You and Your Building – A Love/Hate Relationship: Sarah M. Terrill

What this episode is about

The discussion highlights the importance of maintaining and optimizing older buildings in Atlanta, drawing a parallel to restoring an aging car for better performance and efficiency. It emphasizes the role of recommissioning teams in revitalizing building systems, as well as the necessity for occupants, particularly leaders, to adopt behaviors and set priorities that enhance energy efficiency and operational functionality.

Key takeaways

• Older buildings need TLC, just like my '80 Camaro—recommissioning is their pit stop for efficiency!
• Simple changes in behavior, like dressing in layers, can save energy—who knew fashion could be eco-friendly?
• A coffee pot's energy use equates to driving my Camaro from here to New Orleans—think twice about office appliances!
• Building managers hold the key—they're the unsung heroes integrating tech and community for energy savings.
• Green teams are the Avengers for energy efficiency—uniting to tackle sustainability one meeting at a time!

Who speaks in this episode?

• Sarah M. Terrill (Host) · 10 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Michael Yuri
2. 9:00 – 11:11: Fulano

Notable quotes from "You and Your Building – A Love/Hate Relationship: Sarah M. Terrill"

• This tender loving care at a building level you know like just rebuilding my engine Yuri commissioned a building we actually have recommissioning teams I come into these older…

  about Michael Yuri · at 1:07

• Described make a change do what you can to create a more efficient lab reduce our energy usage land will uses 30 fulano pays 35 million dollars a year for a utility bill if we…

  about Fulano · at 9:23

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Michael Yuri — Person · Referenced expert / practitioner (building commissioning) · 1 mention · first at 1:13
  Mentioned in connection with commissioning/recommissioning older buildings to improve performance and energy efficiency.
• Fulano — Person · Referenced placeholder / example person (budget stakeholder) · 1 mention · first at 9:31
  Used as an example tied to a large annual utility bill and potential savings from a 30% reduction; likely not a specific identifiable individual.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I my first car was a nineteen eighty Camaro she was yellow and her name was Gloria yes she was a girl and yes I did name her now like any older vehicle Gloria required a little bit of tender loving care in order for me to get the performance I wanted out of her and the gas efficiency I need it because it's let's face it not every college student can afford eight miles per gallon this tender loving care came in the form of rebuilding her engine I had to make sure she had high quality gas I also had to just my driving behavior just a little to get the best efficiency out of her here Atlanta many of our buildings are from the 1970s the 1980s and there's even a couple of them that are from the 1950s and just like Gloria they need a little tender loving care for us to see the performance and the energy efficiency that we will want from them this tender loving care at a building level you know like just rebuilding my

1:13 engine Yuri commissioned a building we actually have recommissioning teams I come into these older buildings and they go through all the building systems making sure that they all work correctly they make sure that any broken pieces equipment get replaced make sure that everything is up to date they even go into the control systems and make sure that they're optimized to get the best efficiency out of them and just like I had to change my driving style we as occupants have to change our behaviors within these buildings in order to get the maximum energy efficiency out of them now these behaviors come in many different levels one level is as a leader as a leader we need to set examples we need to make sure that these initiatives are high priority a leader can make sure that it's recognized when an employee makes some changes that lower the energy usage and recognizes teams that are going through and helping a building

2:22 work better a leader can also ensure that there's money in the budget to pay for broken equipment and upgrade pieces that have become outdated and even replace a couple of our old 1970s fridges there's another role also and that's the building manager or in our case and we'll hear Atlanta Lynn some cases it's called the maintenance coordinator and this is a role that is set up to know the building mechanically they know how the systems work they know how to work on them but yet they're also in a position to know the employees at the building and the programs that are working in the building so they're in a great position to integrate and this role is also one that to help improve the performance of the building can respond quickly to issues with equipment and comfort issues that arrived from broken down equipment there's also the role of the occupant and we as occupants of these older buildings can make the

3:27 biggest difference we can do such things as coming together as a community and putting together a communal coffee pot taking home the personal coffee pots that are sitting in our offices and a good example of the amount of savings and the impact that you can have that we can have I took the amount of energy that a coffee pot uses from one year I calculated that and then I translated it into the amount of greenhouse gas emission that is generated by that energy well that is generated from the generation of that energy and that emission amount is equal to me driving my 1980 Camaro from here to New Orleans you know that's a far distance that's a lot of energy that's a lot of emissions that's a big difference that taking home one coffee pot can make another thing that we can do to change our behaviors to help our buildings is actually to dress in layers it's its northern New Mexico what's the

4:39 old adage if you don't like the weather wait 10 minutes especially at this time of year with the monsoon seasons the temperatures are fluctuating throughout the day and these older buildings have a hard time keeping up so as occupants we should ensure that we are dressed in layers that when it does get warm we can take off that overcoat or when it gets cold even during the winter we can put on our nice sweater that we've hung on the back of our our door I actually have a pair of fuzzy slippers that I keep underneath my desk for those days that I know I'm going to be sitting at my desk and I don't want cold feet whatever it takes to not reach over and turn that knob to turn the space heaters on makes a big difference I took the generation the energy usage from running that space heater two hours a day four months out of the year and this is being really conservative but I took that energy

5:43 translated it into emissions and that amount of emissions is equivalent to me driving my 1980 care marrow from here to Pittsburgh that's a lot of energy that's a huge difference that we can make just by doing all we can before we turn that space heater on another thing that occupants can do is we can gain we can come together and join green teams here Atlanta we're trying to develop every every building should have a green team in them and this is actually a team of volunteers that come together that work in the building and say okay once a month we're going to meet and talk about the initiatives that we can start to build within our building to make differences in the energy usage of our building this group is one that can actually have a lot of impact it's a great way to make a big difference on a larger scale within your building now another role is the admin assistants one thing that we have done

6:52 in a lot of these older buildings is we have installed what's called a building automation system the bas and this system actually controls how the building systems work and one of the really cool aspects that they have is called a schedule and basically we tell the building that from this time to this time you're running full tilt do all you can make sure that the temperature stays within this zone and that people are comfortable but outside of this time sit back put your feet up take a deep breath relax all we require of the buildings during this unoccupied time is that they don't freeze and they don't overheat this is a huge energy savings and here Atlanta we have seen savings as high as thirty four percent in a building just from implementing a schedule this is a great tool and as an admin assistant this person is in a perfect position to be able to see the behaviors of all the employees within their team and group

7:55 and say okay most everyone fits within this schedule we have a couple of outliers let's talk to these people let's see it can we have them change our schedule a little bit try to make this occupy time as short as possible in order to meet the performance and the energy efficiency that we want from our buildings now here today we have a global issue it's calling for us to reduce our energy usage to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions we need to in order to help keep our planet cleaner better place we also need to do this to help create a better future and our nation has responded by passing down federal mandates asking for a 30-percent energy reduction within the next couple years from our site the high-performance sustainable building program here Atlanta is doing its best to try to create more efficient buildings they're going in and they're recommissioning these buildings and they're doing what

9:07 they can mechanically but that goal cannot be met alone we as occupants need to help our chances can help make it the difference there's two paths that we can take one path is the one I've just described make a change do what you can to create a more efficient lab reduce our energy usage land will uses 30 fulano pays 35 million dollars a year for a utility bill if we can save thirty percent of that that's 10.5 million dollars that's a lot of money that can create larger projects bigger programs more jobs and this is all in our hands we can do this but the other path is one that well it's predicted that within the next couple of years Lana might possibly need another power line we're looking at our energy usage if it continues the path that has been it's going to continue up and our energy bill our utility bills going to increase that's less money for our programs on our projects which translates to fewer jobs

10:25 one path you're involved one path your cut and it's our choice we can make a difference now I can change your mind today but I can't change your behaviors pick one just one even if it's just bringing in fuzzy slippers and a pair of thick socks and a sweater tomorrow that can make a difference in how our energy gets used here Atlanta we can make a difference thank I was harder than TEDx

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "You and Your Building – A Love/Hate Relationship: Sarah M. Terrill"?

Sarah M. Terrill (Host).

What is "You and Your Building – A Love/Hate Relationship: Sarah M. Terrill" about?

The discussion highlights the importance of maintaining and optimizing older buildings in Atlanta, drawing a parallel to restoring an aging car for better performance and efficiency. It emphasizes the role of recommissioning teams in revitalizing building systems, as well as the necessity for occupants, particularly leaders, to adopt behaviors and set priorities that enhance energy efficiency…

What is mentioned in this Los Alamos National Laboratory episode?

2 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Michael Yuri, Fulano. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "You and Your Building – A Love/Hate Relationship: Sarah M. Terrill"?

The episode runs 11 min; the transcript is about 1,618 words in 10 timestamped sections.

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