Cincinnati Chamber Ferrets Out Opportunities to Save Energy

Cincinnati Chamber Hosts Energy Summit to Help Member Companies Save Money on Energy Bills

The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce chose the city’s famed zoo and botanical garden as host of its recent 2014 Energy Summit, recognizing and highlighting the zoo’s decisions in the last several years to make energy efficiency and innovation a central part of its facilities and structures planning.

Michael Pahutski, the chairman of the chamber’s Energy and Environment Committee, praised the zoo’s work in energy innovation and said that it was in many ways a model for how businesses large and small can save money on energy.

“The zoo has done a terrific job of ferreting out – pun intended – opportunities to save energy,” Pahutski said. “From lighting to HVAC to thermal storage, the zoo has rolled over energy savings to new energy projects, leveraging utility energy efficiency incentives to make the most of their EE budget.”

Other speakers at the summit included Jim Henning, the State President of Duke Energy Ohio-Kentucky, and Andy Holzhauser, Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, a regional not-for-profit that seeks to reduce the barriers to investment in energy efficiency.

Pahutski said the summit was designed to help chamber members save money on their energy bills. “We have such a complex energy environment in Ohio that just understanding the options available to customers can be daunting,” he said. “We hope the Energy Summit helped Chamber members navigate this environment to find the best solutions for their businesses.”

This week, the City of Cincinnati is the site of the annual conference of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, a gathering of thousands of chamber executives from around the country. Pahutski, who is also a regional director for large account management at Duke Energy, commended the role that local chambers can play, particularly when it comes to energy.

“Energy involves a complex, evolving marketplace and chambers can help their member companies best take advantage of available technologies, commercial offerings and funding sources to optimally manage their energy spend,” he said.