. Businesses interested in learning more can visit www.efficiencyvermont.com/business-forward or call 888-921-5990.
About Efficiency Vermont
As the nation’s first Energy Efficiency Utility, Efficiency Vermont has helped Vermont avoid over 13.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence award for the last eight consecutive years. Efficiency Vermont works with partners to help our state transition to more affordable, low carbon energy use through education, incentives, and support for our clean energy workforce. Learn more at www.efficiencyvermont.com.
Efficiency Vermont Press Contact
Matthew Smith
Phone: (802) 540-7662
[email protected]