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Michaels

Program Evaluation – Nellie, You Are Toast

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
In the blah, blah, frufrah blogosphere there are plenty of rosy fables and opinions of energy efficiency and green energy.  In a blatant marketing pitch, the Energy Rant is the only blog from the inside, critical of things in our industry.  Our industry is not unlike any family, marriage, workplace, company, celebrity, elite athlete, pet, child, or even a normal person.  It has faults.  It has problems and failure.  There is trouble.  There is dishonesty (gasp!).  Lots of money is wasted.  There are problem children.  There are competent reliable firms, and there are “yes ma’am” firms.  This is what one…
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One of these Days

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Our friends at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) have published another source report worthy of a post on this blog.  The title of this report is Frontiers of Energy Efficiency: Next Generation Programs Reach for High Energy Savings, which can be found here. The report is quite a detailed whomper, but I gravitated to the commercial and industrial sections of the Executive Summary to see what they have to say.  They are singing our (Michaels) song all the way baby, and we can hum to that tune.  Only my dogs will listen to my lyrics in…
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Lessons from Panhandling

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
According to this article from Inc., the ten most important factors for employee satisfaction are: Purpose – to make a difference Goals for sense of purpose Responsibility Autonomy Flexibility Attention Opportunity for innovation Open mindedness Transparency A year before finishing my Bachelor’s degree, I joined the Nuclear Navy.  Nothing could be better.  I was getting paid a decent salary for my last year of school.  Getting up at 4:00 AM, marching, chanting, calisthenics, etc.: not required.  No uniforms.  And get this: I found that I had earned 30 days of vacation while attending my last year of school!  After graduation,…
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The Nebulous Green Job

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, LEED, Renewable Energy, Stimulus, Sustainability One Comment
“Green jobs” have been all the buzz for quite some time, probably before Barack Obama was elected president, but I don’t know for sure.  What the heck is a green job anyway?  Some real answers include those like we have at Michaels Engineering with 20+ engineers working full time on real energy-saving projects.  Another example is the guy who operates the humongous crane that helps erect humongous wind turbines. But politicians and academic eggheads aren’t talking about jobs like we have at Michaels, although they probably do agree the crane driver has a green job, but it goes far beyond…
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