Two weeks ago I was at the ICREWNJ luncheon at the Woodbridge Hilton. ICREW is a great organization that brings together companies that service the commercial real estate industry. From brokers to IT professionals to furniture consultants they are all there. The group is organized by women who have a common goal to:

• to advance the professional development of women in commercial real estate through educational meetings and seminars and
• to promote opportunity for business growth through networking on a local, state and national level

They always have a speaker that can give some insight into the real estate industry. This month it was Adam Zellner who is the President of Greener by Design. I had seen him at another event wherein he discussed the need to build with energy in mind. The ability to obtain credits for the creation of energy via solar panels, windmills, etc. could definitely help property owners in this day and age.

What got me this time in his speech was the 3PM to 4PM syndrome. He told us that most of the energy bill for a day comes from the time between 3-4PM. That is the time when the kids get home, everyone is at their desks, PlayStations and whatever else turn on an make a drain on the “net” as he called it. He said if we were able to conserve during those periods by:

1. shutting down some lights
2. turning off some non-essential systems
3. unplugging the cell phone chargers that are just stuck to the wall
4. or turning off the computers we just have to leave on

the bill would dramatically decrease. To me that was interesting to know that in one hour a day I’m getting billed the highest electric rate of the day and that if I could just make a change for an hour it would make a difference. Wow! That seems too simple. For more information feel free to check him out at www.gbdtoday.com.

The question is what could you and I do differently to keep our green (money) from 3-4PM. What can building owners do? Comments are welcome.