I don’t generally do a lot of planning when it comes to blog posts, but today’s was set to be another in the series of  “Five Thoughts” since for some reason “funny” came back to me this morning.

“Funny” got sucked out of me at 11 am when an email from my boss requesting my presence at a meeting at 1pm came through on my Blackberry.

The meeting was going to be with someone else in the Property Management side of the house…and it was going to be about something that we wouldn’t meet about.   I would just take care of it without a meeting.

This meant something was about to happen.

Work has been getting lighter and lighter for the past year and three people are already gone and January was going to be another point when someone was going to have to go…unless something else came up.

Well…

A new position has been created for me.   A job that never existed before…with this company.

I am going to be charged with saving money for the company.

This seems simple, huh?

One of my construction projects involved installing meters on approximately 9,000 homes and buildings in this portfolio.   Now that it is finished, I am going to collect the data, track usage and find ways to cut utility costs.

Essentially, I am going to reduce the companies utility costs via usage.

I will also be maintaining and repairing these same utility systems along with working with the utility providers and the government to be able to provide tax credits for upgrading of our homes to meet a more “green” requirement.  I will be providing a cost analysis for projects and the impact it will have on our utility usage (and cost.)

A part of this position is to have a single point of attack for all of these things.

Training both maintenance staff and residents on conservation is important…along with installing Energy-Star compliant appliances, heating and cooling systems, lights, toilets and just about everything else under the sun.

This is an incredible position.   And something I have almost no experience with other than my specific knowledge of these homes and the industry standards that are in place.

My ultimate task will be simple.  Save more money than it costs to have me doing the job.

Our company will be able to have me in a very public role, which will provide them with good PR, save money on utility usage and create less of an impact on the community utility systems.

It should be a win/win for everyone.

I have more questions than answers about this position, but I would have been upset if someone other than myself would have had it given to them.

My days will be spent around the same houses that I have been dealing with since 1994, but just in a different capacity…my time will be distributed differently and there will be a bit more travel.

The troubling part of this change is that I am going to be the guy that talks about energy usage , carbon footprints and probably annoy most of these managers when they see me coming.

Kind of like this guy…

If I sound like Al Gore…please SHOOT ME!!!!!