View Single Post
  #1   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 01-05-2009, 16:56
Rich Olivera Rich Olivera is offline
Registered User
no team
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Rookie Year: 1998
Location: Chicago
Posts: 21
Rich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud ofRich Olivera has much to be proud of
Re: **FIRST EMAIL**/Going Green at the FIRST Robotics Conference in Atlanta

Quote:
Originally Posted by RoboTIP View Post
I missed Dan's presentation in Atlanta, and so far I can find nothing that has been posted. Does anyone have any information they are willing to share? Perhaps contact information for Dan?
I attended this meeting. Here is what I got out of it:
The goal of this conference was to introduce a method of fund raising that also increases awareness of energy expenditure in local firms and businesses. The idea is as follows. Many utility companies offer a free energy audit service. Auditors survey the facilities of local businesses and provide constructive feedback. This feedback would include suggestions for saving energy. Possible suggestions could be replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs, installing socket units which shut down vending machines at hours when no one is in the building, or closing blinds (whether it be manually or automatically) at certain hours of the day. A cost benefit analysis is provided reporting the yearly savings. For a decent sized facility, the yearly savings would be tens of thousands of dollars.
The problem is that very few out there know these services exist or make use of them. This is where FIRST comes in. The program outlined in this conference seeks to mobilize the FIRST community to proactively seek out auditing opportunities, to effectively carry out these audits, and to request that half of the first year savings be donated to a FIRST team.
Of course, logistics were still being discussed in the meeting. They still need to devise a way to train auditors. There was discussion about collaborating with local power companies. Experience in energy auditing was another issue. For this, there was also talk about starting out in school districts and sponsor-run facilities. Success stories were also shared at this meeting. Apparently, some have already had some success auditing despite limited experience. The impression I got from the meeting is that FIRST hopes capitalize on the teams' enthusiasm and links to their local communities.

Unfortunately, the only contact info I got at this conference, so far, has not yielded any response. If anyone has more info, I would also like to hear more.
Reply With Quote