Bernhard and Mercy Wins AEE Region IV Project of the Year

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Bernhard announced today that an Energy Stewardship Program created with St. Louis-based Mercy recently won the 2022 Association of Energy Engineers’ Region IV Corporate Energy Management Project of the Year.The award was presented during the AEE’s 45th annual World Energy Conference & Expo, held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The awards recognize organizations, individuals and projects making contributions to or doing important work in energy management, sustainability, energy efficiency and related fields.“Bernhard shares Mercy’s focus on stewardship and improving patient care through the upkeep of Mercy’s infrastructure and controls assets. The program’s turnkey, design-build-commission approach allows projects to follow expedited schedules and preserve team continuity from start to finish,” said Aric Reed, project manager at Bernhard. “Maintaining contact with each facility after completion of projects via monitoring-based commissioning and operator training ensures the implemented energy-saving measures remain in place.”

Launched in March 2020, Mercy’s energy stewardship program is focused on improving energy efficiency, reducing operational costs, making needed infrastructure upgrades and improving indoor environmental quality for patients and co-workers. The project is unique in size and scope, with Bernhard substantially optimizing the energy efficiency of systems serving more than 14 million square feet of medical office and clinical space. 23 projects have been completed, with another 29 in progress.

“Mercy has benefitted in many ways from the energy stewardship program,” said Tom Brinkmann, Mercy’s Director of Facilities Maintenance and Operations. “In addition to reducing operating costs, focusing on this critical aspect of our facility operation improves comfort, indoor air quality and maintenance resource utilization, energy stewardship also supports our overall sustainability initiative.”

Multiple systems were upgraded as part of the project, including direct digital control (DDC) building automation, HVAC upgrades and modernization, metering, fault detection, LED lighting upgrades, as well as ongoing measurement and verification, remote operator support, utility bill auditing and commodity management. The program has led to estimated energy savings of $1.7 million per year.

The AEE’s Region IV judging considered energy projects from 11 states in the central and southern U.S., including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Founded in 1977, the Association of Energy Engineers currently represents more than 18,000 energy professionals in more than 100 countries.

For a full list of 2022 AEE Regional Award winners, click here.