Energy efficiency - done as a comprehensive upgrade service - can pay for itself. At the K-12 level some projects have been cash-flow positive, adding to discretionary funds.

Yesterday, Serious Energy's CEO Kevin Surace spoke at The MIT Club of Northern California. Among other things, Kevin described the idea of bringing a high-tech “walk through walls” mentality to the building materials industry. The goal?:  to challenge the industry with breakthrough innovative technology.

Note: This is the full presentation. Please be patient while it loads and progressively streams.

Kevin Surace is the CEO of Serious Energy, and he's also the one of the best speakers in the country when it comes to detailing the opportunities created through energy efficiency. Energy efficient buildings consume less energy, which means lower power bills, which means cleaner air and less demand for burning coal or natural gas.

Green buildings also achieve higher rental and resale values, creating money in a relatively frictionless way, and put assembly line employees, contractors, electricians, and architects to work. It's a virtuous cycle if there ever was one.

But it's tough to do the performance justice in words. So here you can find some of his most recent speeches and press interviews.

The goal: To offer zero-cost upgrades to commercial buildings by reducing energy consumption

Sunnyvale, CA - December 2, 2011 - Serious Energy Inc., a leader in energy efficiency solutions that increase the value of buildings, is proud to announce that it is a founding Financial Ally of the Better Buildings Challenge, an initiative to make America’s buildings 20 percent more efficient over the next decade, reducing energy costs for American businesses by nearly $40 billion. Serious Energy offers building upgrades without any up-front cost, with guaranteed reductions in the energy bill ranging from 10-30%.

President Obama announced the challenge today at the White House, which will involve $4 billion in investments in upgrades to federal and private sector buildings over the next two years.

If you needed more convincing that green, energy efficient buildings save money and increase the value of real estate, here is a report from Pacific Northwest National Labs.

Researchers at the lab examined 22 buildings owned by the General Services Administration and found that aggregate operation costs, on average, were 19 percent lower than normal. Carbon dioxide emissions were also 34 percent lower, a big consideration in Europe, Australia, California and soon other areas that have carbon regulations. Your building mints energy credits while you snooze.

Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Energy, ventured into what some of you readers might think of as enemy territory this week. Namely, he appeared on the "After the Bell" segment of Fox News to discuss the bankruptcy of Solyndra, Serious Energy and energy markets in general.

Greenbuild 2011 is right around the corner (this year, in Toronto from October 4 -7) and Serious Energy will be there. Come meet the team and learn about how we're making buildings smarter, more energy efficient, more comfortable, and more valuable!

The Empire State Building was awarded LEED Gold Certification last week. SeriousGlass technology was used in the retrofitting of the building’s 6,514 dual pane windows. As reported by the Environmental Leader, the no-disruption retrofit glass system  iWindow is the same technology adapted and priced for wide-spread commercial use. (Check this space soon for another NYC historical landmark announcing a SeriousGlass window retrofit.)

Sunnyvale, CA – September 27, 2011 – Serious Energy today announced a technology partnership with U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), creators of the LEED green building program and LEED Online. Coined LEED Automation, the partnership enables users of LEED to easily sync up data and information with LEED Online, the software platform that manages the LEED green building certification process, and drive continuous improvement in their buildings.

With the economy struggling, it might at first seem counter intuitive to invest money in energy management solutions that make buildings smarter and more energy efficient. Energy upgrades and retrofits can appear to be ‘nice to haves’ rather than ‘need to haves’ when budgets are tight.

The Empire State Building has been in the news again lately for its enormously successful retrofit project, which just earned it a second ENERGY STAR certification by the US EPA. From the Empire State Building press release: “The certification signifies that the property’s energy performance is part of a select group of commercial office buildings, new and old, across the nation that have received this accolade. ENERGY STAR recognition was a stated objective in the iconic property’s overall sustainability retrofit initiative launched in April 2009.”

The city of Seattle wants to reduce energy consumption by its building stock by 20%--ASAP. To make it happen, it's starting with information. The theory is that once Seattle-ites have a better grasp on comparative building energy consumption data, market forces will accelerate the energy retrofitting trend. Here are the steps as outlined in the program fact sheet for the new Seattle Building Energy Rating & Reporting Ordinance:

Facebook’s early move from the East Coast to Silicon Valley made for great cinema in the movie “The Social Network.” What if you’re a hot pre-IPO social networking company born near Palo Alto? What could be your ‘statement’ relocation? If you’re LinkedIn, the business person’s choice, you take a floor in New York’s Empire State Building. According to the deal’s broker, Sacha Zarba of CB Richard Ellis, LinkedIn executives recognized the advantages of associating itself with the NY landmark’s brand – both its historic symbolism and its new reputation for being a ‘green’ skyscraper.

The theme at the Commercial Real Estate industry’s big spring gathering, the CoreNet Global Summit, is ‘Social Dynamics in the Workplace.’ Here ‘social dynamics’ is short for leveraging social media and mobile device technology. In support of the theme, CoreNet organizers have asked their baby boomer colleagues to actively listen to younger leaders. What they’ve learned is that healthy, sustainable environments are a top priority. When these ‘digital natives’ are not comfortable with the temperature, noise, lighting of their workspaces, they’ll ‘go mobile’ – even if the interaction with co-workers at the office would be a productivity boon. They’re also ready to get involved in their companies sustainability efforts and willing to embrace new technology that will help them reduce their carbon footprint.

On April 2, TEDxPresidio brought together thought leaders in business who are -- as their mission-statement makes clear -- "shaping the future of their sectors."

Covering evolving 21st Century business trends like competition in a global marketplace, entrepreneurship, technological tools, survival in the digital age, and the changing set of internal and external values, it was only natural that sustainability was a hot topic.

It was therefore equally natural that our own inimitable CEO, Kevin Surace, made an appearance -- even if Kevin saved energy by streaming his presentation from our Sunnyvale HQ.

A recent survey carried out by Sustainable Rhythm, a building industry consulting firm, examined the level of acceptance of green building within the industry and with their clients and sought to determine what concepts and issues impact customers’ purchasing decisions.  The survey respondents included architects, contractors, building owners and managers and other building industry professionals in Ohio, Alberta, Canada and the North Carolina Triangle area.  Overall, at least 80% of respondents in each region indicated that their clients either somewhat embraced or fully embraced the message of green building.  Respondents indicated similar acceptance levels for the industry, their managers, their organizations and their vendors.

A recent survey of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) by the Carbon Trust reveals that many CFOs at large companies significantly underestimate the returns that energy efficiency investments can yield.  While the average Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on energy efficiency investments that the Carbon Trust has recommended to large businesses is an impressive 48%, the average response of CFOs when asked estimate the IRR of energy efficiency projects was only 19% - less than half.

With energy efficiency measures nearly complete, including our unique window retrofit, Empire State Building manager, Tony Malkin, now turns his attention to addressing the building’s energy supply. Just recently announced, the Empire State Building will purchase 55 million kilo-watt hours of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) - enough to offset its entire yearly energy consumption.  These RECs, more than any other commercial purchaser in New York buys, will come from wind power facilities owned by NRG Energy.

The Empire State Building today announced the completion of a building-wide window refurbishment. The initiative is one of eight measures implemented at the Landmark as part of an innovative energy retrofit project announced in April 2009 with President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The building's 6,514 windows were refurbished through a groundbreaking process that reused 96 percent of the existing glass and frames. The initiative alone will directly reduce building energy costs by more than $400,000 annually.