STORES Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 34)

NUTS AND BOLTS / SUSTAINABILITY Initiative and was one of 21 companies from retail, finance and commercial real estate to support DOE efforts to “speed market adoption” of energy saving technologies and produce buildings with significant and measurable energy savings. Financial impact Peternell expects all 36 properties included in the pilot program to have smart controllers by spring, with continued expansion of the system to other Regency properties as warranted by the verification of savings. Wasting water “has a financial impact in areas where there is water scarcity, like in the Southwest, but the same is true from Virginia to Texas, Arizona to Seattle,” says Christopher Spain, chairman and chief strategy officer for Petaluma, Calif.-based HydroPoint. The company’s WeatherTRAK evapotranspiration controllers monitor local soil conditions and are linked to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association and thousands of weather stations originally created by government agencies to serve the agriculture industry. Through this network of information gathering and sharing, the company’s on-site controllers can answer the most basic, most important question: Should the on-site controller deliver water to trees, shrubs and flowers today? “There is a profound amount of water being wasted,” Spain says. “It is an extraordinary resource that has the ability to go where you want it least.” Over-watering, he says, “is a primary cause of death for trees and plants and can lead to [building] foundation damage. And there is a profound lack of interest and focus on something that is critical to our survival. You cannot have energy generation without water, and you cannot have water without energy.” HydroPoint reports that, since 2002, its smart controllers have achieved overall outdoor water savings of 59 percent and a 71 percent reduction in runoff compared with traditional irrigation systems. For 2007, HydroPoint reports that its 15,000 WeatherTRAK subscribers saved more than 6.7 billion gal34 STORES / MARCH 2009 lons of water, 26.9 million kilowatt hours of power and 36.1 million pounds of CO2, while also contributing some $60 million in savings to their collective bottom line. Year after year Altruism is a factor in clients’ motivation, Spain says, but “the main driver is the economy … it is all about the bottom line. The first thing customers ask is, ‘How can I do the cost takeout?’ because water is a huge cost and a future liability. The next issue is, ‘How can I take out the risk?’ by avoiding unrealistic goals from this green initiative. “It’s important to have an immediate return,” he says, but “you can’t just get results the first year — you have to do it year after year after year.” Once installed, the WeatherTRAK solution requires no maintenance or hands-on updates. Data on each client’s annual water savings are provided automatically as a standard service. Initial investment for HydroPoint’s smart controller hardware and installation ranges from $5,000 to $7,000 for a large shopping center, Spain says. For Regency, HydroPoint provided initial set-up and training, which included some computer programming for the local controllers. Regency also received ongoing measurement and verification, along with customer support. While shopping center managers remain divided on the issue of climate change and global warming, there is far less debate about the issue of conserving water. “Water is a finite resource and with increasing population growth, there is an increased need to conserve,” Peternell says. “There are some areas of the country that are subject to severe drought, and the water supply is dwindling. In those areas, water conservation is changing and becoming critical.” StORES Michael Hartnett is a Brewster, N.Y.based business writer. WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - March 2009

STORES Magazine - March 2009 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Movers and Spenders What Shoppers Think Take Your Laundry Online 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Luxury for Less Q & A CONCEPT2WATCH Checkout Management Online Entrepreneurs Sustainability POS Online Strategy Online Scheduling SaaS Online Marketing Merchandise Security PCI Compliance LPinformation Supplier Directory Exception Reporting Industry Perspective Theft Research LOEB Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar End Cap

STORES Magazine - March 2009

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