By Steve Kelley

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (or follow us on Twitter or YouTube), then you’re probably aware that we’ve launched a video series focusing on energy conservation in credit union buildings. The first three episodes are already out, and three more are on the way. I hope you’re watching, and inviting others to do so as well.

In Episode 3, which went online yesterday, we finally disclosed how much our engineers think credit unions could save annually in energy costs if they underwent retro-commissioning (a comprehensive process of making a building more energy efficient): over $23 million. I don’t know about you, but to my way of thinking, that’s a significant amount, especially at this time of mounting loan losses and disappearing capital.

Of course, these savings wouldn’t come without cost. We estimate that to realize the $23 million in annual savings, credit unions would have to invest approximately $57 million. And yes, that’s a lot. But if you do the math, it means that the initial investment would be recouped in just under two-and-a-half years. And if the savings continued for 10 years (they should do at least that), you’d have net savings of $173 million. That’s an ROI of just over 300%. Slightly better than the current T-bill, wouldn’t you say?

So, wondering why making credit union buildings more efficient hasn’t been talked about much before now? We’ll discuss that in our remaining videos, and we’ll also tell you what we plan to do about it. We hope you’ll watch, and join the conversation. And most importantly, we hope you’ll join us in doing something to make your buildings more efficient, and save your share of that $23 million per year. Don’t you owe your members at least that?