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Unoccupied Buildings Can Help You Save Money

Life has become crazy lately and it feels like the world has turned upside down.

Office buildings, classrooms, and public places have been shut down. People are working from home in greater numbers than ever before, and students of all ages are being taught via the internet instead of in traditional classrooms.

This means that there are a lot of unoccupied buildings in this country, many of which are still being heated or cooled as if they were full of people.

If you have been forced to shut down your facilities, take advantage of it to reduce your operational costs.

First, use the building’s energy management system (EMS) or building automation system (BAS) to set back the temperature in all your unoccupied spaces. This can often reduce your utility costs by 50% – 70%.

Second, you may be able to consolidate office space by relocating your remaining workers or staff into the same building. This will allow you to take one or multiple buildings ‘offline’ and add them to the unoccupied building list.

Fort Osage School District Partners with Navitas to Improve Facilities

Elm Grove Elementary School New Roof

Navitas is pleased to announce that we are working with Fort Osage School District to help them improve their facilities and create a better learning environment for their students.

The Fort Osage School District is a school district in Jackson County Missouri, mostly serving the eastern side of Independence and rural areas of the county. The district consists of one high school, one middle school, and seven elementary schools.

The district is planning on a bond issue in the near future, but as with many schools there is always more needs than funds to address building issues. One of the biggest maintenance needs the district faced was aging, leaky roofs on three of their buildings.

Navitas conducted a comprehensive investment grade audit to identify other facility needs and develop energy conservation measures. One of the primary goals of the district was to address the roofs. The biggest reason was the looming maintenance concerns and funds spent to constantly repair.

But additionally, by addressing the roofs through this mechanism the district will not have to encumber bond funds in their next bond issue to repair/replace their roofs. Now bond funds can be used to address other educational needs.

We were able to identify energy savings opportunities by changing out old fluorescent lighting, and upgrading the aging, cumbersome building automation system through the district. These two items alone provided a large amount of energy and operational savings to help fund other maintenance needs.

The district worked with their financial advisor to obtain a lease purchase to finance their project. Savings from this project will create an annual positive cash flow for the district over the 20-year term.

By partnering with Navitas and leveraging the energy savings from our project, the district was able to address around $5,000,000 of roofing projects and maintain a cash flow neutral project over the term of their lease purchase.

Shawnee Makes a Positive Impact Through Facility Renewal

The City of Shawnee is making a positive impact in reducing their carbon footprint and becoming more green. The City recently partnered with Navitas to complete an energy conservation and efficiency program and is in the final stages of implementation.

In 2018 the City was faced with rising utility costs and a growing list of deferred maintenance needs. They were seeking a way to address these facility needs, improve comfort and temperature control in their buildings, and increase their energy efficiency.

To address these issues, the City turned to the state of Kansas Facility Conservation Improvement Program (FCIP). This program was put in place for state entities to address issues such as the City of Shawnee had; namely energy efficiency and deferred maintenance issues. Navitas was selected through the FCIP’s competitive process to partner with the City.

The project allows the City to renovate 11 of their facilities, including the Shawnee Justice Center and the Civic Center, and eliminate most of the deferred maintenance issues. Among the work included are upgrades to the lighting, building automation system, and HVAC systems; which will make the buildings more comfortable to work in and visit; and streetlight improvements.

The City has also included a renewable energy piece in the project. There is now a 77.7 kW solar photovoltaic array on the roof of Fire Station 72, which is pictured above.

At the same time, the City will become more energy efficient and reduce their carbon footprint. By implementing this energy conservation program, the City will save over $388,000 in annual utility and operational costs. In addition, the City’s greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by over 7,350,000 lbs. That’s the same as taking 640 cars off the road or conserving 377,000 gallons of gas.

Center School District Partners with Navitas to Improve Facilities

Center High School Roof

Navitas is pleased to announce that we are working with Center School District to help them improve their facilities and create a better learning environment for their students.

The Center School District is in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri and serves 2,700 students. It is considered a “boutique” school district in that it serves a diverse student population in a small setting. The district consists of one high school, one middle school, four elementary schools, and one alternative school.

Like many other school districts across the country, Center School District was faced with aging facilities, rising utility costs, and limited financial resources. They had a growing list of facility needs and did not have a clear mechanism to fund them.

Among the long list of failing equipment and other facility needs, the roofs at the high school and the middle school were leaking badly. The past winter season and spring rainfall had taken their toll and these roofs needed emergency repair.

We suggested a phased approach to the district’s problems. This allowed them to address the urgent need of replacing the roofs on the high school and the middle school immediately, without waiting for the in-depth study of the other facility needs. While the work was proceeding on the roofs, Navitas conducted a comprehensive investment grade audit to identify the other facility needs and develop energy conservation and facility improvement measures to address them. The improvements included in the phase two part of the project are lighting system upgrades, rooftop unit replacements and other mechanical system upgrades, building weatherization, building automation system upgrades, and kitchen equipment upgrades.

The utility & operational savings, along with several rebates, generated over $7.4 million that Center School District can use to fund the needed improvements. In addition, the district worked with their architect to create a master facility study, which was instrumental in the passing of a $48 million bond issue. By partnering with Navitas and leveraging the energy savings from our project with this bond issue, the district can implement over $55 million in needed facility improvements.

Navitas / Smith & Boucher 2019 Chili Cook Off

We held our Navitas / Smith & Boucher annual chili cook off today. This year we had 12 entries, which made for a lot of good food.

Chris Albright, President of Smith & Boucher (pictured above), won overall with his “Whitney Houston chili”. The other winners were:

  • Best Apperance – Jesse Lowen (Smith & Boucher Senior Engineer)
  • Best Taste – Mitch Reed (Navitas Project Manager)
  • Most Creative – Gregg Gehrig ( Navitas Energy Manager)

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