Established in 1984, Energy Alternatives is Canada's longest operating renewable energy company. We have been there, done that in the world of renewable energy. When you work with Energy Alternatives, you are working with people who know and live with the products we sell.

The EA Story

EA was founded in 1984 by Melinda and Ezra Auerbach. They were living on a remote island in BC that still to this date does not have grid power and all power on the island is either provided by generators or renewable energy

Ezra and Melinda were responsible for creating the Design Guide and Catalogue, which is currently in it's 13th edition. These design guides are so popular and well distributed, we regularly get calls from people who are reading catalogues that date back to the early 1990's.

In 1995, the company was sold to Bob Mathews and relocated to Kamloops, BC and merged with Bob's existing Micro Hydro company, Appropriate Energy Systems.

In March 2000 the company was purchased by , who had been working as a dealer and installer since 1993. The company was relocated back to the West Coast in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Energy Alternatives is currently the dominant company in BC for customers looking for complete renewable energy systems, from design through to completion.

Some say that the year 2007 will be known as the great greenwash. Literally overnight, every builder, architect, and car manufacturer and oil company has become a green sensation, making large boasting claims about the companies environmental achievements. With there being no universal standards to measure, these claims are unaudited and are most likely derived from marketing campaigns over actual corporate strategy.

In the "Six Sins of Greenwashing" report by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, you can see of 1018 consumer products, all but one committed at least one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing. Astonishing. Consumers are being lied and deceived by companies pretending to be green.

It's up to consumers to research, and make their purchases
from companies who are honest in their representations.

At Energy Alternatives, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously. We are a truly green company from our inception, from the products we sell through to the practices we employ personally.

Transportation

EA's expertise and reputation for quality installations has us traveling extensively. In 2007, our service vehicles logged approximately 80,000 kms, primarily within the province of BC.

• 75% of our staff bike, walk or take public transit to work.
• In 2007, we replaced our 11 MPG 1998 GMC 1-tonne crew cab with a 2007 GMC 3/4 tonne diesel, achieving 24 MPG.
• We run biodiesel in the new truck. The mixture will depend on the season, and where we are driving. In summer, we run generally on a B75 mix - 75% biodiesel, 25% dinosaur (petroleum) diesel. This gives the best mix of fuel economy and fuel stability. In winter, we must lower the concentration to 20% biodiesel depending on the location.
• Our 1990 5-tonne crane truck, 7 MPG on propane fuel was sold. The purchase of a 12,000 LB flatdeck trailer allows us to haul the heavy loads when needed, and we now employ the services of local cranes when required.
• An AWD minivan was purchased as a secondary installation vehicle when the large truck is not required. 20 MPG.
• In 2008 we will be purchasing additional trucks, these will be the cleanest burning diesel vehicles available.
• We have a 6000 LB electric forklift, using approximately 12 kWh of electricity per month. This classic 1950's forklift serves us very well.
• Our service routes are planned as much as possible to maximize the number of jobs on a given trip. We do live in a large province, and
• A strict no-idling policy is enforced for all company vehicles, and we politely encourage the various delivery vehicles that serve us to enforce this as well. Idle-Free BC
• Diesel vehicles use block heaters during freezing temperatures, plugged in an hour in advance of starting allows for cleaner starts with lower emissions.

Buildings & Facility

Energy Alternatives owns a 4500 sq ft commercial building, constructed in 1990. The building has a steel superstructure, concrete block outer walls and a metal roof. Built fully to code, this building was an energy pig when we first moved in. Here is a summary of the performance improvements we have made.

• Insulation. The main roof of the building was insulated to R5 or less. With the addition of additional insulation, as well as the creation of a dead air space, this has been raised to R20.
• Sealing Drafts. Despite being built to code, this building leaked like crazy. Energuide blower door tests were unable to gain any pressure in the building, suggesting openings equivalent to a 8x8' hole in the wall. We have sealed up many of these drafts and will be getting re-tested in the near future.
• Rear block wall insulated with R10 styrofoam
• Weatherstripping on exterior doors
• Timers on vents so not left on excessively.

Electricity Efficiency

EA is served by a 600 volt, 3-phase industrial electrical service. Large loads such as compressor and air conditioner operate at 600 volts, with a 120/208 step-down transformer for all other loads. Our average electricity demand is around 120 kWh per day.

Since we moved in, here are some of the electrical efficiency upgrades completed:

• Consolidated two 15 kVA and one 30 kVA transformers down to a single 30 kVA. Transformers draw power even on idle. Many commercial electrical systems are brutally oversized for their present needs. Savings: 36 kWh per day.
• Installed daylight sensors for outdoor yard lights which were previously on 24x7.
• Motion sensors for night time security lighting.
• Replaced emergency exit signs with LED.
• Lighted building sign on timer, shutting off at midnight.
• Replacement of all incandescent lights. 8 kW of halogen, incandescent and old-style T12 florescent fixtures were removed. These were replaced with 1.8 kW of lighting, primarily compact fluorescent R40 lights to replace the halogen spotlights.
• Installation of energy monitor in the showroom, allowing us to view the real-time electricity demand.
• Power bars on computers and peripherals, to eliminate phantom loads
• Programmable timer for furnace / air conditioner allows heat to be off at night and weekends, and in the winter, to turn heat on so that staff arrive to a comfortable office.
• Old-style CRT computer monitors are being replaced by flat screens, using 75% less power.
• Printers are turned off when not needed.
• A Xerox Phaser colour wax printer which had to be left on all the time due to bad design, wasting 5 kWh per day was replaced with a colour laser printer with advanced power saving program, idling down when not actively used during the day and completely shuts down off-hours.
• Interac and credit card machines are turned off when not needed. These machines use as much power as a computer, and are almost always left on 24x7. 1.5 kWh savings daily.

Operations

• Recycling. We have an extensive recycling program for paper, glass, tin, all plastics, styrofoam, wood metal scrap (steel, aluminum, copper) as well as a composter diverts a tremendous amount of material from landfill. As recycling is second nature, we have not tracked this specifically. Basically, if it's possible to recycle, we recycle it. At greater cost than just throwing away.
• Electronics. Dead products, after we have salvaged any usable materials are sent to an approved electronics recycling depot.
• If we have to buy packaging fill, we spend 4x as much for a soy-based product which can be composted or dissolved in water.
• We use surface freight whenever possible. Air freight consumes immensely more energy. Shipping by rail, ship or truck uses the least energy.
• Products are sourced locally whenever possible.
• We buy in bulk, ideally reducing packaging. Products which are excessively packaged are avoided.

Miscellaneous

• On-site water treatment system provides staff with the best quality water, and eliminates the extreme waste created from bottled water. We have a dual stage carbon filter to remove sediment and chemicals, a UV system to sterilize, and a 3-stage reverse-osmosis system (for drinking water only). No murky water here - just clogged filters!

Wishlist

While we have done plenty, there are still more things to do!

• Replacement of our natural gas furnace with either an air-to-air heat exchanger, or high-efficient gas furnace.
• Installation of a solar hot water system and removal of the existing industrial-sized hot water tank, leftover from the previous occupants of the building.
• Electric-only pickup truck to use for in-town deliveries and running around.
• A new building, which is designed for energy-efficiency from the ground up. There is only so far that we can go with a fundamentally inefficiently designed and built structure.
• Replacement of the servers that keep website, email, and general operations going with more efficient units. Our servers, computer network, phone system, alarm, and emergency lighting systems consume approximately 48 kWh per day, 40% of our electricity.
• LED company signs.