People often ask us if we're a green company. By some measurements, we're not. Although there are many green things about us, like we recycle, our corporate headquarters is within two blocks of a CalTrans lightrail stop, we have a bus stop in front of our building, and we have showers for bike commuters and even indoor storage for bikes, many would argue that we're not a green company.
I would argue that we're more than a green company, we're a green tech company.
We make a control networking technology, LonWorks(r), that is truly green. Not directly like solar or bio-fuels, but in a more subtle and real-world useable way. This is because our technology is embedded in the devices and machines that are used in a lot of places: lighting, heating, venting, air conditioning, street lights, hot water systems, gas monitoring, blind controls, parking lights, sprinkler systems, electricity meters, and more. Companies install LonWorks based systems because they need to automation, control or monitoring functions and LonWorks based systems and components offer the advantages that all end-users owners look for: open purchasing environments, open service contracts, choices in suppliers (even after the initial installation), extreme reliability, thousands of product choices, and bottom-line savings.
But what makes our control technology green? Well, dimming office lights automatically when the sun is providing enough illumination takes control. So does letting the building temperature rise 2 degrees (F) to drop your energy consumption when your utility sends a message that the grid is under so much stress that it might have to fire up a coal burning power plant. So does dimming streetlights when there's no traffic or even when there is, to subliminally slow it down to safer speeds. And so does making your clothes washer turn on only when electricity is inexpensive. Without control networks and the energy saving applications they enable, none of these things would be economically possible.
We also know through first hand experience that our technology is green, in more ways than one. Our headquarters uses control systems to save 30% on electricity use year after year. If you use what was the accepted model for energy consumption at the time our building was built, we're using 70% (not a typo) less energy then a comparably sized Class A office building in our area. And on a quarterly basis we sit down with our facility manager and try to find new ways to save energy through our smart building system. We have good reason to do so in addition to the environmental benefits, we save $30,000 in energy costs per year.
All of them, from smart washing machines to smart buildings to smart energy grids, are available on the market today, using our technology. Collectively, adding all of the electricty savings in the thousands of LonWorks equipped commercial buildings; in the streetlighting applications up and running in Sweden, China, Canada and France; in homes in Korea and Europe; and in smart metering systems in Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, and most recently Austria...well, that's a lot of green.
And that's why Echelon is truly a green tech company.
