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🌱 Cool Buildings, Cool Planet: Everyday Choices That Slash Summer Energy Use

🌱 Cool Buildings, Cool Planet: Everyday Choices That Slash Summer Energy Use

Charlie Cichetti
July 20, 2025

Smart strategies. Sharp stories. Sustainability that sticks.

📬 Intro: Cool Starts with What You Control

The first half of July set new heat-index records in 11 U.S. states, and NOAA says August could be worse. While capital projects queue for funding, kilowatts are peaking right now.

So this issue zooms in on habit-driven cooling wins—the tweaks you can apply by lunch and brag about by happy hour. This one’s for all the building operators who get it done every day!

Because the keenest energy lever isn’t hardware. It’s how people run the hardware.

A MESSAGE FROM SKEMA

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🌱 Field Notes: Cooling Smarter, Not Harder

💡 Heat Waves Are Outpacing Upgrades

NERC’s new 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment warns grid-wide peak demand will jump by 10 GW—double last year’s spike. Better habits beat bigger chillers when things get tight.

⚡ Peak Penalties Got Teeth on July 1

Con Edison’s new Summer Reliability Adjustment tacks on $13/kW for exceeding baseline between 2 p.m.–6 p.m. Buildings that pre-cool earlier are already sidestepping the fee.

📋 ASHRAE Sharpens Summer Sequences

Facility pros are eyeing new ASHRAE 36-2024 addenda now in 2025 public review. Updates tighten fan ramp staging, humidity lockouts, and blind-first daylighting. If your BMS can’t automate it—train for it.

BUILT TO LAST

Why Small Shifts Cool Big Loads

Nobody gets a ribbon for saving $8k by closing blinds, yet that’s where many summer wins hide.

The Rhythm Rule

Most buildings don’t need fancier chillers; they need better timing.

HVAC starts before people arrive.
Blinds drop with the morning sun.
Plug loads sleep at night.

Patterns stick when someone owns them—and that’s when savings scale fast.

What It Looks Like in the Field

You’re not “optimizing HVAC logic.”

You’re syncing supply-air resets to the first badge swipe.

You’re not “re-educating staff.”

You’re proving a 15% peak-load drop with two weeks of blind-closure data.

You’re not “monitoring plug load.”

You’re scheduling vending-machine cut-offs and watching base load fall 3%.

🧠 TL;DR

This summer’s biggest savings come from timing + habits—then locking them in with automation.

🧰 Action Step

Pick one win—pre-cool start, automated blinds, or nighttime plug shutdown.

Deploy it by Friday. Post the kW drop on Monday. Small wins shared become habits.

💬 Quote of the Week

“Before you buy a new system, make sure you’re using the old one wisely.”

RETROFIT THIS

TOOLS DOWN

Want a cooler building?

Start with habits.

Automate what sticks.

Because culture is a control system, too.

✍️ Brian Bollinger partners with ops teams to turn everyday choices into energy wins.

🌍 Charlie Cichetti, LEED Fellow and GBES CEO, teaches pros to convert summer tweaks into year-round performance.

Let’s Green Up together.

👉 Earn your ESG Data Specialist Certification

👉 Email [email protected] with your top ops-based cooling win.

If we feature it next issue, you’ll get a $25 e-gift card.