That’s how Caterpillar, Inc. just chopped its energy bill by 46% — to save $800,000 a year — by improving the energy efficiency of its headquarters in Peoria, IL. The company’s reduced electricity and natural gas demand translates into credit for reducing GHG emissions.

To do it, Caterpillar redesigned its electrical systems by adding:

• direct digital controls throughout the building to control 800 newly created temperature zones and prevent one-size-fits-all temperatures
• variable-speed fans to the HVAC system
• a seasonal schedule for operating building systems
• motion detectors to turn off lights in unused areas, and
• a night setback to turn off lights and lower office temperatures.

Caterpillar also:

• reduced water use 50% by adding a new irrigation system to minimize landscaping consumption
• developed a green cleaning program to use only environmentally friendly chemicals
• adopted a pest management program that uses the least toxic methods to control insects
• enhanced its recycling program to reduce environmental impacts of materials it uses, and
• conducts regular audits to continuously seek out new waste-reduction opportunities.

Result: Caterpillar’s HQ is the first building in Illinois (outside of Chicago) to earn a gold certification from EPA’s LEED green building program.

Bonus: Wondering how to improve your LEED score?  Consider an online green building education course to learn design, construction, and maintenance techniques used by the pros.

By upgrading to energy-efficient lighting systems in all of its retail stores, auto parts and tire seller Canadian Tire says the $12 million savings it’ll reap in 2010 are just the beginning.

The more efficient lighting systems saved the company’s stores more than 45 million kilowatt hours (kwhs) of energy in 2009 and will expand this savings to more than 85 million kwhs in 2010 and beyond.

The lighting upgrades are also improving the company’s environmental footprint by cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 11,500 tons in 2009 and 20,500 tons in 2010.

But this is just the opening stage of a campaign to boost the company’s bottom line by chopping energy costs. For example, Canadian Tire is building so-called smart stores that are 30% more energy efficient than standard stores built just three years ago. The mix in a smart store includes:

• florescent lighting
• Energy Star approved products
• daylight harvesting
• motion sensors to turn off lights in unused areas
• high efficiency heating and cooling systems, and
• increased insulation.

Full details are reviewed in the company’s first-ever Community and Business Sustainability Report.

The school expects to save $500,000 a year in lower electricity bills thanks to newly installed software that maximizes energy efficiency of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at its Austin, TX, campus.

That’s a lot of green credit thanks to the significant emission reductions that come with the upgrade, which the school says is well worth the one-year return on investment to install the software from Optimum Energy, LLC.

The design cuts power demand by six million kilowatts, which in turn reduces the university’s indirect greenhouse gas and conventional air pollutants generated by its electrical suppliers.

The energy-optimization software can be used in a variety of building applications, including:

• office towers
• schools and universities
• government facilities
• data centers
• laboratories
• medical facilities
• airports
• hotels
• casinos, and
• shopping centers.

The OptimumHVAC software runs controllers provided by Johnson Controls to operate the university’s first, 100% variable-speed drive HVAC system.

Adding green ways to manage stormwater will save companies money.

Doing nothing and sticking with the status quo — letting stormwater run into storm drains — is the losing proposition. It’s going to cost companies a lot more to rely on this old way of handling stormwater.

The 79,000 businesses in Philadelphia are bracing for huge new water utility fees, and some will be hit really hard — up to $10,000 a month more for large operations like an airport, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But many more companies stand to see cuts in their water utility bills, especially those that can reduce the amount of impervious surfaces on their property, mainly parking lots and roofs. These winners range from chemical companies to hospitals and commercial buildings.

The key to cutting water bills: using low-impact development (LID) designs and other green infrastructure to capture all your stormwater on your property (away from buildings), keeping it out of a storm drain and letting the soil do the treatment work on your property.

To encourage businesses to use green solutions to manage stormwater, the city will base fees on the amount of  impervious surface at a facility. The more a company does to reduce the impervious surface, the smaller the fee.

Some of the green solutions to cutting your water utility fees include adding:

• rain gardens on your property, including in a parking lot
• green rooftops, which not only capture stormwater, but help cut heating and cooling bills, and
• porous pavements for parking lots.

Most cities are spending billions on giant underground concrete vaults to store runoff and treat it after a storm passes.

But Philadelphia has adopted a different approach, one that EPA favors, designing stormwater controls that mimic nature’s way of absorbing most stormwater. For example, hardly any stormwater leaves a forest. It generally percolates into the soil where it falls.

It just takes a bit of planning to create a green office.

That’s how State Farm real estate agent Christine Moscantolo obtained a silver level, green business certification. She worked with Green Impact Solutions, Inc., to identify green products to use when she renovated her office in Allentown, PA.

Once the plan was in place, the transformation into a green office proved to be something that any office in any business setting can adopt. Moscantolo:

• used paints that don’t contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the renovation of her office
• purchased only computers and appliances that are certified by EPA’s Energy Star program
• selected office plants that eat VOC vapors to help ensure good indoor air quality for employees and customers
• processes half of their insurance policies online, reducing need for paper-based products
• gets customers to file electronic signatures, and
• sends all faxes through email.

Moscantolo’s office is the first State Farm office to win a Green Business Certification from the Green Business League.

The federal, state and local governments are all investing time, money, energy and regulations to promote green building standards to make new and existing buildings more energy efficient.

Reason: Buildings consume huge amounts of power that take a huge bite out of  municipal budgets, so governments are hungry for ways to cut costs. Interest in green building standards, such as those created by the U.S. Green Building Council, is exploding because buildings consume more energy than any other part of the U.S. economy.

Plus, by cutting electricity bills, governments will reduce their carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So it’s a win/win for them.

The latest action comes from the National Governors Association, which will develop comprehensive action plans for building managers to become more energy efficient. The six states participating in the NGA program are: Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.

Plus, this green building effort targets existing buildings, so companies don’t have to just plan new construction to take advantage of the energy conservation techniques that will be developed.

The NGA program will address many standard energy efficiency improvements, such as upgrading:

• insulation
• heating and hot water systems
• lighting
• windows and appliances, and
• energy management systems.

The funding for the project comes from the Department of Energy.

Instead, manufacturers are forcing their suppliers to go green, and those suppliers will find themselves adopting eco-friendly business practices well before EPA gets around to forcing these dramatic market changes.

That’s the take home in a new Frost & Sullivan analysis of the electronics manufacturing industry and how it’s forcing its supply chain to go green. And, this industry is making the switch to beef up its green credentials without compromising its business needs and development. The go-green push seems only win/win, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Some of the changes adopted by the electronics industry include switching to:

• lead-free solder and other electronic components
• halogen-free flame retardants, and
• products that are easier to recycle.

These changes enhance a manufacture’s greeniness. But more importantly, they cut operating costs because eliminating reliance on hazardous materials eliminates the costly regulatory liabilities associated with their use.

For example, by converting to lead-free solder, manufacturers no longer have to deal with costly hazardous waste regulations that control disposal of lead wastes. These changes save money for the facilities.

Electronics manufacturers are also adopting clean delivery and waste minimization strategies, such as reducing packaging needed to ship a product.

These changes all contribute to reduce a company’s energy consumption, which cuts costs and lowers related air pollutant emissions, particularly greenhouse gas releases.

That’s the lesson from California winery, Jackson Family Wines, home of the Kendall Jackson brand. The company has developed a filtration process that cuts water use 70% and dramatically reduces the vineyard’s demand for electricity to process, heat, clean and transfer water.

After testing this new water filtering and recycling technology, Jackson reduced its water demand by 6 million gallons a year. And with that much less water to process, the winery has reduced power consumption by 9 million kilowatts a year. That’s enough to power 1,300 homes, according to the company’s statement.

Jackson racks up big energy savings because the new filtering process lets it reuse 90% of the water for cleaning wine barrels and tanks and other equipment. The recycled water retains 75% of the heat, so Jackson needs less electricity.

And since Jackson is committed to sustainability, the company made sure that the filtering process also removes organic material that can be composted.

Jackson plans to offer the technology to wineries and other types of companies.

The water-conservation project is just the latest green achievement by the Santa Rosa-based company.

It just installed a new energy-efficient lighting system that is expected to cut electricity bills by $100,000 a year. The new high-intensity, fluorescent lighting system was supplied by General Electric’s Consumer & Industrial division.

That’s one of the lessons you can pick up from Marcal Paper Mills. The company is totally into the sustainable green thing and only produces 100% recycled paper.

Sure, the mill has invested in fancy technology over the decades to turn waste papers into fresh paper products, as reported in New Jersey’s Alternative Press. But the take-home from Marcal’s story is where their raw material — other people’s waste paper — comes from. To make its paper products, Marcal only uses the paper that’s recycled from:

• curbside pickups in residential neighborhoods
• those blue baskets in office buildings
• unwanted junk mail, and
• waste papers from printing companies.

So when your company’s thinking about going green, it can start by adopting the little things, such as recycling office paper in those blue plastic containers.

Plus, you may want to get your employees, and your mail room if you have one, to recycle all that junk mail that comes through, especially over the holidays.

It might take a bit of organizing and training to change some behaviors, but think of the positive. Recycling junk mail helps save trees. This is not a stretch. Marcal’s been relying totally on recycled paper for decades. It’s why their company shirts proudly state “We Save Trees.”

And of course, by recycling paper, you help save the trees and that prevents unnecessary releases of greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s the warning clearly stated by the new head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), David Michaels.

Sworn in just this month, Michaels wasted no time in raising the specter of more safety inspections and likely fines for up-and-coming green companies.

When Michaels hears talk of “green jobs,” he translates that into “OSHA will have to inspect all these new jobsites.”

In a speech to say hello to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Michaels worried about the current rush to create a green economy. While creating green jobs is a great idea, he’s also worried that “employers who race into this green economy without paying attention to worker safety will blunder into many preventable injuries and deaths.”

Since green jobs are not inherently safer than any other type of job, Michaels warns that when he hears:

• “weatherization and renovation,” OSHA sees exposure to lead and asbestos
• “insulation,” OSHA thinks exposure to toxic materials like isocyanates
• “rooftop solar power,” OHSA sees fall hazards, and
• “wind energy,” OSHA’s worries about lockout hazards.

Take-home for green companies: Make sure you provide workers with personal protective equipment, that they wear it on the job site and that your company conducts regular safety meetings to discuss ways to avoid job-related injuries.