News

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Aric Reed, senior project executive at Bernhard’s Fayetteville office, was recently named to the Consulting-Specifying Engineer 2023 40 Under 40 List.

The Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 Under 40 List is published annually and is made up of the top 40 industry professionals ages 40 and younger around the United States who stand out through a mixture of personal and professional aspects of their lives.

“I am honored and humbled to be named to Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 under 40 list,” said Reed. “To be recognized at a national level is not possible without the incredible support and inclusion of so many Bernhard teammates and mentors that have laid such ambitious paths to attempt to follow.”

Reed has worked at Bernhard since 2012 and is a licensed PE in seven states. He has led designs of more than a dozen different HVAC system types. His HVAC systems were designed across a variety of projects including sports arenas, performing arts centers, dormitories/sorority houses, hospitals, utility tunnels, kitchens, army bases, pharmacies, commercial office spaces, and national airports. In 2018, Aric was elected as the first President of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of ASHRAE because of his leadership qualities and overall impact on the previous Section’s success.

Aric is a strong advocate for a truly healthy work-life balance. Mental health and a reduction in anxiety have become a priority for him during the last two years. He encourages his team members to spend time with their families, schedule breaks away from their desks during the day, and coordinate personal appointments with him to mitigate the stress of work and deadlines. He also implemented monthly out-of-office get-togethers with his team during office hours, so he can build relationships with team members outside of the office.

Reed received a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Kansas State University and is currently enrolled in the Master of Science for Engineering Management program at the University of Arkansas.

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Leighton Wolffe is a technology trailblazer. He helped create many of the ideas that define demand management and has been a thought leader in the energy industry for more than 30 years, serving as a consultant to Harvard University, Marriott Corporation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Constellation Energy and others. After decades helping develop and deploy software applications and innovative energy technologies, Wolffe recently made the decision to depart from Northbridge Energy Partners, LLC, a consulting firm he co-founded, and join Bernhard as Vice President of Demand Management.

Through Bernhard’s work in building controls, integrating remote operations centers and forming decades-long Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) agreements with large-campus hospitals and universities, Wolffe has found the perfect partner. Wolffe marries his deep industry experience and energy market knowledge with Bernhard’s rich engineering and facilities management legacy to elevate customer buildings with distributed energy systems and the technologies necessary to interoperate with energy markets

A visionary leader in demand response

Wolffe parlayed his ability to understand energy use on large campuses into high-profile jobs, as Energy consultant at Harvard Medical School, and as Project Manager for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, with more than 3 million square feet of healthcare space. Eventually, Wolffe made his way to Marriott Corporation, where he consulted and then joined as Director of Engineering & Facilities.

It was during his time at Marriott that he became interested in the emerging field of automated building control systems. “I was fascinated with the technology,” Wolffe said. “But why it was so expensive, why it didn’t consistently work, and how could it be better used to meet the challenges we faced managing our operations in the context of energy and environmental conditions?”

By the early 2000s, Wolffe was pushing the envelope of smart buildings, including utilizing next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence, predictive automation and neural networks to control buildings.

“This was the same technology used by stock market traders for micro trading and for weather forecasting,” he said. “We were using neural networks to predict conditions based on vast amounts of historical data sets. I consulted for companies like that, and then because energy was such a large part of my focus, I wanted to deliver the solutions that I knew worked.”

After forming a systems integration company and directly implementing these systems in commercial and mission critical buildings, Wolffe came to what he called the most interesting part of his career, working with Constellation and Peter Kelly-Detwiler, who would later go on to cofound Northbridge Energy Partners with him. Constellation, which provided energy for two-thirds of the corporations in the Fortune 100, wanted to be able to create call options for the buildings they served and integrate supply contracts with demand management services.

During his tenure with Constellation, Wolffe helped co-develop and patent Virtuwatt, a portfolio energy management platform that connected customer buildings with energy markets. Virtuwatt enabled them to unlock the true promise of demand response by shaping, shifting and shedding load based on market conditions, pricing signals and demand response events.

At Constellation, Wolffe and his team set up the NewEnergy Alliance that introduced the building automation industry to the emerging demand response programs being formed in each energy market. Since these building systems were already resident in many commercial and industrial facilities, it made sense to leverage them wherever possible. In order to bring the concept full circle, buildings needed to be connected to so they could respond to signals from the grid.

“The Virtuwatt platform did that,” he said. “It provided all the elements necessary to enable customer participation in the North American deregulated energy markets. We took it further for our customers who we were serving with electricity. The goal was to create capabilities in each site that could dynamically shape demand through advanced control strategies to align buildings with market conditions – and simultaneously provide options for positive cash flow by nominating unused load back into the grid – creating virtual power plants. In addition to large campuses, since many of our customers were national accounts with large portfolios, we had to develop the platform to operate at the enterprise level across every market.”

Wolffe’s extensive background will empower Bernhard to manage energy use and improve supply contracts for new and existing clients, leverage and aggregate DER resources, and negotiate better supply contracts on behalf of clients. Wolffe’s knowledge of building technologies and competitive energy markets make him a valuable addition to Bernhard’s executive leadership.

The future of demand response and energy markets

Regulatory, legislative and energy policy activities in the United States are in constant movement and evolving at state, Federal and regional levels. These changes impact the suppliers and the consumers and drive investment in renewable energy technologies. In order for consumers to successfully plan and implement long-term energy strategies, they need to know about these changes and plan for the inflection point when rulings take place. Moreover, customers need to work with partners and vendors who know how to deliver products & services that keep customers ahead of the energy curve in current and future state markets.

Announced in September 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 2222 requires independent system operators (ISO) and regional transmission organizations (RTO) in the U.S. to develop plans that give Distributed Energy Resources (DER’s) access to wholesale energy markets. This reimagining of the U.S. electricity grid is predicted to flood markets with firm and intermittent energy resources, impacting how power supply contracts are negotiated and how customers pay for energy.

The order promotes competition in electric markets and levels the playing field for organized capacity, energy and ancillary services. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will provide incentives and tax credits for many of the DER’s offered by Bernhard. By ushering in micro-grids that exist behind the meter, customers are primed to place their facilities on the cutting-edge of a futuristic electric grid. Wolffe and Bernhard will take the company’s expertise in engineering and building systems and capitalize on FERC Order 2222 for new and existing clients.

Bernhard provides flexible Energy-as-a-Service agreements to customers, some ranging from 10 to 20 and even 30 year intervals. These agreements place teams on the ground in for facilities to preserve the trust and investment placed in Bernhard by upgrading existing systems with new equipment and energy management systems.

For the markets that Bernhard serves, chiefly healthcare and higher education, it’s not common for facility operations to understand the complexities and intricacies of energy markets, and develop the capabilities to participate effectively. As a result, many institutions have been unable to leverage themselves to the benchmark of energy markets and justify the capital expense to upgrade their systems. Bernhard teams are prepared to do the heavy lifting for the customer and bring their facilities up to speed. Now, with a clear focus on energy markets, Bernhard is sitting in a prime position to further reduce energy usage, costs and constraints on facilities, by assisting them in interoperating with the energy markets through distributed energy resources and improved operating systems.

As a consultant, Wolffe was often frustrated when market opportunities weren’t acted upon. “I’m a doer.” He said. “My focus is creating successful outcomes.” His new position at Bernhard allows him to be a facilitator for the customer at a larger scale than ever before. By enabling customers to take advantage of Distributed Energy Resources, Bernhard is creating pricing stability in regulated and deregulated markets, allowing the customer to mitigate risk, avoid volatile pricing and work toward decarbonization and a more sustainable future.

Prepare your business for the energy grid of tomorrow and join us in our mission for sustainability. In turn, you’ll reduce energy use, cost, risk and retain focus on your mission. There’s never been a better time to get started and with demand response. Contact the experts at Bernhard today.

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Bernhard has announced the company is now carbon neutral through the deployment of compensation measures offsetting 2022 Scope 1, Scope 2, and select Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“We began our journey by identifying and quantifying our emissions and chose to invest in the broader environmental agenda through responsible carbon offset purchases as we continue to research and develop Bernhard’s own climate action plan,” said Alyssa Jaksich, Vice President of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) at Bernhard.

Tracking Bernhard’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) has been imperative to the processes needed to understand how to achieve carbon neutrality and ultimately, net zero status. The GHG Protocol is a global program that provides standards, guidance, tools and training for business and government to measure and manage climate-warming emissions. They define three scopes of emissions that correlate to who owns those emissions and the level of control an entity has to changing those emission levels.

“We selected 2021 as our base year and included all utility consumption associated with owned and leased offices, warehouses, and fabrication shops,” said Jaksich. “We also included any emissions from our owned and leased fleet gasoline consumption, jet fuel consumed by leased aircraft, and propane and diesel used to power equipment at our fabrication shops within our GHG inventory.”

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are a mandatory part of reporting for many organizations across the world and relate to systems that are within reasonable control of an entity, such as onsite and purchased energy of owned assets.

Scope 3 emissions are centered on sources of emissions that are more external to a specific organization, such as those across the supply chain. Reporting of Scope 3 emissions remains mostly voluntary, however, reduction of Scope 3 has the potential to have the largest impact.

Becoming a carbon neutral company has long been a goal of Bernhard’s ESG efforts, but the ultimate goal still lies ahead – net zero.

“As we strive towards our long-term goal of becoming net zero by 2050 or sooner, we plan to utilize a combination of reduction efforts and compensation measures,” Jaksich said. “While we work to develop Bernhard’s climate action plan in support of closing the emissions gap, this approach allows us to also work towards closing the climate finance gap. By investing in credible carbon offset projects throughout our journey, we are not only moving towards an approach that does no harm, but one that actively does good.”

Bernhard’s path to net zero will follow an “avoid, reduce and compensate” hierarchy:

• Avoid: Show preference for business decisions and actions that lead to avoided greenhouse gas emissions, thus minimizing the need for offsets.
• Reduce: Where emissions cannot be avoided, seek to reduce emissions through energy efficiency and optimization of business practices and policies.
• Compensate: Where emissions cannot be reduced or avoided, utilize offsets to neutralize remaining emissions. High-quality carbon credits will be prioritized via Bernhard’s Carbon Offset Policy.

Throughout this process, Bernhard is committed to purchasing offsets annually in accordance with our Carbon Offset Policy, while continuously evaluating and implementing strategies to ultimately exhaust our reduction efforts.

“While we made great strides in 2022 by gaining a baseline understanding of our emission-generating activities and uncovering areas where we could become more sustainable within our day-to-day operations, there is still so much work to be done,” Jaksich said. “Our path to net zero is just beginning, but we are fully committed to the journey.”

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The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) recently opened the newly remodeled Bernhard Student Club HQ located in the Engineering, Technology and Applied Science (ETAS) building. The facility helps spotlight student organizations for Engineering Information Technology (EIT) and Engineering, Technology and Applied Science and creates a comfortable space for student members to meet, socialize and network.

The previous CNMG Student Organization Headquarters was drastically expanded to provide more adequate space for student organizations, and fully furnished with modernized office furniture, energy-efficient lighting, and outfitted with iPads mounted on each table to provide easy accessibility to local internships and career opportunities.

“We have had the privilege of working with UALR for decades,” said Tim Staley, president of Bernhard’s Engineering Division. “Bernhard has diligently worked to support both the academic and operational functions on campus through various programs and projects.”

UALR partnered with Bernhard, the leading Energy-as-a-Service provider in the United States, in 2013 on an energy conservation project to reduce annual energy costs across the entire campus. Since the project’s completion in 2015, UALR has seen a 42% reduction in energy consumption and a 51% reduction in utility costs. Bernhard continues to provide daily measurement and verification to UALR in support of decreasing their carbon footprint and reaching their ultimate goal of becoming the most energy-efficient university in the United States.

Currently, UA Little Rock has realized a 42% reduction in energy consumption, which translates to a utility cost savings of $3.1 million per year (51% reduction in utility costs). The University has significantly decreased its carbon footprint and has a goal of becoming the most energy-efficient university in the United States. Since the project’s completion in 2015, the savings have exceeded the original target of $2.6 million per year to achieve an annual savings of $3.1 million. Bernhard continues to provide daily measurement and verification to aid UA Little Rock in sustaining and growing project savings.

“Bernhard’s reputation of providing unrivaled energy solutions is wholly dependent on highly-skilled STEM students and graduates,” said Staley. “We are proud to continue supporting UALR’s core mission of providing excellence in higher education in Central Arkansas.”

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Bernhard announced this week the promotion of Lauren Skeen to Vice President of Marketing and Communications. Skeen joined Bernhard in March 2019 and has served as the Director of Marketing for the Development Division where she led marketing strategy in support of the Company’s Energy-as-a-Service transformation.

In her new role, Skeen will lead the day-to-day operations and strategic direction of Bernhard’s Marketing and Communication department. She will position both internal and external communication efforts to grow Bernhard’s national brand, and work collaboratively with company leadership and business development teams to continue to grow Bernhard’s traditional energy services, as well as its turnkey integrated solutions. Skeen will oversee a diverse team, with members based in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Utah.

“Lauren has been an incredible asset and teammate during her tenure on the marketing and communications team,” said Melissa Samuel, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer. “We have full confidence she has the tools and industry experience to lead our marketing and communications team during this exciting time of explosive growth at Bernhard.”

Skeen has more than 13 years of marketing experience and 10 years of experience in the AEC industry. Prior to joining Bernhard, she served as the Director of Marketing at Entegrity.

“As an industry leader supporting North America’s energy switch, it’s imperative that Bernhard’s communications and marketing strategies evolve to meet this exciting and ever changing landscape,” said Skeen. “I am honored to lead such a talented team driving our strategy, growing our presence, and helping to provide solutions to reduce energy consumption and build resiliency in partnership with our clients across the United States.”

Skeen earned a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Arkansas State University in 2010, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in digital marketing from Wake Forest University.