Author Archive: Paul Thompson
Take Advantage of Your YMCA Membership
Previously, we’ve tackled the methods in which the YMCA can improve their sustainability. Now, we turn our attentions to helping our audience with their YMCA experience. Today, we’ll discuss the ways in which you can take advantage of your YMCA membership.
We’ve established that the YMCA is more than just a gym–it is a point that the YMCA itself has been pushing to its audiences. It’s goal is to lead its members to healthier and happier lives using the YMCA resources available for use.
Take advantage by establishing and maintaining a schedule
A lot of members neglect the opportunity to get fit and healthy as they may think they’re ‘too busy’ or ‘don’t have enough time’. However, a focused mindset is necessary at achieving success. You can fully take advantage of your YMCA membership by setting a clear schedule of when to go and sticking to it.
Let’s say you pick out Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday to work out. Establishing hours within those days and keeping to that schedule will ensure that you are actually getting the workout you need even if it’s a small start.
Take advantage by making use of the childcare services
A common excuse used by members who have children is that there is no one to mind their children. YMCA have staff that are more than happy to watch your child for you while you work out. Members can take advantage of the childcare services available at the branches of YMCA.
It is important to never forget that family membership includes access to childcare. Competent staff are on-hand at no extra charge to mind and entertain your children while you can get started on your health routine. The kids are given a great time at a safe, educational, and enriching environment while you become good examples of being healthy. Also, working out is a good way to battle the stress of parenting.
Take advantage by actively seeking feedback and asking questions
It has been a common sight that after a health class, members are rushing out the door. Members can take advantage of their membership more by sticking around after classes and actively seeking feedback or by approaching the instructors with any concerns.
Not only will this improve your personal routine, you can also help improve the class by offering feedback. If approaching the instructor isn’t your thing, you can fill out a comment card. These are located on the fitness desk and by the front desk. YMCA strives to constantly improve their services and you can help them reach this by offering your thoughts and questions.
Take advantage by getting the whole family involved
It is common knowledge that activities are more fun when shared with loved ones. So a pretty good way to take advantage of your membership is getting the whole family involved. Having your partner along with help keep motivate up for the whole of the routine. Having your kids see your seriousness as getting or staying healthy, it’ll lay the foundation for their own healthy lifestyles.
Children and teens can join the many different programs available for the youth like team sports, the YMCA camp for the summer, or even an after school program. Doing age-appropriate workouts is a great way to live healthy lives.
With this, it’s time to get started on a healthier routine for the new year!
In line with the discussion in the previous post, we’ll take a more in-depth discussion on sustainability. In the recent decade, more and more organizations are coming to understanding the need for sustainability. To begin with, the concept of sustainability—particularly for an organization, is a complex one. The sustainability of an organization is often misunderstood and is usually believed to be related to the financial aspect of an organization.
This is the usual misconception as when an organization is no longer sustainable the symptoms mostly reflect itself in the group’s finances. Just what is sustainability anyway? Sustainability is the concept of a natural system function that must remain diverse and able to produce the needs of a system in order to retain its balance. In business, the concept of sustainability becomes known as corporate sustainability. This would be the management and coordination of environmental, social, and financial demands and issues to secure responsible, ethical, and continued success. In order for YMCA to continue its presence, it needs to meet their triple bottom line.
Corporations, organizations, and others can enjoy some very clear benefits to adopting a sustainable business plan for themselves. Adopting a sustainable business practice will save money in the long run. Employing technologies or practices that cut down the waste in energies and resources will better generate income. This occurs since the employees or different department members keep their energies directed to better projects, keeping their time productive. Keeping the concept of sustainability as an overall theme in your marketing concepts can and will boost an organization’s market share. When an organization trims the fat, so to speak, their better processes will put forth a stronger and positive reputation that will attract the interest of smart investors, new customers, and even the information hungry media.
An even more attractive benefit to maintaining a sustainable market plan in an organization is that it will help attract and maintain employees. A business or organization with a clear direction and clear sustainable practices will be like a platter of honey for eager and highly qualified employees.
A good example of an organization that is currently reaping the rewards of sustainability practices is Disney. They integrated environmental practices when the decided to run their trains on biodiesel. This helped show that Disney was committed in creating a sustainable resource to keep their trains running for a long period that would not up their operational costs. This showed investors that Disney would be looking for more sustainable means and will be around for much longer.
The YMCA truly needs to enact clear and effective sustainable practices in all their branches to lower their operational costs and to attract new members and investors. Their goal should be to enact practices that will extend the timeline for the return of investment but once initiated will lead to an increase in their profits. There might be a bit of a spike on costs for now but will lead to an enhanced performance across the board in all aspects of their business.
The third part of the plan focuses on sustainability education for the 2,000 children that are served daily by YMCA employees across 50 childcare sites. The YMCA offers full and part time daycare for infants and toddlers, after school childcare, kindergarten childcare, as well as holiday and vacation camps. Because the YMCA reaches such a broad base of capital region children from all socio-economic backgrounds, this is an essential place to implement simple, but long-lasting sustainability lessons.
Sustainability education fits in very closely with the other aspects of our strategic plan and highlights the YMCA’s mission to build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities through programs that build healthy mind, body, and spirit – a mission statement that the YMCA is working to bring back to the forefront of their organization. Studies are beginning to emerge that show the importance of sustainability education to children. It is in the early childhood period that children begin to develop their basic values, attitudes, skills, and habits which they carry with them throughout their lives. This is a perfect opportunity to develop these behaviors in a way that supports sustainable development. It is important that while the lessons have overarching themes, they also have local relevance that children can directly relate to, as this will give the lessons real meaning and impact. The YMCA provides an ideal setting for this, as the lessons can be shaped to properly support each location. A useful framework for shaping sustainable education center around the integration of three key themes: a foundation of ecological ethics (respect, compassion, sustainability), the overarching focus of climate change / global warming and renewable energy, and a backdrop of environmental and ecosystem health. These themes build on one another to create a basic knowledge of sustainability that stays with children when they go home and as they grow older.
The initial target for this education should be the after-school programs offered at the YMCA branches. While the staff will have had exposure to the role of sustainability at the YMCA during orientation, we feel that a partnership may be beneficial in providing basic sustainability lessons to both the staff and the children. There is no specific curriculum in an after-school program, as it basically serves as a place for the students to work on homework with the guidance of the staff. We would encourage the YMCA to explore a relationship with the University at Albany Go Green program, specifically with the direction of environmental sustainability. There is a program that will begin in the fall of 2011 in which 60 students at the University at Albany will be part of a living and learning sustainability program on campus. Through coordination between the YMCA and the University at Albany, a program can be created in which these college students can volunteer monthly at all of the branches, providing simple sustainability lessons to the children of the after-school programs. The YMCA should concentrate initially on green tips, such as recycling programs and simple energy saving measures that the children can translate to their home life. The SUNY students can also do relevant arts & crafts projects to make these lessons fun and easy to understand. There can be relevant tie-in to homework as well by using topics like math and science to reinforce sustainability. For example, in a school in Florida, four students with strengths in math measured the amount of paper collected in recycling bins and converted these measurements to number of trees saved. The students then hung a huge bar graph of trees saved at the entrance of school.
There are also opportunities for community impact and fundraising, as well as whole-family programs offered in the evening that could help increase the YMCA’s impact on the community as a whole. The YMCA in conjunction with SUNY Albany could implement Go Green Nights to help bring the message of sustainability to the parents of the children, as well as all of the members of the branch. This would be a beneficial relationship to both the YMCA and SUNY Albany to provide the message to the community that both organizations are working together to bring sustainability to the Capital Region.
After one year of the program, it would be important to update the executive team and board on the status of the initiative and how it has helped to highlight sustainability at the YMCA to the children it serves, as well as their families, the members of the YMCA, and the community as a whole. This would help to achieve board buy-in to education initiatives and allow for the possible expansion of sustainability education to other segments of children within the YMCA. For example, the same themes and lessons indirectly taught during daycare can be applied to camp programs as well; there’s an Earth Day, why not make an Earth Week?
Final Proposal Part 3
Measuring the Effect of the Green Team
The YMCA should create impact surveys that can be handed out to the employees and placed on the YMCA website. At first, these will measure the employees’ personal sustainability efforts and their current knowledge of the YMCA’s green initiatives. Later in the year, the surveys can be modified to see if there is improvement in employee motivation, inspiration, retention, or excitement towards the YMCA’s initiatives. The Green Team can also track the number of employees that have gone through the updated orientation program and the children that have taken part in the after school programs and “Go Green” events.
Costs and Benefits of a Green Team
The primary cost of the Green Team is that all individuals involved in the Green Team must take some time away from work in order to participate. Although we are unable to quantify the cost, the benefits are numerous. Carrie Freeman, a Corporate Sustainability Strategist at Intel, stated,
“When it comes to looking at ways to reduce our footprint, we very much see a direct correlation between reducing our costs and engaging our employees. Be it changing light bulbs, turning off the lights or getting your employees to innovate greener solutions in their jobs, engaging your employees to identify easy, low cost efficiency initiatives can result in significant cost savings.”
Libby Reder, Head of Environmental Initiatives at eBay, believes that their green team is one of main reasons some employees choose to stay with eBay. According to eBay’s recruiters, the presence of their green team also allows them to attract the best talent because the green team gives employees an outlet for their personal interests and shows the authenticity of the organization’s commitment to becoming more sustainable. PwC’s Managing Tomorrow’s People survey, found that 86% of employees surveyed would consider leaving an employer whose corporate responsibility behavior no longer met their expectations. Furthermore, a recent poll on green employment by MonsterTRAK.com found that 80% of young professionals are interested in securing a job that has a positive impact on the environment, and 92% would be more inclined to work for a company that is environmentally friendly. In regard to employee turnover, Reder believes that the presence of a green team helps to raise morale and improve an employee’s loyalty toward eBay because it is engaging. According to the popular book Engaged!, losing and having to replace an employee can cost more than 70% of an employee’s annual salary. If the YMCA were to create a green team as part of its sustainability strategy, it would likely reap many of the aforementioned benefits.
Part 2 – Integrating Sustainability into Employee Orientation
In order to build sustainability into the YMCA’s culture, awareness needs to be created in the beginning. Currently, the YMCA’s employee orientation is 4 hour long, which includes 2 hours of relationship training at the administrative office on customer service and 2 hours of new employee orientation at branches on a rotating basis. The new employee orientation covers everything the employees should know about the YCMA: its history, mission, culture, safety issues, rules, expectations, etc. We believe that the YMCA should also incorporate 15 minutes of discussion on the topic of sustainability. Before this can be done however, the trainers need to be trained.
At the Guilderland branch of the YMCA, new employee orientation is handled by Patrick Barrington, John J. Hayden, and 2-3 other individuals known as the Orientation Task Force. These five individuals need to completely understand sustainability before they can teach others about it, so they will need some form of training. The SUNY Albany Sustainability Program offers free education on the topic of sustainability. Working in conjunction with members of the SUNY Albany Sustainability Program, Mr. Barrington, Mr. Hayden, and the Orientation Task Force, can develop a standardized video and/or PowerPoint presentation on sustainability for use in the YMCA orientation program; it would be seen as a message from the CEO. This video and/or PowerPoint would likely debut in the Guilderland YMCA, and eventually be used across all YMCAs with the approval of the CEO. As the CDYMCA is currently re-vamping their training process, this new initiative can be built in immediately.
The 15-minute sustainability part of employee orientation can be divided into 3 sections (see below). While part of the presentation should include a standardized message for all YMCA orientations, some sections will need to be tailored to each branch, at the discretion of the management team, depending on specific programs and service offerings.
Section 1 – This is an introduction to the importance of sustainability. This would likely contain the video and/or presentation standardized for all YMCAs. Two potential items that could be included are: (1) an indication of why sustainability is important to the employees and to the CDYMCA and (2) how the actions of the employees can impact the environment and the organization.
Section 2 – This provides a specific description of what the YMCA has done in the past to become more sustainable. For example, by implementing paper reduction rules (double-sided printing, use of recycled paper, limited packaging), the YMCA has reduced its paper usage by about 25%, saving approximately one million sheets of paper. The advantages of implementing the solar panels in Guilderland YMCA facility should be introduced as an example as well.
Section 3 – The final section could include suggestions of how the employees can help the YMCA continue to progress toward sustainability in the future. Here, employees could be introduced to the Green Team, informed about what the team does, and encouraged to participate in and/or join the team. In addition, new employees could be encouraged to “like” the Green Team’s YMCA Facebook page, should the YMCA choose to put that on the existing page. As an example specific actions that employees can take to make their office green, see Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2 in the appendix.
Costs and Benefits of Integrating Sustainability into Employee Orientation
There are two costs to integrating sustainability into employee orientation: (1) The time spent educating the five individuals who will be training the employees, and (2) the time required to create the video and/or PowerPoint presentation customized for the YMCA. The total time spent on these two areas should only be a couple of hours. The benefits to this would be more engaged employees and an important reminder that the employees can have a huge effect on the success of the YMCA.
The first issue facing the YMCA is a lack of buy-in by stakeholders in regard to sustainability initiatives. As a result, the YMCA needs a strategic plan that can be presented to the CEO and Board of Directors on achieving buy-in.
Although sustainability is very important to some of the individuals associated with the YCMA, the general feeling is that sustainability is not as important as the operations of the YMCA’s operations and programs. Being a non-for-profit, the YMCA is limited in the amount of capital it can spend on sustainability initiatives.
The second issue the YMCA is facing relates to its branding and its positioning within the market space. The fact that the CDYMCA is the largest provider of child care in the region has gone largely unnoticed. In addition, the CDYMCA is seen primarily as a fitness center as opposed to a wellness center.
This market position causes the CDYCMA to be compared with other fitness centers, such as Gold’s Gym, thereby creating a disadvantage.
Our Call to Action
After reviewing the issues, our team has decided to develop a long-term, strategic plan for sustainability that will engage stakeholders on all levels. Our plan has two sections, a 3-part sustainability plan and a solar thermal project at the Guilderland, NY branch of the YMCA. Our sustainability plan has been divided into three parts.
The first part is the forming of branch green teams, which will eventually report to the Director of Property/Project Management, Patrick Barrington.
The second part is using sustainability education to engage the members of the YMCA, most notably young children and their parents. We will pursue this through various on-site and after school programs, with possible partnerships with SUNY Albany and the use of guest speakers.
Before that can occur however, we suggest a training/education program for new and current employees. Employees cannot teach others about sustainability unless they themselves understand it.
The final part of our plan will focus on performance metrics. Currently, due to old technology and the lack of a baseline for metrics, energy is not effectively tracked at the YMCA branches. We will suggest metrics that can be tracked and utilized to achieve continuous improvement and better energy management at each branch.
The second section of our proposal is the solar thermal project in the Guilderland, NY branch of the YMCA. Here, we will analyze the costs and benefits of using thermal solar panels to heat the pool by projecting cost savings. Further details, including the project’s relation to marketing and public relations are discussed later.
Part 1 – The Green Team
The Green Team is a group of staff members from a department, office, or organization that meet regularly to educate themselves and their colleagues about sustainability, examine the sustainability of office and work practices, and create innovative solutions.
The Green Team’s responsibility is to engage the employees and foster green initiatives that can be put into action, as well as measure progress on implementations that have been put into practice. The Green Team can be promoted through the use of the YMCA’s Facebook page.
There will be one green team at each CDYMCA branch. The team would be volunteer-based; however, members from all levels of the facility would be encouraged to join to allow for different perspectives of the organization. The number of team members is best left up to the YMCA’s management should they choose to implement it because there is no research to suggest an optimal number of members. Team members would have different responsibilities, titles, and areas of expertise.
The leader of the Green Team could be voted upon. The Director of Property/Project Management, Patrick Barrington, would be placed in charge of the green teams. The green team leaders would report directly to him, who in turn would report directly to the YMCA President and CEO, David Brown.
Green teams would meet at their respective facilities every two weeks. The regional meeting of the green team leaders from each branch would meet quarterly. The time spent in these meetings is best left up to YMCA’s management as well.
The green teams work both bottom-up and top-down. Green team members gather employees’ suggestions and opinions and report to the top-management. Top-management passes down sustainability rules and principles to green teams to pass to staff members.
Each green team should determine which sustainability issues they feel are most important to the YMCA, and create a rough prioritization of these issues. Areas to consider would include but are not limited to: energy, water use, material waste, transportation, office equipment and computing, supply chains, and purchasing.
All consumption should be measured in terms of usage amounts or costs. There should be base metrics for each consumption area along with related goals focused on lessening these numbers by a certain percentage or amount each year. In addition, there needs to be a detailed list of how the YMCA plans to reach each goal it sets (i.e. lower waste 5% by 2011 by working with the local waste disposal company).
Each month, these measurements should be graphed against the metrics and analyzed for patterns that arise throughout the course of the year. As the amount of historical data increases, the YMCA will begin to see trends and the effect of seasonality on the organization. This data can then be used for future projections and benchmarking; benchmarking against other YMCAs should continue to be used as well.
Suggestions from the Green Team could include: A clear definition of the action to be taken (one sentence or less), quantifiable benefits that the YMCA would receive from implementing the action along with intangible benefits (employee satisfaction, morale), an outline of the costs of the program, a summary of the risks associated with the action, and how the action will be tracked, measured and reported to the executive team and employees.
The following are examples of how to engage employees: have a suggestion box for employees/members, implement a “Green Employee of the Month” recognition program, or email employees with green tips and stories to motivate them. As an example, the emails could include monthly usage metrics of energy costs to keep employees up to date with the YMCA’s continuous improvement. The YMCA could invite green speakers to speak during lunch or at all-staff meetings.
Employees could be encouraged to carpool or bicycle to work. Instead of Earth day, celebrate the entire month with competitions, green (healthy) foods, prizes, etc. Encourage buying recycled products/supplies for the office. Research the cleaning supplies and search for healthier/greener alternatives. Have donation drives for gently used shoes, clothing, electronics, etc. Hand out green re-usable bags and travel mugs with the YMCA logo, or offer them in stores as a profitable product/marketing tool.
Not only will many of these suggestions get the employees involved, but they will invariably get YMCA members involved as well. The Green Team will use signs and set the monthly and yearly goals that the facility must strive to reach. Exhibit 1 shows an example of signs that can be posted on the wall. Exhibit 2 shows the checklist that the Green Team can use to measure how green each branch is.
Start of the Final Paper
The Capital District YMCA is a 501(c) not-for-profit focused on building strong kids, families, and communities. The YMCA’s mission is “to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.” Currently, the CDYMCA has ten branches, along with three summer camps, and three childcare centers. With 1,200 employees and 1,400 volunteers, it serves over 105,000 members. The CDYMCA is the largest childcare provider in the region, and has numerous after-school and scholarship programs available.
Last Year’s Recommendations
Of the recommendations from last year’s G3 team, the YMCA has focused on cost reduction in three main areas: paper usage, mileage from travel, and water usage. Currently, no measurements have been made as to the total cost savings of the recommendations.
Paper Reduction – The YMCA now prints double-sided when possible, uses recycled paper, limits packaging, and has moved to consent agendas for all board meetings, which reduced the size of printed packets. The savings from this area is estimated at $17,000 over the past year, but those savings were offset by the cost of changing the YMCA’s corporate logo on all paper.
Mileage from Travel – The YMCA is currently finalizing plans to use audio/video conferencing software instead of traveling to meetings. This of course will tremendously decrease gas and travel expenses.
Water Usage – Low-flow showerheads and sinks, and waterless urinals have been installed to save water.
Actions Taken toward Sustainability (already in progress or done)
Glass-Paper-Plastic – A comprehensive recycling plan was put in place three years ago at each YMCA for glass, paper and plastic. Keeping track of this program and measuring reduced waste management costs at each of the locations has proven very useful. Waste removal costs have been reduced by approximately 40% during that three year period from $75,000 to $44,000 for services at the 14 YMCA locations.
Electronic Recycling – Three years ago, the YMCA also signed a contract with a local company for all of its electronic recycling needs (computers, bulbs, ballasts, batteries, etc.); the cost of this program is negligible. The program complies with mandatory local and federal standards regarding the disposal of this type of waste.
Cleaning Products – The YMCA has reduced the number of overall daily-use cleaning products from dozens at some sites to an average of 2-4 products at each of its locations. These are green cleaning products, and are far more environmentally friendly than the previously-used products. One green product supplier takes care of all of the YMCA’s needs.
HVAC System – The current HVAC pool pack unit uses condensers and large air compressors to control the temperature and humidity of the pool area, resulting in high energy costs; this unit will need replacement in 3-4 years. In combination with a gas-powered pool heater, energy costs per year are between $100,000 and $110,000. In addition, the coils for the HVAC unit cost $30,000 each and only last about five years. Lastly, there is an unquantifiable cost resulting from the high humidity in the pool area, which rusts the metal and iron (the ceiling, ventilation system, and pipes). The YMCA is looking into a large fan unit that will keep the humidity low by cycling air from outside the building into the pool area. The fan unit is expected to cost between $130,000 and $170,000, and save $12,000 annually.
Summary and Plan of Attack
Like many nonprofit organizations, the YMCA is presently dealing with actual and anticipated decreases in income and the subsequent budget cuts that accompany these changes. In an effort to reduce expenses, the organization has taken steps to reduce energy consumption, lower utility expenses, etc.
The YMCA has allocated numerous resources to reducing energy consumption in its branches for the last ___ years. Patrick Barrington, Facilities & Project Manager, has hired InnoVerde to assist him with fine-tuning his energy reduction plan and developing a strategy for achieving organizational buy-in from the numerous stakeholders throughout the Capital District YMCA. If implemented, our plan would assist our client with developing growth strategies that will improve the organization’s long-term viability.
InnoVerde has developed a proposal that will assist Mr. Barrington in convincing internal and external stakeholders that a companywide sustainability approach will:
Mitigate risk;
Create new competitive and revenue opportunities;
Fuel innovations by motivating employees and other stakeholders to look at other ways to reduce consumption/expenses;
Enhance employee recruiting, development and retention – Generation Y is more concerned with the environment than previous generations. Employees are more likely to have a positive perception of the company;
Improve the external image of the organization, thus attracting socially concerned employees, volunteers and investors (donations); (get more info on how much money socially/environmentally concerned people donated to likeminded nonprofit organizations).
Benefit the bottom line of the financial statement by reducing costs and improving efficiencies;
Stakeholders – Any implementation of a sustainability effort would require buy-in first from the internal and external stakeholders listed below (Corporate social responsibility). (Research each)
Explain how this relates to the organization’s mission
Efforts made to this date
Provide statistics/reports that show how the company’s bottom line is positively impacted by a strong internal sustainability policies
Best Practices – Efforts done by other organizations. Have any other YMCA organizations implemented similar initiatives?
Develop an internal structure for implementing the plan, including identifying a Chief Sustainability Officer and a Sustainability Committee of the YMCA Board. These individuals will be responsible for implementing our plan and making any additional recommendations for energy-saving actions.
Needs assessment (option) – assess the energy-saving steps that have been taken so far and recommend additional opportunities. If not previously conducted, decisions must be made as to whether the YMCA will be allocating resources for a professional energy-usage assessment (ie, potential building or appliance upgrades, opportunities for consolidating energy-consuming activities occurring at multiple branches, etc) at any of the YMCA properties to determine potential energy-saving investments, or whether the plan will be based entirely on the YMCA’s own internal assessments.
Create new programs for members and employees that promote sustainability, recycling, and reduction of carbon footprint. Program outcomes must be measurable and provide results either by attracting more members, donors, and/or impacting the financial bottom line. Examples might include:
Community garden;
More visible on-site recycling opportunities at branches for both members and employees;
YMCA programming that provides education on topics such as recycling and reducing waste.
Create a communications and marketing plan that will guide communications with YMCA members and the public about the initiative and its benefits. Specific actions include:
Working with the YMCA marketing department to promote the initiative;
Surveying YMCA members as to how energy use can be reduced as a part of their membership experience;
Promoting the benefits and results to members;
Developing incentives for buy-in from members. For example: raffle off an Ipad for members to make some kind of efforts.
Create a plan, in conjunction with the YMCA’s Human Resources Department, to roll out the initiative internally with staff. Specific actions include:
Soliciting recommendations from employees for how they can reduce energy consumption as part of their own work processes;
Staff trainings, seminars, mentoring & coaching , and assessments;
Promoting the benefits and results to employees;
Revising the employee manual as necessary
Implement a solar energy strategy to reduce the organization’s utility bills/consumption. Explain how much the organization is spending now. How much can be saved by adding solar panels to the roof of one Y. Use the information from your flow chart.
Solar Thermal Project Financial Calculations
CDYMCA Guilderland Solar Thermal Project Financial Calculations
Price Increase for Natural Gas 3%
Internal Rate of Return 87%
Total Savings (10 years) $200,551.34
Projected Cash Flows for the Solar Thermal
Year of Operation Expected Natural Gas Costs Capital Spent on Solar Thermal System Net Cash Flows
0 0 ($50,000.00) ($50,000.00)
1 $42,000.00 $0.00 $42,000.00
10 $54,800.47 $0.00 $54,800.47
Evaluating Profitability
Solar Thermal Project/Debt to Equity Ratio 4 1.5 1 0.666666667 0.25 0
Debt (D)* $50,000.00 $40,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 $20,000.00 $10,000.00 $0.00
Cost of Debt (rd)* 6.00% 8.00% 8.00% 8.00% 8.00% 8.00% 8.00%
Equity 0.00 10000.00 20000.00 25000.00 30000.00 40000.00 50000.00
Cost of Equity 19.00% 19.00% 19.00% 19.00% 19.00% 19.00% 19.00%
Tax Rate 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Equity Weight 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%
Debt Weight 100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00%
Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) 6.0000% 10.2000% 12.4000% 13.5000% 14.6000% 16.8000% 19.0000%
NPV of projected Cash flows $282,443.17 $214,634.34 $187,049.23 $174,871.12 $163,635.71 $143,654.51 $126,513.73
I recommend you get in touch with local installers or a local solar organization like NYSERDA for more info.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Paul Thompson April 28, 2016 Blogging Read more >
YMCA Experience
The YMCA is more than just a gym. It’s a community.