The retailer saved over 50 million kWh in 4 years while optimizing equipment maintenance.
The Client
JOANN Inc. (Jo-Ann), a leading American specialty retailer with over 700 stores across 49 states in the U.S.A, with an average area of 17,000 sq. ft., per store.
The Challenge
Throughout the years, JOANN has focused on delivering an exceptional customer experience. As businesses grew, they sought to improve store comfort levels while reducing energy and maintenance costs. To realize this vision, JOANN engaged Carrier Abound in 2018.
The Solution
The Carrier Abound team gathered data regarding store operations, energy spend and equipment breakdown scenarios from the existing building management system (BMS). We mapped the retailer’s store network and analyzed operations of over 700 stores having roughly 5,000 HVAC systems to discover energy efficiency and store operation improvement opportunities, and deployed two services:
A 24/7 Energy Management System (EMS) Support Service: To respond to store complaints earlier and resolve them more quickly, our BluEdge™ Command Center — consisting of data scientists, control engineers and domain experts — were engaged. The team remotely diagnoses and resolves store issues related to lighting, HVAC, and occupant comfort, thus reducing technician dispatches. Field process transformation is carried out for the customer for which stringent measures to validate technician dispatches and clubbing multiple issues in a single dispatch are implemented. Also, specific information is provided to the technician prior to the visit to enable effective repairs. Remote verification of repair effectiveness is done to avoid repeat store calls and dispatches. Proactive weather monitoring & severe weather actions, repeat call analysis and actions on the root cause are provided to improve store comfort. Overall changes are managed by working proactively with various stakeholders.
An Energy Efficiency & Analytics Service: Based on the analysis of existing store and equipment energy consumption data, the team identified energy-saving and process optimization opportunities. These opportunities are related to HVAC, lighting, and site-level assets including sensor calibrations and security systems. The team deployed over 20 relevant saving strategies from a vast library developed over the years.
The Result
JOANN observed results in terms of cost savings, maintaining optimal thermal compliance and reducing equipment downtime. Deep analytics-based control strategies were deployed to address the identified opportunities in terms of standardizing policies and increasing the number of remote resolutions.
Here’s a look at the results for year one of our engagement:
- Over 50 million kWh saved since 2018. This is equivalent to the reduction of 35,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
- Results in 2022:
- 11.3% average monthly energy savings
- 80% work orders managed through remote actions, reducing technician dispatches
- 98.% adherence to Service Level Agreement (SLA) for order response and resolution
- 14,000+ proactive actions taken to reduce energy savings
This engagement won a 2023 Environment + Energy Leader Top Project of the Year Award
“The program is a key part in enabling us to move towards achieving our sustainability goals. It has provided us with energy optimization opportunities and aids, along with other corporate initiatives, to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s great that this engagement contributes to larger environmental improvement opportunities, and we’re pleased that it continues to grow in its value.”
David Geibel.
Manager, Store Facilities & Energy, JOANN