PerkinElmer – Tom Melburn – 2013

Goals

Tom Melburn was asked to assess and analyze how energy is used at PerkinElmer’s headquarters and the chemical and equipment manufacturing facilities in the greater Boston area.

Solutions

Tom immediately turned his attention to the impact chemical fume hoods have on energy costs. On average, each cubic foot of air that a laboratory ventilates costs six dollars—often over 40 percent of total HVAC costs. By extending these findings to PerkinElmer’s laboratories, clean rooms and vivarium, he was able to chart a path that could decrease the energy consumption of labs between 17-26 percent while staying above Environmental Health and Safety standards for laboratory hood flow.

Potential Impact

Enhancing the efficiency of freezer and exhaust fan motors, lighting, office equipment and data centers were all considered as part of the overarching recommendation to continually improve operations and efficiency at PerkinElmer. If fully implemented these projects could payback on initial investment in less than two years and help achieve ten percent of the carbon reduction goal set for 2015—which aims to decrease total company emissions by ten percent using a 2011 baseline.