HP Inc snags the Outstanding Energy Manager award

HP Inc's Lee Kim Leng has been recognised for his work on promoting energy efficiency by being named Outstanding Energy Manager of the Year at the EENP Awards 2020. The other award recipient under this category this year is Francis Tan Kok Vui of Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (Private) Limited.

This award recognises outstanding energy managers who have demonstrated leadership in driving energy efficiency improvements across their organisation; and who played an instrumental role in promoting energy efficiency initiatives within their organisation.

Mr Lee is the regional energy and sustainability programme lead, corporate real estate and workplace services, at HP Inc. His key roles include: developing an energy strategy plan for HP; working with the project management team to review conceptual designs of regional large projects and to drive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) construction; leading regional energy saving initiatives such as retro-commissioning, smart buildings and Low Cost No Cost programmes; evaluating renewable energy options and pursuing those that provide financial and environmental benefits; and engaging employees by promoting HP's environmental activities.

"Sustainable impact is HP's commitment to create a positive and lasting change for the planet, its people, and our communities. Our mission is to transform our entire business to advance a more efficient, circular, and low carbon economy," says Mr Lee.

"We are taking action to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption by setting bold goals for our global operations including Singapore to use 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2035 and reduce greenhouse gas emission by 60 per cent, compared to 2015."

HP adheres to its robust sustainable design principles of having a minimum LEED Gold certification for new workplaces and implementing energy management systems in its manufacturing plants. It also incorporates industry leading best practices to improve the organisation's energy performance that produces more sustainable facilities.

In 2017, HP Inc's new Asia-Pacific region headquarters in Singapore opened with LEED Platinum certification. In 2018, all its Singapore manufacturing plant operations were certified with ISO 50001 energy management systems.

Rating for green buildings

LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building types, it provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. It is quite similar to Singapore's version of the Green Mark Building Certification.

Mr Lee says that he is "thrilled and excited to win this award. It's a testament to the work that we do and the values that we uphold in HP Inc - actively seeking ways to manage our energy efficiency and reduce climate impact while we increase our productivity. This award is also a recognition for our staff, who have collaborated across cross-functional teams to successfully execute our energy efficiency initiatives.

"Our journey towards sustainability builds on our win at last year's EENP Excellence in Energy Management Award in 2019 and Best Practices Award (Mention) in 2018."

Energy use is a significant operating expense for every company and is the main driver of climate impact as most of the company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are from its operations related to the energy used to power its facilities.

Last year, HP's Singapore operations consumed 2.3 per cent less energy than the year before as a result of the implementation of energy conservation projects and the use of renewable energy in product output.

Innovative solutions

"By constantly looking to reduce our energy demand through energy efficiency and our use of green renewable energy, we are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emission. This demonstrates our efforts to address global climate change and reduce reliance on grid electricity supply. While we faced strong headwinds in getting renewable energy in Singapore, we continue to look for innovative solutions and continue to engage with green energy suppliers and government energy agencies to aid us in reaching our goal of converting to 100 per cent renewable electricity use by 2035," says Mr Lee.

Highlighting some of the recent energy efficiency initiatives, he says that starting in 2018, HP's energy use reduction efforts included multi-site chiller plant optimisation, conversion to LED lighting and the full automation of selected facility operations such as car-park exhaust systems with reference to air quality and cooling tower water quality treatment. By using data analysis through algorithms, the company managed to improve the system efficiency of its multi-site chiller plant optimisation by 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the LED lighting conversion also delivered an immediate 40 per cent improvement in lighting efficiency and performance.

"Our energy team collaborates closely with site operation teams that are replacing end-of-life equipment like cooling towers, compressors, transformers, etc so that new high efficiency equipment is evaluated and installed," says Mr Lee.

"With the introduction of the ISO50001 energy management systems program, HP believes in using big data to accelerate our energy efficiency goals through analysis and benchmarking. We are using these insights from data to produce equipment performance monitoring capabilities which can continuously optimise energy usage.

"Lastly, we've also installed solar panels on our buildings and continue to look for new ways to decrease our energy footprint."