About - Our experience

Over the last five years we have gained valuable experience in dealing with a wide range of customers and sites. We have applied ourselves to diverse scenarios demanding a range of technical abilities, and have also engaged in significant projects aimed at behavioural change.

Diverse Customers and Facilities

In the last five years we have partnered with a wide range of customers and facility types, including office buildings, schools, hospitals and health care facilities, chemical and food processing factories, machinery manufacturers, leisure centres, community centres, depots, arts centres (performing arts, galleries & museums), car parks, swimming pools, sawmills, hotels, motels, accommodation facilities, restaurants, bars and cafes, pumping stations, warehouses, supermarkets and shops.

Energy audits

Our auditing experience covers thousands of buildings. Specific areas of technical expertise include HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), lighting, control, domestic hot water, computers, office equipment, compressed air, pool and pool hall heating, fans, pumps, motors, public lighting, etc.

Behavioural Change

We are continually building on our behaviour change capabilities as all our audits include a behaviour change component. These generally focus on:

• Myth destruction
• Advice on purchasing procedures
• Making energy and greenhouse figures more tangible (for example, expressing electricity consumption in terms of tonnes of coal burnt, or greenhouse gas emissions in terms of the number of train carriages this would fill).

In partnership with Sunrise Energy Management, over 80% of our school audits now include a behaviour change presentation to staff.

We developed the School Energy Shut Down Guide for the Department of Education and Training in 2005. This guide is all about behaviour change, in this case improving switch off practices.

In December 2005 all Victorian government schools were supplied with a copy of the School Energy Shut Down Guide. Additionally around 380 schools were phoned by Energy Doctor in the last weeks of school in December and talked through the sections pertinent to the Christmas holiday shut down.

We undertook a follow up survey of the schools phoned in December in the first term of 2006. Schools were asked to provide bills for January 2006 and 2005 to enable a comparison. Over 40 schools provided complete data, and on average each school saved over $400 and nearly 2 � tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution over the six week holiday period - corresponding to an average 10% electricity and 29% gas saving.

Our School Environment Tracking System (SETS), used by schools around Victoria, has been developed both as an energy reporting tool and as a behaviour change tool. The system confronts the energy manager with a comparison with the same period last year every time a bill is entered, and highlights any increase or decrease in energy use. And it also makes energy fun for students with different metrics on energy and water use.

Other areas of expertise

• Fleet: Recent experience would indicate that for some catchment management authorities greenhouse emissions from vehicle fleets are one of the highest source of greenhouse pollution. We are now developing expertise in strategies for minimising vehicle emissions.
• Greenhouse Action Plans: We have worked with several EPA license holders to produce SEPP greenhouse action plans.
• Preparation of Sustainable Water Use Plans and Sustainable Public Lighting Action Plans: This has involved liaison with water retailers to obtain consumption data, workshops with council staff and retailers, research into water saving opportunities, and preparation of action plans.
• Renewable Energy: This has involved the assessment of the suitability of solar hot water and solar PV, as well as small scale methane capture analysis. We have been involved in several solar hot water installations, including a commercial installation for a mid sized dairy.