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July 7, 2015

Capital One’s George Holcombe and Stephen Evanko Share Expertise at SR Inc Q2 Symposium in Washington D.C.

George Holcombe, Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability Office, Capital One
George Holcombe, Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability Office, Capital One
On June 11th in Washington D.C., Sustainability Roundtable Inc. (SR Inc) hosted a Q2 Executive Symposium to further explore the Chartered Research underway as part of its year-round, shared cost Sustainable Business and Enterprise Roundtable (SBER) service. The discussion centered around SBER’s Shared Research Focus for 2015 – planning for “Net Zero Emissions Portfolio-wide 2030” – and more specifically on SBER’s two 2015 Chartered Projects: “Portfolio Manager Meets the Internet of Everything” and “Portfolio Manager Meets the Renewable Energy Revolution”. Member Executives and industry leaders Stephen Evanko and George Holcombe of SBER Charter Member Capital One attended the meeting in-person to share their company’s experience with both intelligent portfolio technology and renewable energy procurement. Mr. Evanko leads Capital One’s Environmental Sustainability Office, working in partnership with senior leaders across the enterprise to oversee environmental measurement systems, establish and track environmental goals, implement environmental projects, lead enterprise engagement efforts, and author corporate sustainability disclosures and reports. Also part of the Environmental Sustainability Office, Mr. Holcombe works with operations and design teams to integrate sustainability strategies into projects and optimize building operations through identifying and building business cases for energy management measures. 
VPPAs_Q2ES2015
Virtual Power Purchase Agreements. Source: SBER-RLC Member Advisory Advanced Off-site Renewable Energy Procurement

Mr. Evanko and Mr. Holcombe have led the charge in piloting 6 different smart building technologies, which will inform a Request for Proposals (RFP) and ultimately help Capital One to select an intelligent portfolio solution that will provide the greatest benefit to company operations and workplace productivity. Their firsthand experience with these technologies made them well-positioned to share insights and respond to questions from other Member-Clients present for the in-person and national, web-enabled meetings. Stephen and George emphasized the point that, although there is a range of software solutions available to provide improved energy use data and dashboarding, it is important to establish the people and processes that are in place to prioritize and monetize energy-saving opportunities and manage the implementation of changes based on actionable data. They also suggested that, based on their experience, it is useful to establish a “haystack” naming convention for data points that is easily scalable and enables incremental integration of additional data points by decreasing level of priority.

Stephen Evanko, Director, Environmental Sustainability Office, Capital One
Stephen Evanko, Director, Environmental Sustainability Office, Capital One
On the renewable energy front, Stephen and George have overseen a number of substantial projects, including Capital One’s purchase of approximately 66 MWh of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) in 2014 as well as an onsite, utility-owned 500 kW solar array at a data center in Chester, VA. The latter is a no-cost project that has drawn a significant amount of positive press for Capital One and motivated the company to seek additional opportunities for onsite solar throughout the real estate portfolio.

George and Stephen’s expertise was a valuable asset to this symposium, which serves to advance SR Inc’s year-round primary research on management best practices in IoE and renewable energy in corporate operations and real estate. Such perspective helps to ensure that SR Inc’s shared research continues to focus on issues of greatest relevance to Member-Clients and to provide them with the latest industry best practices and lessons learned, so that we may all stay on the cutting edge of these inflecting technological revolutions and progress towards Net-Zero portfolios. To download a copy of the presentation, discussion notes and key takeaways from this Symposium, click here.

Listed below are select SR Inc Member Advisories, Briefings, and Reports relevant to the conversation at this symposium, which our Member Clients may find useful. As SR Inc continues to conduct interviews, develop case studies, and consult with experts to further inform our 2015 Chartered Research, please do not hesitate to contact your SBER Advisor for any additional support.

Selected Relevant SBER Executive Guidance

Internet of Everything:

Renewable Energy:

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