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Energy-saving competition winners know watts up

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Second quarter winners in the Lab’s energy saving initiative "Every Watt Counts" were announced this week. The friendly competition kicked off in January by Lab Deputy Director Steve Liedle, who invited teams from the principal associate directorates or PADs to implement energy-saving ideas in their organizations.

Teams are tracked monthly on their energy use per square foot. Both largest decreases and most innovative ideas are recognized quarterly. The goal is to reduce energy consumption by 9 percent by October.

Winners in three categories for the second quarter, January to March, include:

Winning PAD

  • Director’s Office with 1.08 percent savings. (Brad Thomson, PAD Energy vhampion)

Best team in each PAD

  • Director’s Office, DO Energy Savers / Dir 1-6325 — 10.44 percent savings: Team captain Kate Snyder; PAD Energy champion Brad Thomson
  • Global Security, GS 1-261 — 0.47 percent savings: Team captain Steve Carr; PAD Energy champion Dan Knight
  • National Ignition Facility, NIF Group 162 — 3.35 percent savings: Team captain/PAD Energy champion Lee Kapit
  • Operations & Business, O&B Group 523/F&I — 19.63 percent savings: Team captain Bill Maciel; PAD Energy champion Pam Horning
  • Science & Technology, PS/S&T Group 1885 — 28.46 Team captain Hank Glauser; PAD Energy champions: Anna Maria Bailey and Al Ramponi
  • Weapons & Complex Integration, WCI Nuclear OPS Team/WCI Group 695 — 5.02 percent savings; Team captain James Anson; PAD Energy champion Keith Graham

Most innovative idea

  • Lower the hot water temperature at the hand wash sinks to save energy. Submitted by: Toan Phan, Operations & Business

"The competition shows that this is a Lab-wide effort, with many people stepping up," said Brad Thomson, Director’s Office energy champio.

Snyder, team captain for the Director’s Office DO Energy Savers team, is very enthusiastic about ‘Every Watt Counts’ and encourages employees to submit their ideas. "A little competition is a good thing and especially if it's for a great cause. Many employees have ideas to save energy and this is a way to express those ideas and get recognized in the process."

Phan, an engineer in the Project Management Engineering Construction Department was surprised to win the most innovative idea category. "I wasn’t concentrating so much on the competition aspect as contributing my suggestion."

Phan’s winning idea is to lower the temperature of hot water at hand wash sinks. "I used to manage a restaurant. From a business aspect, I know how important it is to lower operational costs," he said.

Do you have a bright idea for saving energy? Submit it on this form. The next group of winners for the third quarter (April–May) will be announced in July.

May 2, 2008

Contact

Linda Lucchetti
[email protected]