Cummins – Jamil Karim – 2011

Goals

Jamil Karim spent his summer working with Cummins to develop a Building Scorecard Benchmarking tool, a direct extension of the sustainable building standards project completed by Cummins’ 2010 EDF Climate Corps fellow Rachel Bourne.

Solutions

Through the piloting phase, Karim identified several energy efficiency cost savings projects, including a 5-storey office daylighting project currently underway. Other projects evolved out of meetings with active Energy Champions, like the WattStopper, a personal occupancy sensor controlled power strip that reduces inactive power use. For this project, Karim created an energy savings model for both home and commercial use, demonstrating an average reduction of 60 percent in total power consumption.  To further raise employee awareness of this issue, commonly known as phantom loads, Karim engaged the Corporate Energy Leaders Team to spearhead a home energy efficiency poster initiative to detail costs and environmental impacts of a typical single home entertainment system connected to a conventional power strip rather than a sensor controlled “smart” one.

Potential Impact

Detailed financial analysis illustrated that the company could reduce over 900,000 kWh annually, saving approximately $66,500 in costs and 630 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, the equivalent of taking 115 cars off the road. With a demonstrated positive return on investment, the WattStopper could be installed in up to 5,000 cubicles, realizing the potential for $110,000 in net present value savings for Cummins.