Venstar Launches ‘Go Green for No Green’

Venstar has launched a program that allows retail chains and other multi-location businesses to install its energy management system — which Venstar says saves companies up to 25 percent on energy and maintenance costs — for no cash up front.

The Go Green for No Green program applies to Venstar’s Surveyor energy management system. Surveyor allows businesses to remotely monitor, control and manage their HVAC and lighting/electrical and mechanical systems in stores throughout North America. It’s designed specifically for small-box retail chains with hundreds to thousands of locations.

The system works by installing sensors on each piece of the user’s energy-consuming equipment, which communicate to the user’s Surveyor system via the Internet. Some of the biggest manufacturers in HVAC, including Carrier and York, have Surveyor controls available as a factory-installed option, Venstar says.

Surveyor users can make automatic and on-demand changes to stores by state or region, or changes to individual stores, via a computer or smartphone. The EMS can also send out customized email reports about energy usage and equipment conditions at stores.

Venstar CEO Steve Dushane says Surveyor is “cash-flow positive from day one” because most companies save more than the monthly cost of the EMS.

AutoZone, Family Dollar and other retail stores are each saving on average $20 million annually in energy costs with a typical return on investments in less than 18 months, according to Venstar.

VF Corporation announced last week that it will use Schneider Electric’s online energy management and sustainability platform to track energy, water and emissions data across all of its brands including The North Face, Timberland and Wrangler. The software platform, Resource Advisor, is an online tool that provides users access to energy and sustainability data, reports and summaries, and ties predictive energy cost modules to project prioritization and portfolio-wide diagnostics.