Home > Resources > Publications & reports > The Green Path

The Green Path

The average suburban household pays some $6-9,000 per year directly on energy:

$2,000-2,500 in gasoline
$1,500-2,500 in electricity
$2,000-3,000 in heating & water heating fuels
$500-1,000 in water/sewer charges

The average commercial/industrial/institutional facility pays $2-3 per square foot each year directly on energy:

$1.30 to 1.80/sf/yr in electricity (lighting and cooling)
$0.50 to 0.80/sf/yr in heating and water heating fuels
$0.30 to 0.40/sf/yr in water/sewer charges

Many businesses and institutions pay far more than that — those with long operating hours, intensive equipment usage, or processes requiring heat. An average Costco or Target, for example, will burn through well over a half million utility dollars each year.

In addition, the entire spending budget of businesses and institutions is (and has been for the last 40 years) exposed to inflation caused by global energy market fluctuations and to fundamental limits on fossil fuel availability. After all, it takes fossil fuel energy to make, package, and transport virtually every product we use.

The bigger the problem, the more obvious the solution.

Each building, business or institution, is on a path to sustainability in the 21^st century, whether intended or not. We see the future on Israeli rooftops and Danish coastlines. The future is clearly renewable — our grandchildren will live in a world largely powered by natural sources: wind, sun, waves, and bio-fuels.

Our goal at StarPak Group is to help plan your path toward sustainability … on your terms. Working together, we can achieve substantial liberation from both global oil dependency and the increasingly costly offerings of utility companies.

Our name for this liberating process is The Green Path©. It’s a plan that moves toward energy independence, but does not ‘ditch dependency’ in a single step. Instead, we believe it is wisest to take each step on The Green Path only when strongly indicated by evidence of:

superior returns on investment, plus
large tax credits (or low interest loans for non-taxpayers), plus
increases in occupant comfort, plus
independence from both foreign oil and utility companies

Step I

The first Green Path step is to analyze your energy situation, using our 32 years of experience in renewables with almost 10,000 renewable and high-efficiency customers. We invite those ‘just starting to look’ to gather their energy bills, building plans, and digital photos, and come to a Green Path Seminar. These are held:

Once or more a month at our showroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan
In cases where eight or more building owners have joined together, at the place and time of their choosing. (Examples: business associations, school board meetings, company events)

Attendees will share ideas with our skilled presenters, and compare notes on building their own Green Plan. For a nominal charge, those who are ready for an in-depth analysis can invite StarPak to perform an on-site energy audit and receive a detailed assessment report. This report, good for the life of the building, is a valuable asset to both current occupants and future buyers.

Step II

The next Green Path step consists of implementing physical improvements based on proven, mature technologies that produce predictably strong returns on investment and increases in occupant comfort. For example:

Energy efficiency measures—LED and CFL lighting, key insulation categories (duct, pipe, window insulation as well as for walls and ceilings), water conservation and reclamation… plus 98-99% efficient furnaces where indicated.
Solar thermal systems—proven by the tens of millions in Japan, Israel, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and the USA—for building heating, water heating, pool and spa heating, and even desiccant-dehumidification cooling of buildings. In commercial buildings, air pre-heating with solar and heat reclamation are especially advantageous.
Targeted solar electric lighting and power systems (often referred to as photovoltaics or PV) for attic cooling, day lighting of windowless or dark areas, landscape and parking lot lighting, and powering of DC pumps and blowers. In off-grid areas more extensive PV systems might make very good sense.
Energy monitoring, management, and control. Powerful internet-protocol (IP) hardware/software—of the same type used by Google to control and enworld headquarters—can track and control all key energy usage.

In addition to noticeably increasing occupant comfort, these proven steps, all available from the StarPak Group can:

For residential buildings —

save a typical household $1,200-1,800 or more per year
generate tax credits of $3,000;
and steadily increase year-over-year returns on investment of 15% or better (payback thus being seven years or less).

For non-residential buildings —

save a typical business or institution $1.00-1.25 or even more per square foot per year,
generate 30% upfront tax credits, and
steadily increase year-over-year after-tax returns on investment of 20% or better.

Step III

This step includes building-scale PV (solar electricity production), onsite wind generation, and wood/cellulosic combined power and heat (CHP). Such projects are very often indicated by our detailed site assessments.

PV will continue to enjoy dramatic breakthroughs in simplification and lowered cost, due to an imminent wave of ‘thin film’ rollouts. (Thin film is virtual printing of electric cell circuitry onto coils of thin metal substrate.) We anticipate that these developments will drive costs down to a range in which it will become an attractive investment. Generous additional tax credits will remain in place through 2016 for PV.
Though less often an applicable solution, on-site wind generation is also benefiting from a manufacturing ramp up that will help reduce costs.
Wood and cellulosic systems are used extensively in Europe together with solar thermal for building heating and water heating. These are called “combi-systems.” In the near future, advanced building-scale systems will also be able to produce electricity, combining production of heat and power. Wood/cellulosic CHP is a perfect match with solar thermal and PV.
Wastewater and waste heat reclamation are proven and simple today, and should also become far more cost-effective in the near future.

The result of these simple Green Path steps is that buildings can become dramatically more comfortable and substantially independent of foreign oil and utility price hikes, enjoying both strong increases in the value and excellent returns on investment. Our staff and network of partners brings 31 years of renewables experience, with over 8,000 renewable and high- efficiency customers in Michigan alone. They include:

Architect Damian Farrell and his Design Group for new sustainable buildings and tasteful architectural retrofits. They can help you create a nearly 100% green facility.
Tom Esper, PE, structural and civil engineer with extensive experience supervising steel construction for large-scale projects.
Robert Frank, a certified energy auditor with over 12,000 audits completed.
David Lewis, new urbanist architect with projects from Los Angeles to Cleveland.
Boiler and commercial HVAC experts Hartford & Ratliff.
On-call carpentry and electrical crews.
Top energy management/intelligent building system middleware integrators Ken Rorick and Jon Engelbert.

To Learn More:

Contact StarPak Group:
3003 Miller Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI
48103-2122
Phone: (734) 222-3000
Fax: (734) 222-3638
www.starpakgroup.com