Iron Mountain – Harshil Nagda – 2018

Goals

Iron Mountain, a global storage and information management services company has already implemented a suite of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions in recent years that are dramatically reducing the company’s GHG emissions from electricity use and transport vehicle fleet. However, natural gas use via HVAC has become an increasing percentage of their GHG footprint increasing expense and posing a financial risk due to volatile prices. EDF Climate Corps fellow Harshil Nagda was tasked with building a model to help identify, quantify and forecast financial and GHG reduction potential of natural gas mitigation strategies across their warehouse portfolio in the US, which is their third largest source of GHG emissions and a $5 million expense annually.

Solutions

Nagda performed the analysis of the natural gas utility data of 400 warehouse facilities of IM and focused his efforts on both internal and external benchmarking to identify the 60 most inefficient sites. In performing audits of these locations he discovered energy savings opportunities and presented solutions such as temperature setbacks during unoccupied hours with smart thermostats, replacement of traditional forced air systems with infrared heating systems and installation of destratification fans.

Potential Impact

If implemented, Nagda’s projects will help Iron Mountain save 1.3 million therms of natural gas, avoid 6800 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and reduce natural gas expenditure by 20% annually.