 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Howard Wigg, Code Green, Think Tech, Hawaii. My guest today is Cesar Casciola, Executive Director of the Walter Cameron Center in Kahului, Maui. We don't have an image of Cesar to show you, but take my word for it. He's a pretty good looking guy and turns out he's a very serious runner. So he's also an athletic looking guy. So welcome to the show, Cesar. Hi, Howard. Thank you for the invite. Oh, and here's an image. I told you he was a good looking guy here. Very... So by way of introduction, Cesar came here from Mexico many years ago as an agricultural worker. And you wouldn't think that was the most promising to start in the world, but this is America and the American dream comes true. So Cesar worked his way up, up, up, up, up. And now from Agricultural Worker, Executive Director of the Cameron Center in Kahului. And those of you who are familiar with the center know that it's big and it serves many, many community functions. I was over talking to the American Institute of Architects a few months ago on Maui and our meeting and our refreshments came from the Walter Cameron Center. So let's go to the first slide and Cesar, I will let you take it from here as we follow the slides. We'll first do the Walter Cameron Center. If you wanna tell us a little bit about... Oh, and you know what? Let's go to the next slide and you can talk a little about what the Cameron Center does. Okay, sure, definitely. As you can see, our mission is to serve, incubate, support, and accelerate social good in our community. So since 1973, we've been housing nonprofit agencies and many of them continue with us and some of them have gotten into better themselves and now they have their own facilities. One of them is the MAC, Maui Arts and Culture Center and now they have their own beautiful facility. So we help the community that way. We serve nonprofits when churn serves the community. And let's go to the next slide that gives an outline of one of the many, many nonprofits that you host over there. Yeah, we house currently 16 agencies and you can see from American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Nakekiwe-Malia, the Chamber of Commerce. Anyway, so we house 16 of them and we're very happy that we can continue to do that and offer services for all these agencies. You can see on slide number four, where we list the different services. We provide the office and program. Oh, this is on the next slide. We have all the facilities and we do have electric car charging stations. We provide Wi-Fi for the entire complex and then we have some equipment, the agencies come and borrow and they're able to use like laptop projectors and tables, chairs, whatever, things like that. Yeah, we all know that nonprofits continually have financial issues and you're just setting them up with everything they could possibly want. I assume for a very good price for them, something they can afford. And they in turn reach out very often to the less advantaged people in the community. Yes, yeah, that's correct. So that way they able to concentrate on their services because we provide the space and we just charge one fee, so they don't have to worry about paying electricity or coming areas or parking or anything like that. Everything is included in one fee. And so that way they have their hands on to provide the services to the community. Yeah, let them focus on what they're good at and I see that the electric car charging station is also there and Wi-Fi access. I don't know how many people have told me, oh my goodness, I need Wi-Fi access, here it is. Wow. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing of today. Everybody's into technology, Wi-Fi, internet and social media. And so let's go to the next slide, the challenge. Oh, no, this is a slide that shows different groups, Cesar, there's a slide with little kids enjoying themselves, somebody lecturing, somebody serving food. Yes, it's the pictures with the different activities and events that take place at the center. And so just some photos in there and stuff. Yeah, yeah. It gives you an idea of that diversity. And the challenge, you can see we got to one point and this is back in 2008 when we looking at the facility, we saw that we had some challenge on us in other electrical systems, the AC, the plumbing, windows, doors, landscaping, things needed to be updated. And so we kind of started taking note of that. And we say, wow, our water heaters are rusty and they don't work properly and things like that. Is that the, I see a big rusty piece of equipment. Is that a water heater or? That's a water heater, yeah. Whoa, the remains of a water heater, yeah. Yeah, we have eight of those in the complex. And so we do have a few showers and then we also have six kitchens. So we need hot water, yeah. I would think so. Wow, that is, so you really had your hands full when you get started, just to bring the level of service up to a decent standard there. Yeah, that's correct. You know, after 34 years and you know, as a nonprofit, I guess you kind of realize, you know, you've been busy providing the service, but then it's time for the facility to get a fresh coat of paint and replace some of the equipment and things like that that we can continue to do what we've been doing in those past 34 years. I know with it, when we get into this, we're going to talk about newer equipment being much, much more energy efficient, but first let's go to the next slide, projects up to or, oh no, things to do here. These are what you do here. Yeah, things to do was really quick to list the things that we needed to do, kind of to put a plan together basically and say, this is what we need, kind of like your list of things. And so we kind of departed from there and basically we got into doing projects. So up to today, we have done about $10 million and various projects. And so we did remodel tough restrooms, replace all the electrical, the plumbing, everything inside. We refurbished 25,000 square feet of interior ceiling, updated electrical system. We had an old transformer and we got rid of the transformer. We purchased a new system and gave it to the utility company, so now they own it. If it's not in our side, now we own it. Yeah, let them take care of it, yeah. Yeah, so we don't have to take care of it anymore. That is an ambitious checklist. We remodel for kitchens. We replace the large, 156 large single-pane windows and to the low E double-pane glass. So that's gonna see us a lot on electricity. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and we also replaced the 28 handling units. We did hydro coating for the rooftop. I like that. We did flooring, removed the carpet. We replaced the water heaters and things of that nature. And then you probably see the slide there. We have the energy efficiency initiative. We got into lighting retrofitting. So, yeah, let's go to, yeah, there we go. We went from those old T-12s into a T-8s and now we're actually looking into a T-5s. You have fast technology changes, yeah. And so without just lighting retrofitting alone, that was 30,000 kilowatts hours that we save per year. We also replaced our AC chiller. We went from 100 tons to 125 ton unit with a smart turbo core, which is all magnetic. It doesn't use oil. And that alone saved us 100,000 kilowatts per year. Yeah, and one thing I like about retrofits like this is when you get this newer high-tech equipment, not only does it reduce energy use, but it delivers more comfort and better health to the building occupants. Definitely, definitely. And when you say comfort, you just write about that. Our old chiller was really noisy, real loud. New chiller is so quiet. You can have a conversation next to the equipment. And it's just very pleasing. We don't have the loud noise throughout the day. Yeah, yeah. That's called improved lifestyle. Definitely, definitely. And then we installed two PV, two photovoltaics. We did 107 kilowatts and 15.3 kilowatt systems. We did those through a power purchase agreement. And so they've been producing power for us for the past eight years now. They produce about one third of the power we consume. It comes from the PV. Yeah, and power purchase refers to the fact that you didn't have to put one penny up front. The installer did that, and then sells the kilowatt hours back to you, I believe, at 15.3 cents, a KWH. Is that correct? Yeah, so that's what it is. They start us with a lower, and then we have an escalation rate per year. I believe it's about 2%. And so, which is much lower, you know, than the power that we consume from the utility company. And so you're gonna have an idea why you're gonna be able to expand, because you have the price already for the next 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're able to budget that, you know? It doesn't go up and down. I mean, it goes up, but not, you know. Now, 2% a year compared to the volatility of oil, that's nothing. Yeah, so it's something that we can manage, yeah, and knowing. And so anyway, so that was the PV systems, and now, of course, we're getting into the projects that we're working on right now. And so we're currently working on a third PV system. We are in more PV, and this time we are in energy storage. Yeah, that's still the day. So we are in 147 kilowatt hours, with energy storage for 244 kilowatts. And so we're gonna work into the same thing. It's gonna be also a power purchase agreement, which there is no down payment or money in front, or deposits or anything like that. So now how is this storage going to work? You probably in the middle of the day, you've got all of this sunlight coming down. So you're storing some of that or all of that in this system here? So yeah, so during the day, we're gonna provide the power is not going to the storage, the energy is gonna go into the storage, and we're gonna use the power nighttime, when the morning's between six and nine o'clock in the morning, when our kilowatt rate goes high in demand because our AC is coming on. So we're gonna turn it on in the morning the way we are able to control our demand with the utility company. And have you reached a power or a time of use rate with MECO since you're smoothing the load like this? Yeah, so with this new system, it's gonna be around 20 cents per kilowatt. And so again, it's gonna be for 20 years, it's gonna have an escalation rate of, I believe it's 1.5 a year. And so we're estimating a savings of about half a million dollars those 20 years. Yeah, yeah. All at no upfront cost through you. It's just the agreement between. No upfront cost or don't payments or anything like that. And then I should point out that since you're one of the large users on Maui, you are doing what's called smoothing the load where when MECO is getting too much sunlight, you're absorbing a lot of that, making good use of it. And then MECO has an evening peak between 5 p.m., 9 p.m. And instead of there having to put on extra generators, this is when this battery kicks in and reduces that peak load. That makes life much, much easier for MECO. Definitely, yeah. So it's gonna be able to smooth the peak at the morning and also now p.m., a.m. and p.m. Yeah, and the end result there is that MECO is using more solar power and less fossil fuel. Yes, that's correct. So our goal is to reduce 100,000 kilowatt hours by the end of 2018. Wow. Yeah, so that definitely is gonna take us closer to 75% renewable power. And we're gonna be probably about 25% from MECO from the utility company. Very ambitious goal. And that certainly helps. I'm a state employee and our motto is 100% clean energy by the year 2045, and this takes us, is a big, big, big step in that direction. Yeah, so we're getting closer and closer. Currently, we're working on a new gray lighting audit. We're doing a side survey for our lamps, our night lights and everything to do with fixtures. So we're gonna be renovating our T-8s now into probably T-5 and also reduce power consumption there. We also gonna be replacing our parking lights to LED lighting and then we're looking into painting the exterior of the facility using what is called friendly environmental paint and also takes less heat from the environment. Absolutely, that's something near and dear to my heart because I'm the energy codes guy and Hawaii is the only state in the nation that gives credit not only for reflective roofs where when the sun's radiation hits the roof, most of it bounces back into the atmosphere but we give credit for reflective walls. And this is exactly what you're gonna be doing and the reflective walls issues has attracted the attention of several national energy efficiency groups including Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory out of Berkeley, California and they have established a cool walls center and Hawaii is the guinea pig because there's more and more people like you who are gonna be installing cool walls and now we get to monitor just how much energy they save and we reduce the... It makes so much sense and of course, the savings too because your building's being cooler and so you use less electricity to power your AC. Precisely, and then I would go back to... So my next slide goes into the lessons learned and so you can see there we stole multiple electrical meters and it's gonna go about... Yeah, let's go to the next slide. If anybody wants to conquer easier to have others pay for the energy they use, easier to control, locate fault equipment and so we learn all those lessons. Of course, develop a maintenance plan and I keep emphasizing here it doesn't matter what kind of plan it is but whatever plan you're talking about it needs to be easy, it needs to be sure and concise. Don't elaborate too much into all these manuals that people sometimes produce and nobody reads they just kind of see it around. You need to keep the facility top cheap, provide training to staff anytime you see training available, work with your staff and see who's turn is to take training, who can take training, divide the work among your staff and the contract work. That's a big one there because when you have a contractor providing a service to you, they work from an agency where you know if you call the plumber, the plumber has the right tools, has the right equipment, they have the license, they have the training and they're constantly updating themselves, they're constantly taking classes and things like that. So you don't wanna try to create a plumber you know within your staff because then you're gonna have to buy special tools that you wanna use only once or twice a month and the plumber using those tools every day it makes a difference. Absolutely, yeah. Same thing with electrician, same thing with the AC technician. So you know some of the trades is better just to call somebody and work a maintenance contract with them and your staff don't need to be doing some of the specific work that you might need to buy expensive tools or get them into special training classes or things like that. So you always gotta make sure that the load is balanced. And then by hiring the specialists like this you can also reduce the size of your staff. You don't have to have people trained to do be part-time plumbers and part-time electricians or whatever and when you're doing something part-time you tend to forget some of the lessons you have to re-remember when you get back to that type of task. Whereas you point out the trades, they do this every day. They know exactly what they're doing. And you know what is the other one? Safety. Safety is a big one because like you say they don't use the tool every day and they forget to turn on the switch or turn off the switch or plug it or whatever. So safety is a big one. And so if they're not doing it every day might as well don't get yourself into trouble. Yeah, we're on the lessons learned continued slide right now. Yeah, what's the newest and greatest out there so far? It's yeah. And then of course you're getting to all the OSHA staff and all the requirements and everything. And so anyway, so it's things that you gotta that you have to think and say, okay should I have somebody in the staff or should I just grab the phone and call so-and-so company or ex company or whatever. So that was a big one for us. We save a lot of money to making those decisions. And then of course, compare facts at the local, the national and international levels. What other facilities are you seeing in California or New York or whatever and learn from them? You know, efficiency, stability, communication, visit other facilities. Anytime I go to the mainland, I always make it upon myself to go and visit a large facility and just to see what they're doing and how they're doing things. Is there one thing that I can learn from them that perhaps I can implement here? Yeah, when I go into a building that is obviously poorly managed, I ask about the staff, well, how much training have they had? Oh, well, we don't have any budget for training. And you know the consequences of that. Yeah. So yeah, so one of my friends was calling that the bubble. You know how people things to work and sometimes we get trapped in this bubble. You know, I live in this place so I wanna do things my way and that's it. And so you gotta open up the bubble and kind of go and see what other people are doing, you know, what your neighbor is doing, what the people that lives across the street is doing. So you can learn from them and you can innovate, you know, so we gotta break the bubble and just go outside. Precisely, again, I see the difference in the trades. I see somebody doing something very right and I ask for their background and they generally have been to the mainland to one of the more progressive states or progressive cities and they've gained a lot of experience there. Whereas somebody who just keeps on doing what he was taught to do 10 years ago is not doing such a good job. Yeah, so and then just the last steps here is schedule equipment shut off, purchase energy efficient equipment, keep an eye on the AC, thermostat, turning lights off when leaving the room. You know, it's kind of the old stuff perhaps but it's a small savings, you know. Every time you turn off the light, you might think, oh, I only gonna save 10 cents but, you know, you go out of the room 100 times a month and it adds up, you know. It really quicks, and if not one person, you know, you're talking about two, three, four, 500 people, so it really quicks it up, you know, it works. Plus when the lights are off, the light of the lamp is extended. But actually it makes a difference that those little things. Absolutely, and the more the lights are off, the less heat is generated, the easier the life is for the AC system. Yeah, and so, you know, so anyway, just keep looking, evaluating yourself, what is the biggest expense, you know, what everybody talks about, what can you do, walk the property on a weekly basis, keep people informed of any changes, keep yourself in the loop of things, always open communication and things like that. And I think that has done a quite tremendous impact for us here at the Center. Absolutely, what kind of savings were you talking about? I know there was an estimate of a half million dollars. Oh, that will be with the new PV system. But in the past, what I was saying, in the past or the last few years, we, all the changes and everything that we had done over here, we have saved, I would say, a good about $140,000 a year that we have seen just on energy efficiency, changing the chiller and installing the two PV systems. And that savings, this is the beauty of energy efficiency and renewables, is it keeps, it's a gift that keeps on giving year, after year, after year, after year. And when you maintain the equipment the way you are, that savings does not go down because the equipment does not degrade. It's kind of like keeping your automobile all tuned up. A lot of people take their car in every six months. Yeah, that's correct. And it's a one point right there, actually, that I wanted to make, is that when you call the plumber or electrician on emergency, it's $160 to $180 an hour when they respond to an emergency. But if you can call them to come in five days or 10 days later, that's gonna cost you $60 to $80 an hour. Yep, yep, I speak from personal experience with that one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think we all have experience. Yeah, it makes a big difference when you get into an emergency and you know, same thing for your car. You maintain it to your car and you pay the price when you go into an emergency, broke the breakdown. And we've got a wrap up. I think you've got a slide on how can you support Cameron Center? Yeah, thank you very much, Howard. Yeah, this is pretty much what it is. If people are interested to learn more, they can give us a call at 244-5546. Or they can visit our webpage at www.cameronscenter.org. And you know, same thing if they wanna make a donation, they can visit our webpage or give us a call or stop by. Sure, yeah, it's an interesting place to visit, right there in Kahulu'i. And with that, we've got to wrap up. Cesar, thank you so much. This has really, really been fascinating. You know, if we could replicate you and your building management, we would much, much more quickly reach 100% clean energy by the year 2045. Again, Mui Mahaloz, Cesar. And talk to you later. Thank you, thank you for that. Thank you, thank you for that. Code green.