One badge of honor that’s synonymous with energy savings is the ENERGY STAR logo. With the ENERGY STAR Certification on a product, industrial plant, or building, people can ensure that energy efficiency is top of mind. Jim Bauer, Account Executive with Boland, and Gary Wine, IT Director, at the Berkeley County Council, spoke about the meaning of achieving this elite status and what steps building owners need to take to receive this coveted certification.

“To achieve it, you need to measure how you’re performing,” Bauer said. “As an HVAC company and energy services company, when we develop a relationship with a client, we want to be able to have access to their energy consumption, their bills, and their energy data. From that, we can help them start getting their ENERGY STAR rating.”

Once Boland receives the data, Bauer said the next step is to get that building connected. “We like to connect to the building’s automation system because there’s a plethora of information available. By gathering that information then we can monitor how that building’s performing. And we can then start communicating with the client about scheduling, and setbacks, and how the building is waking up and going to sleep every day and making sure that is done properly.”

Wine detailed the process that Berkeley County went through with Boland to achieve the ENERGY STAR certification. And the importance of saving money for the taxpayers played a considerable role in the desire to increase energy efficiencies with their buildings.

“With Boland, they made it really easy,” Wine said. “They came to us and said, ‘we would like to help you identify some of these inefficiencies, some of these problem areas, and we’ve got this solution that can track data, track statistics, and help to speak to your problems from a numbers’ scenario.”