GL: What does Carbon Busters do for corporations and schools?
Stoyke: We help building operators make their buildings more sustainable. We focus on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, saving the building operator money and educating the building users. Those are the three key elements. Most of our revenue derives from “Self-Funding Programs,” where we go into an organization, do an energy audit, train people and then make recommendations, starting with various no-cost or low-cost measures. We take a portion of the savings for our salaries. So it’s an entirely no-upfront-cost “free” program and is entirely self-funding.
GL: What a great approach. It takes the fear out of it.
Stoyke: Yes. Because there’s no risk at all. If we don’t help them save anything then they don’t pay us a cent! It’s never happened, of course, because the way that we live, there are huge areas where we can improve. We have the expertise to achieve those savings. Another thing we do is re-invest a portion of those savings into better technologies so we can achieve two or three times the savings by the third year.
GL: What’s a typical first step? Putting dams in the toilets?
Stoyke: Well, optimizing the heating system or making sure the fresh-air ventilation system isn’t running when the building is unoccupied so that the heating or fresh air curve is set properly and the system doesn’t kick in at the wrong times. The building operators’ main goal is that nobody complains and when no one complains they’re happy. But it also turns out that they can save major dollars by making sure energy consumption is not that high.
GL: What size is the average building you’ve done?
Stoyke: Oh, about 40,000 square feet.
GL: How much does it cost to run the heat/AC/vent for a typical Canadian building that size?
Stoyke: Let’s say $60,000 a year.
GL: How much can you save by doing those no-cost efficiencies you just mentioned?
Stoyke: Overall, it can be as much as a third, but the average is 15 percent and that is because often we do the whole district (for something like a school). So the 15 percent figure includes both those who are really making an effort and those who do very little. So it’s an average figure. With people who co-operate, we see 30 percent.
GL: We do need the developers at this point to get involved in the discourse and follow consumer demand, to automatically offer green options.
Stoyke: Yes. The City of Edmonton just released some new home-incentive programs. It hands out one CAL light bulb per house and has a series of incentives for new furnace purchasing. And it’s also going to offer $450 for any builder who goes to the “Build Green Standard.” But really, in Edmonton right now the main selling point for any home on the market is a marble kitchen top and hardwood floors. If you put those in, for $20,000, you can sell the home for $50,000 more. That’s what one of the builders said to me. That’s where we’re at.
GL: But there are people who are looking for efficient homes…
Stoyke: Yeah. I’m actually I’m surprised. You know, when you’ve been battling in this field for so long, you can sometimes feel that there nobody out there. But it’s amazing what’s out there! How many people are taking this very, very seriously and are innovating and doing things. It’s just incredible! That is very encouraging. Another important factor, I think, is the labelling of buildings. The energy labelling. The energy story in Germany, for example — the law that came into effect January of this year says if you want to sell or rent a house, it has to have an energy pass. So you have to have an audit and show the house’s energy consumption to prospective tenants or buyers. That’s required by law. That’s huge. You look at a house, and you know that it will be rated on its efficiency. You look at a house in Canada and you don’t know if they spend $300 a month or $30 a month for utilities. The U.K. has announced that by 2016, any new house has to be carbon neutral in its operations.
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