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April 1 - April 30, 2025

GICW Energy Team Feed

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  • Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 5/01/2025 7:13 AM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    This was a fun challenge! Thank you everyone.

  • Martin Aguirre's avatar
    Martin Aguirre 4/30/2025 4:08 PM
    This was the toughest challenge for me. Making sure I turned items off when leaving the office.

  • Martin Aguirre's avatar
    Martin Aguirre 4/30/2025 4:06 PM
    This challenge was tougher as my schedule was busier than usually making hard to stay on top of my challenges.

  • Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 4/30/2025 1:46 PM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    Recently, we discovered that four newly installed conference room TVs had not been set to power down after 30 minutes of inactivity—a setting our previous team consistently applied to reduce unnecessary energy use. Unfortunately, this detail was overlooked because the new team member wasn’t aware of the expectation (Lack of training?)
    To make matters worse, store supervisors didn’t realize this was an energy concern. They saw the blue screen and assumed everything is good as long as it is not a screensaver.
    This is a perfect example of why it's critical to have clear, written policies and SOPs—especially for energy-related practices. When institutional knowledge lives only in people's heads, it's too easy for good habits to get lost during turnover or transitions.


  • Dominic Lombardo's avatar
    Dominic Lombardo 4/30/2025 12:31 PM
    • Plant-Based Foodie 🥬
    It's amazing how much energy you save with replacing old weather stripping and caulking at home!
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Upgrade
    How do you anticipate replacing your thermostats for programmable ones will positively impact your life?

    Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 4/30/2025 10:36 AM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    With two smart thermostats in a home that has multiple zones (e.g., upstairs and downstairs systems)., you’re saving 1,500–1,800 lbs CO₂ per year (0.75–0.9 tons)

    According to EPA and ENERGY STAR, a single smart thermostat can save ~8–10% on heating and cooling energy.
    For the average U.S. home, that’s about 500–900 kWh/year or 50–90 therms of natural gas saved.
    That translates to roughly 750–900 lbs of CO₂ per thermostat per year, depending on your fuel source.




    • Marti Mendenhall's avatar
      Marti Mendenhall 4/30/2025 12:01 PM
      • Adventurer 🏔
      Nice research, Mahsha—love the stats! Always great to see the real impact smart thermostats can make. They’re such a low-barrier, high-impact upgrade.

  • Cindy Sheehy's avatar
    Cindy Sheehy 4/30/2025 9:52 AM
    • Adventurer 🏔
    I took advantage of the longer days and adjusted my light timers to come on later. It is awesome to see the natural sunlight in the evenings.

  • Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 4/30/2025 9:25 AM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    With the help of our marketing team, our Production TVs (Dashboards) display different Energy slides in between Sales and Production reports.

    • Marti Mendenhall's avatar
      Marti Mendenhall 4/30/2025 12:02 PM
      • Adventurer 🏔
      VERY nice!! Be sure to list thos as projects for the O&M Milestone. Super impressive!
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Upgrade
    Switching out your lightbulbs is an excellent first step toward energy efficiency! In what other ways can you exercise your civic duty to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions?

    Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 4/29/2025 11:42 AM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    Eat what you buy – Wasted food = wasted energy, water, and money.
    Kill the vampire loads – Unplug stuff that’s not in use (chargers, printers, etc.).
    Combine errands – Fewer trips = less fuel burned.

  • Mahsha Ahanchian's avatar
    Mahsha Ahanchian 4/29/2025 7:51 AM
    • Wildlife Guardian 🦉
    In 2024, Northwest and Central Oregon and Southwest Washington donors provided us more than 201 million pounds of household goods. GICW sold, recycled, or salvaged over 82% of all items received, diverting more than 166 million pounds from landfill.