March Lunch Meeting

Topic: Overcoming Objections to Energy Efficiency Investments

Program Topic:  Overcoming Objections to Energy Efficiency Investments

This workshop explores methods that can be used by engineers, contractors, and vendors to overcome the objections of business owners toward investments in energy efficient products and services. The session will emphasize financial considerations that go beyond the traditional “first cost” and “simple payback” method. Attendees will learn how to use return on investment, life cycle cost analysis, capitalization rate, and tax effects to help business owners appreciate the true long-term financial benefits of energy efficiency. In addition, the workshop will explore the underlying psychology of financial decision-making and the thought processes that give rise to common objections to investments.

Hank Jackson, Salas O'Brien (Weaverville, NC)

Hank Jackson is currently National Director of Cx Training for Salas O’Brien. He has provided technical training and consulting services since 1979. He holds a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering (1974) and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (1978), both from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr. Jackson served as director of the Georgia Industrial Energy Extension Service program at the Georgia  Institute of Technology prior to entering a private consulting practice. During a five year hiatus from consulting (1999 – 2005), he was department chair of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville, North Carolina. Most recently he has been employed as a Senior Mechanical Cx Engineer with Salas O’Brien, Atlanta, GA.

Mr. Jackson specializes in building commissioning and energy-efficient operation of commercial, institutional and industrial buildings. He has provided training for public electric and natural gas utilities, including Georgia Power, Midwest Gas, Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and Niagara Mohawk Power. He has also traveled abroad to Jamaica and Central America to conduct energy audits and to provide technical training, including a lecture series in Spanish.

Mr. Jackson has been a member of ASHRAE since 1983. He coauthored “Infiltration heat gains through cold storage room doorways,” 1989 with W.A. Hendrix and D.R. Henderson, ASHRAE Transactions 95(2).