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By Matt Pillar, Editor, Retail Solutions Online and Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

Sure you can buy credit for wind power or trade carbon emissions credits. That's razor's edge sustainability! In reality, I'll bet you're doing neither. I'll bet these things aren't even in your plans. But what if you could reduce your store-level energy consumption by 25% without entering the business of clean energy brokerage? 900-location Michaels Stores did it by partnering with an energy management solutions provider and following four steps to lower its energy usage.

First, Michaels standardized control across its stores. The retailer and its energy management partner compiled a profile of environmental factors including store lighting schedules, operating hours, HVAC operation, and temperature schedules, used that data to create standards, then deployed those standards uniformly across locations. It then developed systems to mitigate the risk of rogue managers and employees overriding these standards and used technology to enforce these controls across the chain.

At Michaels, strategically located space sensors monitor environmental factors like lighting, temperature, and humidity. This data can be fed via the retailer's network to a server that enables real-time monitoring and reporting. The end result is assurance that temperatures are maintained appropriately, light usage is managed based on the store's standard, and energy-consuming appliances are working appropriately and efficiently. This effort alone netted Michaels a 17% reduction in energy consumption.

Next, Michaels used the data it was gathering to proactively evaluate and predict equipment maintenance needs. Dan Kubala, VP at Michaels' energy management partner Site Controls, says inefficient appliances are an odds-on source of easily recovered energy consumption. "There's a pretty standard 20% failure rate for HVAC units," says Kubala. "A typical big box retailer with 6 to 10 units on the roof can pretty much count on one or more of the units running, but producing no compression; or fanning, but not conditioning the air." Not only do inefficiently running appliances waste electricity, they cause other units to overcompensate and subject them to more wear-and-tear. Unless you're monitoring these devices, you don't realize how much money you're wasting. Device monitoring is facilitated via appliance-mounted devices that feed performance stats to a web portal in real-time. Kubala recommends giving facilities staff and service contractors access to these tools.

Third, retailers like Michaels are saving money and getting cash back from utility companies by limit peak-time energy usage, especially during critical grid emergency events. As temperatures soar and wildfires burn in California, for instance, stores are adjusting temperature and lighting set points to use less energy during low-traffic periods, conserving grid resources for peak hours, usually from 3 to 7. Kubala says that the more you can group buildings within a utility district and execute a uniform strategy across them, the greater the return.

Finally, use reporting data to facilitate continuous improvement, as Michael's has. Energy management is a journey, not a destination. Use your energy consumption data to make adjustments as you see fit. For instance, by monitoring kilowatt-hour consumption per store by square foot, you'll identify trouble spots, find the issues, and remedy problems. "By doing this again and again, Michaels was able to continually eek out savings, in time resulting in a 25% energy consumption reduction," says Kubala. "Technology feeds you the data, which you can use to set energy consumption goals and build business processes to achieve those objectives. You've got to acquire and watch those key metrics, because if you don't know where you're going, you don't know how to get there," concludes Kubala.