Turning Energy Stress Into Energy Savings

“We front the capital investment for the upgrades and we monetize the energy savings,” explains Budderfly account executive Brittany Ficano in the webinar.

Keith Callahan, the CEO of The Pinebrook Group Athletic Club Division, joined the webinar to discuss why his company has partnered with Budderfly on several sites. A primary reason was that costly HVAC upgrades were inevitable. Clubs under his watch include the Thoreau Club in Concord, MA, and All Sport Health and Fitness in Fishkill, NY, among others.

“We build into our financing model a certain amount of CapEx on an annual basis to be able to do [the upgrades],” Callahan notes. “What attracted me to the Budderfly model is it took off a significant portion of the CapEx budget that I would need to spend to be able to do the facility upgrades that we wanted to do, and allowed me to put those dollars into play in other meaningful areas that were, frankly, more member-impactful and more member-facing.”

“Even if you have the capital, this allows you to allocate it elsewhere,” adds Ficano.

Billing on a Baseline

Ficano explains how Budderfly structures its payments, saying, “When we bill you for your utilities each month, we’re billing you on a baseline. Your baseline is your historic energy consumption. We come up with an average in terms of kilowatt hours. Our goal is to reduce that consumption, of course, and we make our money back by monetizing that spread—between what you’re actually consuming and what Budderfly is billing you for.”

Paul MacLurg, owner of Thrive Community Fitness in Lacey, WA, is also a building owner. He praised Budderfly and said the decision to partner with them came down to: “Am I going to keep fixing my old units as they get older, or am I going to replace them?” Then the question became, “Who’s going to do it?”

Smart-metering solutions allow Budderfly to virtually manage and take action on any issues, while also allowing operators full access to the customer portal.

MacLurg says he has peace of mind and no longer has to worry about the next HVAC expense. “This is out of sight, out of mind. The units work just like they’re supposed to. If we need to make changes, we can access the customer dashboard, or we just call Budderfly.”

Club members have noticed that HVAC units that were off-line for a long time are now running normally, says Callahan. “Members have commented that in the winter, it’s warmer, and in the summer, it’s cooler.”

“No news is good news,” adds MacLurg. “People aren’t complaining. It’s been really seamless.”