Miller Group takes lead on conserving News Utah Jazz

Call it a "green" energy dream team. Flanked by the top executives of the two largest energy utilities in Utah, the heads of the Utah Jazz and the Larry H. Miller Group announced the launch of an initiative to get more Utah businesses and consumers to conserve energy. During a press conference at EnergySolutions Arena Tuesday, Utah Jazz president Randy Rigby and the chief executive officer of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, Greg Miller, announced a program throughout its corporate network that would help reduce their collective carbon footprint in all of its operations across the state.

Rigby said the program was developed with Rocky Mountain Power and Questar Gas to promote energy savings through conservation and efficiency. "Our objective is to reduce energy consumption, save money and to use our tools within our organization ? TV, radio, stadiums, theaters and other mediums ? to educate, motivate and help our state and region to conserve energy and our other natural resources," he said. "We've actually started analyzing our bills from Questar and Rocky Mountain Power, looking at ways to that we can start saving money," Rigby said. Over the next year, a report would be compiled to monitor the overall energy consumption of all of the Miller Group's approximately 40 Utah businesses properties, Miller said. "We're going to be looking at every one of those facilities to see where we can conserve and reduce our energy consumption," he said. Already, steps have been taken to use less energy at many of their facilities, including Energy Solutions Arena, where outside decorative lights are only being illuminated on event nights rather than every night as they had been in the past, he said. Over the next year, Rigby said that the Miller Group hopes to significantly lower their overall energy usage. "We think there is an opportunity that we could save at least 10 percent in our energy consumption, and maybe even more that that," Rigby said. "That's a remarkable number if you then compound that across the state of Utah. It would be a great beginning." He said that every employee of the Jazz and Miller Group would also be invited to have energy audits conducted at their homes by the utilities to determine ways to lower their individual energy consumption. In addition, Rigby said that a meeting has been arranged for April 13 with representatives of Utah state government and other business leaders to devise strategies that could potentially implement the plan on a larger statewide scale. The initiative really is a way energy providers can help companies to find ways to lower their energy use, said Questar chief executive officer Ron Jibson. Richard Walje, president of Rocky Mountain Power, said developing conservation programs is a welcome idea as utilities try to figure out ways to help mitigate the concern of growing peak energy demand and dwindling natural resources. "We look at this as another resource available to us as we try to meet our obligation to serve our customers," he said. "Anything we can do on a macro level allows us to either delay or defer significant investments that we all pay for as customers," Walje said. E-MAIL: jlee@desnews.com