Integrators Share Ways For You to Go Green

Do you unplug your cell phone charger when you are not using it?

How much hydrofluorocarbon is produced by the manufacturing process of the speakers you buy?

How do you dispose of the spent batteries from cordless drills?

How do you explain daylight harvesting when selling lighting control and automatic shade control to a customer?

These are just some of the areas of discussion that will take place during the CE Pro Going Green Breakfast @ EHX Fall on November 8.

The breakfast (which will not be serving green eggs and ham, in case you are wondering) starts at 8:30 a.m. in the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif.

The session will cover four primary green topics:

Recycling Within Your Own Company

Integrators will receive tangible takeaway advice for making their own company greener.

For example, only 35 percent of companies have any sort of recycling program in place for their cordless drills and screwdrivers, according to the Rechargeable Battery Association.

According to CEO Norm England, 75 percent of construction companies replace the battery on a drill at least once per year. Just by recycling those batteries, he says 40 million pounds of waste has been diverted from landfills since 1995.

As another example, Jim Sweeney, of Hometronics Lifestyles in North Haven, Conn., asks its technicians to sweep up wasted copper wire cuts on the job every day. It is all thrown in a bin at the company office and then the copper is recycled at the end of the year.

That money is used for the company's Christmas party.

Offering Green Services to Clients

How important is it for you to offer green solutions to your customers? Very important.

By 2010, the consumer electronics sector will be the biggest single user of domestic electricity, overtaking the traditionally high-consuming sectors of cold appliances and lighting, according to the Energy Saving Trust of the UK.

The same study says that by 2020, entertainment, computers and gadgets will account for 45 percent of electricity used in the home. Most integrators know that big-screen TVs can send their clients' electric bills higher.

So these reasons make it important for dealers to propose lighting control, HVAC management and shade control systems to mitigate energy costs.

Indeed, a recent CEA study of consumers shows that 32 percent of recent homebuyers regret not spending money on an energy management system.

A recent study by the Shelton Group reports that 27 percent of consumers say they would spend money on energy saving equipment for their home in order to preserve the quality of life for future generations.

Products for Being Greener

In addition to the logical solution offerings in categories like lighting control and HVAC management, attendees will receive information regarding questions that can be posed to vendors.

Examples include what steps they might be taking to minimize their carbon footprints.

Stewarding the Earth

We are all citizens of the Earth. Without going "Al Gore" on attendees, the Going Green Breakfast will provide integrators with a bullet-point handout of things they can do to be greener.

For example, according to Future Forests, only 5 percent of the power drawn by cell phone chargers is actually used to charge phones.

The other 95 percent is wasted when you leave it plugged into the wall, but not into your phone.

The lively panel discussion at EHX will feature Rick Kukulies from NuVo Technologies, Phil Scheetz from Lutron Electronics and Collin Breakstone from Ultimate Control, an integration company based in San Jose, Calif.