AEF and Educational Opportunities

Energy Survey Update: Executive Summary, Report now online

The 2008 Energy Survey was conducted on behalf of the Arkansas Energy Office of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Arkansas Environmental Federation, in partnership with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Arkansas, and the Arkansas Hospital Association.
Response to the survey was strong.

Almost 90 organizations employing over 70,000 people participated online or through phone interviews. Manufacturing firms employing about 21,000 people were the largest and most energy intensive group of participants. Others included hospitals, shopping malls, retailers, universities, communication and transportation firms, electric power utilities and natural gas companies. The most important result of the survey is that the companies and organizations themselves have offered specific proposals to help them achieve significant energy efficiencies. Many of these proposals, which are discussed in detail on the full report, could be implemented immediately, meeting the objectives of the governor’s climate commission in a positive rather than punitive way while creating jobs and new energy opportunity.

Download the full report and Executive Summary (in pdf format)

AEF partners with Arkansas Energy Office, Paliria Energy for energy survey

With policy action on energy and climate likely through the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change and the upcoming meeting of the Arkansas Legislature, AEF and The Energy Office can provide policymakers information to shape positive rather than punitive pathways for Arkansas businesses to address energy and environmental liabilities. Your participation in the survey is critical.

The survey is sponsored by the Arkansas Energy Office of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission working in partnership with the Arkansas Environmental Federation, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas Farm Bureau and other prominent business organizations in the state. 

Go to the 2008 Arkansas Energy Survey  

Survey Notes & Instructions

The survey has been designed to capture energy related information across a broad spectrum of Arkansas businesses and organizations, and the questionnaire reflects this. As a result, not all questions will be applicable to all respondents. You are encouraged to skip over questions that do not apply to your organization, and the survey will allow you to bypass categories that may not be suitable.

The survey should be answered by the person responsible for energy management, but will likely need some consultation with process managers and environmental staff. We would ask that some input from upper management be provided on organizational and policy related questions.  

Questions are generally designed to be answered by knowledgeable staff without undue research, but do ask for some thought. Please make your best effort, but questions requiring too much research should be skipped rather than abandoning the survey. For example, your electric power usage for average vs. peak and off peak demand, and peak and off-peak cost per kWh, may be available on your bill, or kept on record with your utilities manager. If it is not readily available or easy to calculate, please provide the overall usage only. For other questions, it is understood that detailed technical data would be difficult to obtain, and the survey will indicate areas where a best estimate by staff will suffice, or allow you to indicate that the estimate has not been assessed.

For larger, more complex operations, a greater share of the survey questions are likely to be relevant, and we ask for your patience in providing information that we hope will benefit your organization.

While hard data will provide a strong foundation in our efforts to shape policy, we are also looking to gauge awareness and insights. Please take time within your organization to discuss and give as qualified a response as possible on how your organization perceives and responds to a given criteria or to provide further thoughts that may be important but have not been addressed. The survey should be regarded, above all, as an opportunity to communicate your observations and needs on critical energy and climate challenges to key policymakers while protecting your firms’ confidentiality.  As a reminder, individual survey results will be treated as proprietary – only aggregate data will be shared.

A draft of the survey questionnaire will be available in the pdf file below to allow assessment of questions, worksheets for responses, and to determine allocation of questions within your organization. We encourage you to print the draft survey and review it in its entirety prior to formulating responses. Remember that while the pdf will have the full questionnaire, the online version allows for bypass of questions not applicable to your operations. The online questionnaire can be accessed over time until final submission without losing previously entered data.

To access the survey, follow this link: http://216.235.248.162/survey/224659/f9b0/
You can also download the survey as a pdf for reference before starting the survey. 

Additional information and FAQ’s on Energy Survey

User Access – The system uses your computer’s IP address as the identifier to allow you to leave and return to the survey. As a result, only one user per organization may access a single online survey, but can exit and enter the survey without losing entered data (see below regarding next button). For input from others in the organization, we recommend forwarding the pdf draft of the survey which was provided through the AEF web site (the link to website location for the pdf was included in the previous email) under the education tab. The pdf can be shared electronically or in hard copy to be used as the organization’s worksheet. Data entry on the online link must, however, be accomplished on the computer under which the survey was initially accessed.

For complex facilities choosing to enter separate forms for separate buildings or processes within a site, a single user can fill out multiple forms from a single computer but must do so and submit one at a time, or can forward the link to multiple users on separate computers, as long as each labels the correct overall organization name, as described in the directions.

At least one user encountered difficulty returning to the survey. This was due to a technical setting which has been addressed. If you are encountering any further difficulty, please contact Paliria Energy.

How do I ensure my data was saved or submitted?

Saving Your Entries – As mentioned above, the online survey can be exited and re-entered. To save your data, use the red “next” button at the bottom of each page as the “enter” key for that page. If the “next” button on a page has been entered, all data on that page (and all previous pages) are saved. The red “back” button can scroll back to previous pages that have been entered for review or edit, re-entering “next” button again will save the revised data. Note: please do not try to use your browsers next and back buttons to navigate the online survey as you may exit the survey or lose some data.

Final submission of a completed survey is achieved through using the red “submit” button at the bottom of the last page of the online survey. You may access your survey after submitting to make further changes if necessary, however we would encourage respondents to minimize re-opening a completed and submitted survey as this does entail re-tabulation of recorded data. 

When is the survey completion deadline?

Timeframe – Our goal is to have surveys completed by Friday, November 21st, but deadline extension can be provided for those with larger scale or more complex operations.

Clarifying survey questions and answer fields:

Combustion Survey Participants – Some AEF members are also participating in EPA’s section 114 combustion survey. In an effort to reduce redundant requests for information, any AEF member completing the EPA survey can simply reference their participation to avoid re-entering combustion descriptions and technical information. We would encourage you to answer the remaining questions on combustion control systems, efficiency, and upgrades, which should be brief qualitative answers.

Unpurchased vs. waste fuels – Section I. of the survey asks for unpurchased fuels as a means of  gauging on-site usage of byproduct, and later asks for waste stream potential as a means of gauging further potential of disposed byproduct. The distinction would be that which is currently used vs. that which potentially could be used. For example, for pulp mills, black liquor is often used as fuel and should be considered as an unpurchased fuel, while any streams disposed of or treated for disposal with fuels potential should be considered as potential waste-fuel streams. As a request from users, more fields were added to reflect greater variety of fuels usage. If you filled out this question but needed more entry fields, you may want to go back and utilize the additions.

2003 Energy Usage – As a means of measuring energy cost increases, Section I. asks for annual cost and usage of fuels in 2003. The answer table includes three answer columns. The first column is to be used to describe sources beyond electric power and natural gas, therefore the first two rows in the first column should be left blank. We regret the programming limitation on the software. 

Paliria Energy will also be conducting live interviews. In the event that questionnaire categories, inquiries or answer fields may not properly capture efforts to communicate important information or input from your firm, if you wish to participate in the interview process, or for any other questions or comments related to the survey, please contact Tim Wilkins at Paliria Energy: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or (757) 683-5770.  

For Working Professionals - Continuing Education

Throughout the year, the AEF offers a variety of seminars and programs specifically for "working professionals" in the environmental industry. Many of these programs qualify for continuing education credit. In addition, the Annual Trade Show and Convention features program sessions sponsored by our committees that also count for continuing education credit.

Programs and seminars will be listed on our Calendar page for you to plan ahead, and we will have feature articles on our Home Page as each event approaches, including links to our Registrations page where you can download the registration form or register online using our secure registration forms.

For Educators

The AEF is particularly proud of the ongoing work of our Public Education Committee and its many supporters. Their work and contributions enhance and promote the educational opportunities of the AEF and expand each year. We would especially like to thank all the contributors to the 2006/2007 Randall Mathis Scholarship for Environmental Studies Fund and to Northstar Engineering Consultants, Inc. for their sponsorship of the new Larry Wilson scholarships.

The AETN/AEF Environmental Educator’s Book, produced from the partnership of the Arkansas Educational Television Network and the Arkansas Environmental Federation, includes information regarding classroom environmental videos and educator guides geared to middle school students and is free to educators. Please visit the AETN website for more information on how to get your copy.