Laserfiche WebLink
MR. FROST: <br /> The ARRA funds, yes, came through R&D. The energy coordinator is <br />managing that. But when the ARRA funds came we were already working in a lot of <br />these areas and we were able to target specific areas for implementation. So, there’s <br />just a lot of moving pieces, but I’m just trying to stay dynamic. <br />MS. WONG: <br /> So a lot of this is not only cost saving but kind of income almost producing <br />for the partners. <br />MR. FROST: <br /> Potentially especially renewable energy. We have the net metering set <br />up for the old county building so any excess energy we don’t use like on weekends then <br />the meters will roll back. So there is a savings there as well. <br />MS. WONG: <br /> One last question for me. Number one on the strategy was awareness <br />a,b,c,d, awareness to the employees. Are the employees, county employees <br />encouraged to take some of these concepts and are they educated to use it in their own <br />families at home? Or this is just for the county? <br />MR. FROST: <br /> We have done some. It’s been focused on internal office hours, <br />government operation. But as part of our outreach I presented the administrative <br />support staff conference as a conference for all of them. And I did share about the <br />Green Team, but also what you could do at home. So, another training we did was <br />composting, turning trash into soil. I think over 100 people participated even within the <br />county. We were offering it in the community as well. <br />MS. WONG: <br /> I went there. <br />MR. FROST: <br /> So those kinds of training and workshops were always promoting and <br />trying to – the good thing about the Green Team is there is a forum for people to <br />connect within the county departments and that’s how a lot of the trainings came about. <br />MS. WONG: <br /> Thank you. <br />MR. ARMOUR: <br /> Have you rolled this out the employees and asked them to cut back on <br />electric use and things like that? <br />MR. FROST: <br /> We work with the University of Hawai‘i Hilo for one of the projects and <br />this was looking at energy usage behavior of county employees. So, we just finished <br />the survey. The result is quite encouraging actually. But it also shows we have <br />significant percentage of county employees that use heaters in their office, portable <br />heaters because it’s too cold. Or fans because it’s too hot. So that report is available <br />and we are planning to share the results from that survey which is everybody is already <br />practicing energy conservation behaviors or want to engage in energy conservation <br />behaviors. October is energy awareness month so we’re rolling out at least the energy <br />conservation campaign letter. Which is just turn off the light.It’s no cost, low cost <br />action that we can take. <br />MR. ARMOUR: <br /> On some of the suggestions and this isn’t a comprehensive list but one <br />said cut electric heaters, use l.e.d. lights, eliminate take home vehicles, turn off lights <br />7 <br /> <br />