One question I am asked frequently is: If you were one of the first green gyms in the country, how did you figure out what to do?
The answer mostly comes down to trial and error as well as listening to members and watching members. One of the biggest things we did early on was to have an ”all on” day. We had a day where we literally turned on everything – lights, TVs, music, etc. – all day like a traditional gym would do. And we figured out how many watts of electricity we used, and then we started shutting things off and found out how much we really use.
We began to develop an energy-saving culture based on finding out what people really needed.
We found that people didn’t really care about TV much. Now they use iPads on ellipticals, which is a huge energy saver because people would rather watch Hulu or Netflix than TV. We let people turn lights on and off when they want. Another thing we did was get an energy meter. You can pick one up at Home Depot or order one online. We plugged stuff into it and figured out how much electricity something uses when it’s turned on versus in standby mode. We found that treadmills used a lot so we instructed members to turn them on when they’re using them and off when they are not. All of these things paved the way to the green gym that we have today.
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