Dakota Supply Group - Index

Dakota Supply Group - dakotasupplygroup - Index

ELECTRICAL 8
DSG Electrical Group
Green, green, green! Everywhere you turn
someone is talking “green,” and it can get a little
tiresome considering that so many of us have been
“going green” for some time. We just haven’t been
calling it that. How many times in the last 20+ years
have you worked with a customer to save them
money – not only through labor-saving products,
but also energy-efficient lighting and heating
installations? Any way you slice it, saving energy is
100 percent green.
Thankfully, the manufacturers that DSG deals
with have a long history of environmentally sound
products, and they continue to invest significant
financial resources in research and development
every year. That allows us to offer energy-saving
solutions to contractors, who, in turn, can provide
them to end users. With today’s uncertain economic
conditions, consumers are looking for ways that
can help them save money, not only today, but in
the future, as well.
I just came away from a seminar on “green”
where Jerry Yudelson, one of the country’s leading
experts on green buildings, asked us to take
away one main thought from his session: Anyone
involved with a new commercial development,
university, school or public project today, and not
making it as green – and intelligent – as possible,
will have a building that is functionally obsolete
the day it opens for business and economically
disadvantaged for its entire lifetime.
Wow! After reading this, just think of how many
of these “obsolete” buildings you drive by every
day. The retrofitting opportunities are substantial,
whether you call the project “green,” “energy
efficient” or something else. In fact, a recent
Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey
from the U.S. Department of Energy says that 82.5
percent of commercial buildings built before 1980
have not undergone a lighting upgrade (as of 2003).
That means that one of the more obvious solutions
to a “slow economy” for electricians is simply to
encourage more retrofits. Customers improve
efficiency and you make money – everybody wins.
But the first step comes from you. Start talking
to customers about how they can save some green
by going green. Look at it this way: you’re not
being asked to change the world by yourself.
Instead, we’re being presented with a world of
opportunities that we can work on together.
Mike Tupa
Electrical Group Manager