Going Green to $ave Green

Executive director Patrick Kerwin of the Pennsylvania Farm Show says recycling and energy savings projects are responsible for big savings at the Harrisburg complex over the past year.

By incorporating plants, trees and  environmentally friendly practices that save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Expenses were down $761,000 for the past fiscal year compared to the year before, making 2009-10 the leanest spending year at the complex since 2005-06, according to the state Department of Agriculture Budget Office.
Kerwin attributed much of this to extensive recycling and energy-saving projects, use of a wind turbine to generate electricity and enrollment in an energy savings program which develops, installs and finances projects to improve energy efficiency and reduce operations and maintenance costs. That $3.5 million energy savings renovation project included:

• replacing more than 8,000 lighting fixtures with energy-efficient bulbs.
• adding aerators to sinks and low-flow valves to toilets and urinals.
• installing a rooftop solar system to provide supplemental hot water to the existing system.
• replacing inefficient motors and heaters with more energy-efficient models.
• installing a photovoltaic solar system to generate energy for the 24-acre complex.

Kerwin said these initiatives supplement environmentally friendly practices already in place including a wind turbine that produces nearly 4,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to power an average home for four months. The complex also gains economic benefits from its recycling program, stormwater garden and rooftop rain water collection tank.

“These environmentally friendly enhancements are not only good social policy, but also a good business practice,” Kerwin said. “In addition to reducing costs, it benefits the complex from a marketing standpoint. More organizations are seeking environmentally friendly facilities to hold their events.”

All of these measures will reduce the facility’s operating costs by more than $300,000 each year, Kerwin said. The upgrades also have reduced the complex’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1,650 metric tons annually, roughly the equivalent of taking 300 cars off Pennsylvania’s roads each year, he added.

Via