CORPORATIONS

We begin with an investigation: your mission, your operations, footprint, aspirations and budget. Then we manage your projects from beginning to end to achieve your goals.

“EcoMotion helped us achieve our goals; Ted and his team provided highly valuable services as we went solar at our corporate center.” – Dunson Cheng, Chairman and CEO, Cathay Bank

COMPLETED PROJECTS

Sustainability Planning

Competition, regulatory pressure, consumer interest, and concern for the bottom line are forcing businesses not only to think, but to act greener than ever before. EcoMotion helps companies examine their footprints – in terms of energy, water, carbon, and other resources – to assess their options for smart energy management, and to then help them take next responsible steps toward sustainability.

We do this in lots of ways. From 2021 – 2023 EcoMotion served as the “eco-conscience” of a high-end, 40 condominium development in Lake Tahoe. EcoMotion guided the development team on the complex’s lifetime impact. A big focus was a high-up-front cost geo-exchange system. We addressed winter pool and spa use through operations and with design effective for covers. We advocated that each unit have battery energy resilience linked to its own vehicle-to-grid capable EV chargers. The complex featured circadian-rhythm lighting, living walls, and meditation.

For other clients, we have examined product lines through a sustainability lens from cradle to grave. We analyze operations through an energy lens. We craft corporate sustainability plans using facilitated input, developing goals and phase one activities. A country club project involves tree planting, HVAC upgrades, and solar. Working with clients, we define missions and set goals and then present strategies for action in sustainability.

Energy Efficiency Services

EcoMotion’s mantra is “Efficiency First!” It is usually the least-cost and most widely beneficial and least controversial step for all of our clients. Getting one’s house in order is inarguable and often invisible. For corporations keen on saving money, lessening the carbon footprint, improving air quality and productivity, our team begins with assessing facilities’ energy efficiency potentials. Nearly every site we have visited has room for improvement.

EcoMotion digs in at each site. What are its operating characteristics? What measures can be taken to lessen energy and demand and therms per square foot? Can lighting levels be reduced in certain areas? Is the space conditioning comfortable? What facility controls are in place, and do they need to be reprogrammed?

EcoMotion analyzes facilities technical potentials for efficiency and informs this analysis with analysis of costs and benefits, paybacks, and returns on investment. We present supply curves of efficiency measures, graphically depicting costs and savings values. We often recommend bundling lower and higher-cost measures for the deepest savings.

Distributed Energy Resources

EcoMotion provides guidance to corporations with Distributed Energy Resources, notably distributed generation in the form of solar energy, and distributed storage in the form of lithium-ion battery storage systems. EcoMotion assists corporate clients in analyzing the value of these technologies.

EcoMotion’s solar team analyzes site conditions – roof “real estate,” ground-mount and solar-port opportunities – and a client’s power consumption profile to determine the financial offset, and thus project feasibility. Our solar team uses Energy Toolbase for solar financial analysis, using 15-minute interval data to best inform savings analyses of solar and storage scenarios. Our solar financial analyses often include rate changes to maximize consumer benefit. Energy storage can reduce demand charges and help avoid peak energy charges. Given federal, state, and regional incentives, as well as time-of-use rates, storage is growing in cost-effective applications. Other clients want to use their batteries for resilience.

Provided that the feasibility analysis shows positive results and the client is ready to go, EcoMotion is on hand to help through Procurement – defining the scope, finding a suitable contractor, contacting – and Project Oversight and Quality Control through final design, permitting, construction, and interconnection.

Utility Services

EcoMotion is rooted in utility services. Ted Flanigan worked as a Strategic Planner for the New York Power Authority and as Director of Energy Efficiency for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. For LADWP he designed a portfolio of efficiency programs to serve the utilities’ million residential customers, 180,000 business customers, 2,000 school sites, 21 colleges, and 3 refineries.

Ted Flanigan and his teams over the years have consulted for over 100 utilities. He ran an innovative demand response program for Pacific Gas and Electric, and for several years designed and managed community-based efficiency programs for Southern California Edison.

EcoMotion provides planning services and portfolio assessments of utilities’ energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and services. Steeped in best practices, we make policy and programmatic recommendations and support program implementation. We provide quality control, tracking and evaluation, solar system verification, and continuous commissioning services.

Completed Projects

Irvine Campus Solar Project

Capital Group Companies first hired EcoMotion in 2009 to support a solar project at its Irvine, California campus. EcoMotion helped the companies get the largest possible solar system, tying the output of three major arrays to the campus’s most expensive power meter. The result was a 1 MW solar system that was Orange County’s largest at the time. The system covered three parking garage’s shade structures and achieved a 4.1-year payback.

In 2015, EcoMotion was back “on campus” in Irvine when the Southern California Edison rules changed, allowing EcoMotion to help Capital Group boost the solar system capacity from 1.2 MW to 2.8 MW. The additional 1.6 MW was installed on six major rooftops and a fourth parking structure. The combined systems now generate over 4 million kWh annually. EcoMotion’s work included a video production using quality drone footage.

In 2023, EcoMotion team supported the Capital Group Companies in both the maintenance of Phase 1, identifying a suitable provider, and then working with CGC’s Phase 2 solar maintenance provider. Work was also recently done supporting system measurement requirements and performance monitoring.

San Antonio, Texas Solar Project

In 2010 Capital Group Companies retained EcoMotion to explore and become eligible for a new feed-in tariff program in San Antonio, Texas for its facilities there. EcoMotion developed a feasibility analysis, drafted an RFP, and managed a competitive solicitation. Our team even camped in a parking lot to be first in line for limited availability of Central Public Service’s Feed-in Tariff program. After considerable analysis, and legal definitions from Central Public Service, the project was put on hold due to an unusual Bear County tax provision for exported power. In September 2023, a solar system was successfully installed and celebrated there.

Latitude 30 is the name of a new resort being built on the shores of Lake Tahoe. There, high-end units will feature great amenities, and thanks to EcoMotion, a number of clean energy and resilience benefits. Ted Flanigan was hired by the developers to be the “eco-conscience” for the project, with the specific charge to influence the project for Tahoe Regional Planning Association approval. EcoMotion focused on geothermal heating and cooling, covers for rooftop water features, vehicle-to–grid capabilities and batteries for each condo, and lots of other measures including living walls and meditation rooms.

EcoMotion began working for Scott Brothers Dairy in Chino in 2022 to oversee the installation of a large solar and storage system at a dairy processing plant. The completed project is a 2.6 MW solar system, with impressive rooftop expanses as well as elevated carports to accommodate the circulation patterns of large semi tractor trailers delivering milk to the plant. The system is buttressed with an 800 kW battery Tesla bank. EcoMotion’s initial work involved vetting the solar developer lined up for the project, including experience and reference checks. EcoMotion conducted an independent spatial and financial analysis of the project on behalf of the owner. We reviewed the contract and later monitored the system’s commissioning and interconnection.

Planning and Analysis

In 2020 – 2021, EcoMotion was retained by the La Canada Flintridge Country Club (LCFCC) to analyze its carbon footprint and to develop a plan to strategically drive down GHG emissions. The resulting report was titled Pathways to Carbon Neutrality. It assesses facility resource use, specifically electricity, water, natural gas, and fuel, as well as transportation energy use and natural sequestration, to determine the Club’s baseline carbon emissions. The report presents future considerations, energy resilience, and recommendations to meet the Club’s carbon neutrality goal. A primary recommendation was to conduct an energy efficiency audit of the aging and energy-challenged clubhouse. EcoMotion’s consulting team member, Dave Houghton PE, led the analysis of the facility and its complex and insufficient AC systems.

Solar Works

One of the primary findings of the climate action planning process was that solar could potentially be used to power the Club. Electricity accounted for just over 50% of the carbon emissions inventoried and based on the club’s 2019 data. With over 100acres, certainly there could be a home for a 450 kW solar array. Many locations were considered; proposals were requested for innovative hillside solutions. A location between two fairways was considered and ruled out. So was the architecturally distinct Clubhouse given its highly complex, accordion-style roof. Ultimately, the Club decided on a partial solar solution and an ~80 kW system covering the golf cart charging barn. Currently EcoMotion is providing an oversight role. In August 2023, project plans were submitted to the City of La Canada Flintridge.

LeFiell Manufacturing of Santa Fe Springs, California has called on EcoMotion to provide solar consulting services. This aviation manufacturer – known for its aerospace manufacturing – is keen on going solar and sought out a Subject Matter Expert to verify the solar deal on the table.

For Kimco Realty Corp., a major property owner with 1,200 malls throughout North America, and headquartered in White Plains, New York, EcoMotion undertook a national analysis of the impact of solar systems. Our team analyzed its property base and prioritized locations for solar. Sites in California were examined to flesh out a business model for this real estate investment trust. Kimco took EcoMotion’s recommendations, formed a new business unit and built several major solar installations on shopping mall rooftops in New Jersey. Kimco now sells tenants green power, having found a way to turn its vast rooftops into profit centers.

For a shopping mall owner located in White Plains, New York, and a shopping center on St. Croix, EcoMotion provided a comprehensive audit – that included documentation of rain penetrations – and recommended strategies for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades. With 50-cent per kilowatt-hour power, short paybacks were uncovered and reported to management.

Gensler Architects approached EcoMotion some years ago with the challenge of developing some “iconic options” for a 180-acre site owned by Los Angeles County in Norwalk, California. A major redevelopment project there involved existing and new buildings.

EcoMotion was hired to bring “out of the box,” potentially “iconic options” and thinking to the project. Our recommendations featured buildings that were well past net zero, community farming, and rainwater harvesting. Different scenarios we developed involved degrees of subterranean passive solar architecture, net positive community benefits in terms of energy, water and food, and community linkages to mass transit systems.

Lantronix is a global leader in secure communications technologies, specializing in remote access and control of all kinds of electronic devices. Lantronix is California-based with a global channel presence that extends through Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Australia. To strategize on its current operations and new product opportunities, EcoMotion brought together a team of experts including Consulting Stable members Chris Prelitz and Al Pipkin. How its products are manufactured, packaged, and reclaimed or discarded were all on the table. The company was in the process of relocating its operations, in a good position to demand heightened levels of efficiency in its new facilities. EcoMotion also provided strategic planning services, delving into current product manufacturing and placement, and exploring future product lines in line with the green movement. Of particular interest was the use of Lantronix’s remote communications for renewable energy system monitoring and billing, specifically for solar in distributed generation configurations.

EcoMotion’s Sustainability Plan developed for Roy Jorgensen Associates in 2010, built nicely on Jorgensen’s 50-year track record of maintenance management. Roy Jorgensen Associates began in 1961 as a specialist in roadway maintenance and then expanded into facilities. To this day, the company focuses on protecting and maximizing asset values for its clients. Jorgensen turned to EcoMotion to help frame up and draft the plan.

According to its President and Chairman, John Jorgensen, “Developing an internal Sustainability Plan allows us to clarify our historical commitment to sustainability and to inform our clients and community about our management of environmental impact.”

The Plan presents corporate goals in four major areas of the business, with immediate action steps for each key area, to cut energy, water, waste, and other critical materials. The Plan was a supplier requirement of its Facilities Management Division’s primary corporate client, Toyota. The Plan also demonstrates and codifies Jorgensen’s commitment to sustainability for employees, customers, and shareholders. It documents baseline conditions, and identifies action steps to take toward its goals.

Rexco Development is a company that has developed more than three million square feet of property in Southern California. On behalf of Corona Water and Power and Rexco’s president, EcoMotion analyzed and prescribed steps to avoid continued unusual power consumption – and alarming bills — at a Class A office building in Corona. EcoMotion was then retained to help green Rexco’s new retail and hotel properties. EcoMotion developed and presented a list of over 300 green options to enhance the properties and their values. Working with the owner, EcoMotion facilitated a decision-making process to select green measures – ranging from water-saving measures to advanced lighting and mass transportation linkages — for multi-year implementation.

For Gallo Farms and its facilities in California’s Central Valley, EcoMotion provided rate check verification for 90 meters at several sites. Our team used interval data from Pacific Gas and Electric, plus Energy Toolbase software to model different rates with different energy and demand charges. The challenge was figuring out the values of different NEM-Aggregation credits for benefitting meters and assessing benefitting meter rate for AG-C, AG-B, B20R, AG4B, HAGC, B10, HAGA2, HAGA1, AGA2, HAGC, A1X, and LS1. EcoMotion examined the top 50 meters based on PG&E revenue using PG&E annual true-up statements. EcoMotion identified nearly $200,000 in annual savings from rate shifts.

UTILITY SERVICES

The Irvine Ranch Water District retained EcoMotion in late 2015 to a) evaluate the efficacy of the 13-site energy storage proposal at hand, and b) to support IRWD in the contract negotiations for the performance-based project. To support the first analysis, EcoMotion has used site interval data, Energy Toolbase modeling, and financial analysis to “reverse engineer” likely system savings. The California Self Generation Incentive Program requires a two-hour discharge capability; the Local Capacity Requirements program has a four-hour dispatch requirement. Studying building loads, how advanced energy storage will offset peak energy and demand charges, has led to a plausible analysis of system savings.

Another aspect of the investigation involved ancillary services, and the potential for the battery systems to be used for additional benefits and for additional revenue. During contract negotiations, EcoMotion was instrumental in pushing for economic guarantees and determining the values of multiple revenue streams for the storage systems capitalizing on customer, utility, and grid benefits.

For the New England Electric System (now National Grid), Northeast Utilities, and Boston Edison, EcoMotion prepared a strategic report called, “A Decade of Progress.” The analysis showed that the three utilities invested $1.2 billion in business energy efficiency upgrades in a ten-year period, resulting in 60 million kWh in savings worth $3 billion for customers, and stemming CO2 emissions by 50 million tons.  EcoMotion researched and included case studies from Milton Bradley (process improvements), the Wang Performing Arts Center, Kraft General Foods, and Bristol Spring.