In Part I of this series, we focused on some of the HVAC industry's leading manufacturers, and how they're contributing to the green movement. (See CB, Dec. 2008, p. 38; contractingbusiness.com, keywords ‘Green Giants’)

Part II of this series focused on the efforts of HVAC distributors and how they handle refrigeration management. We found that the distributor offers contractors guidance in how to handle and manage refrigeration properly. (See CB, Jan. 2009, p. 38; contractingbusiness.com, keywords ‘Refrigerant Reclamation’)

Part III of the Green Giants series focuses on the green efforts of HVAC contractors. This is the third article in a year-long series that will showcase how HVAC industry professionals at all levels are making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.

HVAC contractors have realized that in order to talk the talk, they must first walk the walk in their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. They've made great efforts to start at home first, whether it's their own homes or in their businesses.

Such is the case with Benson Green, president and majority owner of Benson's Heating and Air Conditioning , Tallahassee, FL. “I'm Benson Green and I want you to be green too.” That's the slogan Green's company has been using for over a year to promote the greener way of life. He says the simplest thing that anyone can do is recycling. His company recycles all of their uniforms, duct materials, bottles, glass, paper, cardboard, air conditioning units, refrigerant, metal, and copper.

Even though the building that houses his company is only 10 years old, Green found the need to take a closer look at everything they were using. In their sheet metal shop they replaced three wall-mounted fans with one larger fan that circulated more air and that had a variable frequency drive. “We saw a significant drop in our utility bill just because of the simple things we did,” Green explains.

Lead By Example

Steve Saunders, CEO of Tempo Mechanical, Irving, TX and Contracting Business.com's 2003 Residential Contractor of the Year, started his green efforts in the workplace as well. He conducted an indoor air quality (IAQ) study in their facility and found that they had a bad particulate count. He removed the gas-powered forklifts that the company had been using and started using electric fork lifts. Saunders also had a lighting audit of their workspace performed, and had the building re-lamped with high efficiency light bulbs.

“Just by changing the light bulbs, we use less energy, they provide better light, and we save money on utility bills.” Saunders states.

Saunders then took his green initiative to the road. He switched to diesel vehicles to obtain better gas mileage, lower emissions, and higher durability. He also had Teletrak GPS Systems installed in all vehicles, to reduce unneeded trips and mileage.

The folks at Tempo Mechanical practice what they preach by performing the same maintenance on their facility that they'd recommend to their customers. “We perform regular maintenance of our own HVAC system, do regular filter changes, use programmable thermostats and use damper systems,” Saunders explains.

Tempo Mechanical has been a strong proponent of using R-410A refrigerant and has been selling it for half a decade. Sanders recalls, “The very first R-410A job we did was at my house.”

Like Saunders, Benson Green's company has been selling R-410A systems for a long time -10 years in fact. He says R-410A systems have been the top seller for the past four years. Green explains, “We sold 90% R-410A last year and 85% the year before.” He says that having an educated customer base makes this an easy sell because they understand the benefits of R-410A.

From a commercial perspective, Josh Kahn, vice president of Kahn Mechanical, Dallas, TX is also bringing his green efforts home to the workplace. “What we're doing from the retrofit side,” Kahn explains, “is recycling as much material that we're pulling from buildings as we can.” They recycle all of the steel, copper, and aluminum that they recover, and they reuse any equipment that's in good shape. They also separate any material that can be reused and donate it to non-profit organizations. (Kahn Mechanical was Contracting Business.com's 2008 Commercial Contractor of the Year.)

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