The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/65892
TANDING IN THE WHOLE FOODS DAIRY AISLE IN WELLESLEY, MASS., KATHY LOFTUS IS MENTALLY RECONFIGURING A COOLER FULL OF ORGANIC YOGURTS AND SOY MILK. "We could save even more energy if we had doors on these," she remarks, pointing to the open display case. "But sometimes we're limited by the way the store is set up. Here, we'd need space to stock the shelves from behind." She adds, "The good news is, we're XVLQJ GRRUV LQ D ORW RI QHZ VWRUHV DQG UHWURƂWWLQJ WKHP LQ H[LVWLQJ stores across the country." Turning the corner to a row of frozen foods, she perks up. "These are LED lights," she observes happily, poking her head into a freez- HU VWRFNHG ZLWK ER[HV RI JDUOLF DQG EDVLO JQRFFKL DQG ZLOG FKDQWH- relle ravioli. "A lot of the stuff we do you can't see, like these elec- tronically commutated motors. They cost a little more, but they save a lot of energy." Loftus sees much more than most people when she walks into a supermarket. As global leader for sustainable engineering, main- tenance, and energy for Whole Foods Market, it's her job to set the standards to drive down energy usage and reduce natural resources consump- tion in the chain's more than 300 stores in the United States, Canada, and Great Brit- ain. She's led the charge to reduce overall energy consumption by 5 percent—which may not seem like much until you consider it equals some 40 million kilowatt hours, enough to power 3,500 homes for a year. Now she's on a path to help the company achieve a 25 percent-per-square-foot reduc- tion in energy consumption and green- house gas emissions by 2015. Loftus says her upbringing and subsequent education prepared her for her current role in ways she didn't always recognize while growing up. Her grandparents were Irish immigrants who empha- sized family and frugality, as well as education. Their anti-materi- alism rubbed off on her, creating a natural interest in conserva- tion. "My mom's favorite saying was 'The best things in life aren't things,'" she says. At WPI, Loftus was inspired by Intro to Engineering Problems 22 Spring 2012 taught by the late Professor Roger Borden. "It was all about think- ing big and sharing with the rest of the class what could be consid- HUHG FUD]\ LGHDV ŕ VKH UHPHPEHUV $PRQJ WKH LGHDV VKH H[SORUHG were telecommuting, a virtually unheard-of concept in 1982, and energy conservation in buildings and transportation, which were just beginning to gain traction. "I liked the way everybody shared and collaborated," she says, referring not only to that class, but to WPI's emphasis on teamwork and projects. That's what WPI teaches—how to think creatively and handle situations where there are no set answers. We, Not Me After earning her degree in mechanical engineering, Loftus started RXW GHVLJQLQJ RIƂFH EXLOGLQJV ,W GLGQŒW WDNH ORQJ EHIRUH VKH EDONHG at the waste she witnessed. "We were taking old designs and kind of regurgitating them," she says. In the rush to get things built, heating and cooling systems were often too big for the buildings, or were done cheaply with an emphasis on short-term savings over ORQJ WHUP HIƂFLHQF\ She left after two years and moved on to jobs in energy engineering and utility man- agement, where she honed her talent for col- laboration. Delicate negotiations between cli- ents, utility companies, and contractors were required to ensure that the plans for saving energy would work. "My whole approach was collaboration," she says. "I felt if these pro- grams were going to be successful for the cus- tomers or the utility, you couldn't just design them in a vacuum." Among the clients she impressed with her designs was Shaw's, one of the largest supermarket chains in New England, where she accepted the position of director of energy and regulatory affairs. She implemented innovative approaches to conserving energy in the Shaw's stores by installing sub-meters in each of the various departments in order to track usage and identify waste, eventually reducing the size of air-conditioning and other building compo-