South Street Capital – Xin Hui Yeo – 2014

Goals

Xin Hui Yeo spent her summer working at South Street Capital (SSC), a real estate investment firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. SSC enlisted Yeo to work on various projects to improve energy efficiency across the firm’s portfolio.

Solutions

As the inaugural fellow for SSC, Yeo first identified a list of potential energy efficient retrofits and projects that could be undertaken by the firm. Yeo identified and recommended projects such as updating building automation systems (BAS), installing variable frequency drives (VFDs), implementing lighting fixture upgrades, installing heat recovery wheels, replacing inefficient boilers and upgrading pneumatic control systems. She then engaged vendors and contactors to put in bids for the various projects and ran energy efficiency analyses to verify the energy savings of each project. Finally, she conducted financial analysis to support her investment recommendations.

Potential Impact

These investments are estimated to save the firm almost 400,000 kilowatt hours and approximately $23,000 in operating expenses annually. It could also reduce the firm’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 300 metric tons.