{"id":11149,"date":"2015-09-23T11:20:01","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T16:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=11149"},"modified":"2015-09-23T11:33:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T16:33:03","slug":"turning-up-the-heat-on-energy-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2015\/09\/23\/turning-up-the-heat-on-energy-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning up the Heat on Energy Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0Amy Chiang<\/a>, student at the University of Michigan, the 2015 EDF Climate Corps fellow at General Motors<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Amy<\/a><\/p>\n

I was already level with the roof on a ladder when my\u00a0General Motors supervisor<\/a>\u00a0pointed out the irony of my situation. As an\u00a0Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps<\/a>\u00a0fellow, I was destroying the homes of the young maple tree seedlings trying to grow in the rain gutter of a Detroit home. I\u2019m all for trees, but not when they take up residence in a rain gutter.<\/p>\n

But how did I find myself on a roof in Detroit? Partly because my answer to the \u201care you scared of heights\u201d question was \u201cno,\u201d but also because I was embedded for a summer in GM\u2019s foundry division as part of my EDF Climate Corps fellowship.<\/p>\n

With a background working in clean, renewable energy resources, I did not expect my next project would be on sustainability at an aluminum foundry – where raw metal inputs are melted down and cast into the desired part. However, it turns out that foundries actually consume the most energy in the vehicle manufacturing process \u2013 second only to\u00a0paint<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 with 50 percent of the energy consumed in the furnaces used to melt and hold the metal. To assist in future energy reduction, this summer I developed a matrix to help GM compare their furnaces and aluminum foundries to realize energy savings. <\/p>\n

For a project that sounds data-driven and office-bound, I ended up spending as many days in the office as I did outside of it. To bolster my field experience, I got the opportunity to visit all the GM-owned U.S. aluminum foundries several times to gather energy usage data and engage with the plant team about their processes.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Turning up the Heat on #EnergyEfficiency”]<\/p>\n

I even got to participate in an energy \u201ctreasure hunt,\u201d an 18-hour process (starting at thevery\u00a0<\/em>early time of 5 a.m.) that captures the foundry\u2019s operational systems \u2013 including start up and shut down procedures \u2013 to see where energy can be reduced. This not only gave me an opportunity to do additional in-depth analysis for potential energy savings, but I also got to learn more about all the different people involved in running a foundry and who could help provide the data I needed.
\nWith my first energy treasure hunt under my belt, I flew down to Mexico with three other members of GM\u2019s global facilities team to partake in another hunt, this time at a vehicle assembly plant. Since this plant was much newer, it was harder to find potential energy savings \u2013an exciting step in the right direction and a sign that GM is committed to reducing energy use across its operations. Newer plants are more likely to have energy efficiency solutions already in place such as efficient lighting and HVAC systems, making their energy footprint far lower than they would be at older plants.<\/p>\n

As a whole, this fellowship was a great opportunity to get a sense not only of GM\u2019s foundry operations, but their internal culture. Even though I was only there for 11 weeks, I feel that I got to experience what working at GM is like.\u00a0 I was amazed by all the different opportunities available \u2013 from international business trips to a community service event to clean up a house in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I worked with both internal and external sources to develop a simplified model quantifying millions of dollars of potential savings in energy and aluminum reduction \u2013 a solid financial benefit for the company. Prior to this internship, I was completely invested in renewable energy as the solution to energy problems, but working at GM has shown me the enormous potential energy savings that can come from being innovative in energy efficiency projects as well as the benefits of participating in the larger culture.<\/p>\n

And who knows, by saying yes to aluminum foundries and cleaning out rain gutters, I may have just found a new calling.<\/p>\n

This post originally appeared on General Motors Green<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0Amy Chiang, student at the University of Michigan, the 2015 EDF Climate Corps fellow at General Motors   I was already level with the roof on a ladder when my\u00a0General Motors supervisor\u00a0pointed out the irony of my situation. As an\u00a0Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps\u00a0fellow, I was destroying the homes of the young maple tree seedlings …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42996,1077,254,1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smart-power","category-edf-climate-corps","category-energy-efficiency","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTurning up the Heat on Energy Efficiency - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2015\/09\/23\/turning-up-the-heat-on-energy-efficiency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning up the Heat on Energy Efficiency - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By:\u00a0Amy Chiang, student at the University of Michigan, the 2015 EDF Climate Corps fellow at General Motors   I was already level with the roof on a ladder when my\u00a0General Motors supervisor\u00a0pointed out the irony of my situation. 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