Lawrence Delos Miles Value Foundation

To Establish Carbon Value Standards in support of the reduction of Global Warming.

Objective

To establish value standards to calculate Carbon Value Indexes to promote the use of this resource measurement in performing value engineering.

Background

Vice President Gore made a convincing case in his movie; An Inconvenient Truth, that the world must come to grips with reducing the amount of carbon emissions that cause global warming. Contrarily, a book by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery; Unstoppable Global Warming, takes the position that global warming will occur every 1,500 years whether carbon emissions are reduced or not.

The position of the Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation on this debate is why take a chance? The future of our nation is too important. We know for sure that the Value Methodology can help reduce carbon use. Carbon is a resource, the same as money. Carbon can be a focus of potential savings in performing value engineering as surely as money can be the focus.

Value engineering is a problem solving technique that is unparalleled in its competency to provide alternative solutions and change the course of direction to conserve and protect resources. When weight is the focus of a value study in the aircraft industry, weight can be reduced. When energy is the focus in the construction industry, energy can be reduced. When quality is the focus in manufacturing, quality can be enhanced. Similarly, we need to develop the tools to make carbon the focus of our work.

Accordingly, the Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation has embraced the task to develop simple researched tools that can be used by the public and private industry to evaluate the carbon impact of what they are doing. It is our desire to collaborate with all other organizations and expertise worldwide to promote the use of the value methodology to contribute to reducing global warming.

Initiative

The work of the Foundation is intended to be a partnership initiative between industry, government and academia.

First, the initiative represents the emergence of a learning community, initially focused on low-hanging fruit, i.e., short-term benefits, but progressively acquiring a wider perspective and valuing longer-term solutions.

Second, we envision the Foundation being a neutral forum to provide a unique platform for dialogue, knowledge sharing, and mutual learning in an open setting.

Third, the understanding of a common vocabulary is crucial to fostering communication among all stakeholders, and to bridging sector and cultural differences, as well as chasms between functional specializations, organizational layers, and competing interests.

Fourth, the generation of a common knowledge base on the value engineering interface with carbon units of measurement through systematic research by an impartial party will prove critical in accelerating the process of fundamental change.

Fifth, the presence of the Foundation as a trusted change agent will be indispensable to the implementation of research-driven change strategies by all member organizations and across much of the nation’s supplier base.

Sixth, the program’s governance structure and the terms of engagement of all stakeholders cumulatively will provide a self-correcting and adaptive mechanism that will prove essential in creating and delivering value to all stakeholders.

Seventh, the transparency of the entire process will help create trusting relationships across otherwise competitive enterprises, while ensuring that proprietary information has been safeguarded.

Eighth, the collective commitment of all stakeholders to work, share, learn, and build together will be essential to progress and overall impact.

Initial Focus

The Foundation has selected four major sectors of the economy as its initial focus for the development of Carbon Value Standards and Indexes. These are:

Transportation – automotive, air, trucks, buses
Housing and construction– carbon footprint for living and LEED rating
Energy – coal, oil, gas, nuclear utilities
Manufacturing - products

These sectors were selected for two reasons: 1) they represent a large majority of the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, and 2) each is represented by existing ongoing national trade associations that can provide much needed support from their membership.

As our effort matures we see expansion to other sectors such as the health and food industries.

Project Approach

The Foundation is surely not an organization that will re-invent the wheel. An enormous amount of information already exists on the world-wide web from many organizations and individuals on the subject of carbon. We have begun to conduct an extensive review of what data is available and invite all existing authors of those works to collaborate with us and make their work available.

The Foundation proposes to perform its work by using four research universities, one for each sector, to develop the carbon value standards for that sector.

The Foundation will ask the trade associations for input as to the selection of which university they consider has the most expertise in the area of study.

The Foundation will seek grants to support the research and will use the proceeds from conferences to support the research.

The Foundation will provide speakers to other environmental, trade and industry conferences to introduce them to the value methodology and the carbon value standard initiative.

The Value Index

In value engineering, value can be quantitatively expressed through the use of a value index which is the relationship between function worth (FW) and function cost (FC). It is expressed as a ratio, FC/FW. When this ratio equals 1.00, good value exists.

If, for example, the ratio calculated is 1.81, this indicates that the opportunity for product function improvement would be 81%.

Rather than using dollars in the ratio, we propose using carbon quantities of cost (use) and worth (value standard) for every measure. When this ratio equals 1.00, the subject would then be classified as carbon-neutral or good value!

Function worth is, by our definition, the least cost to provide a given function. The worth of a function is usually determined by comparing the present design for performing the function with other methods of performing essentially the same function. This becomes a temporary value standard for the function.

To effectively use a carbon measurement in lieu of dollars we need to develop reasonable, achievable comparative value standards for achieving functions based on carbon units of measure. In addition we need to be able to quantify existing design and plan functions in terms of carbon measures. The envisioned research will develop these and demonstrate their application.

Use of the Carbon Value Index

Remembering that carbon cost and carbon worth are related to functions rather than items, the index serves to:

Assist in determining whether to invest in a value study of the subject. A study should proceed only if poor value exists, i.e., indicated when the carbon value index is greater than one,.
Locate areas where the carbon cost/carbon worth ratio is the greatest. Generally these areas will have the greatest potential for carbon reduction and are useful items for a VE study.
Provide a factor for measuring the effectiveness of any carbon reduction efforts. Did the ratio approach unity after the effort?

On an industry and product basis we envision the day when manufacturers and project sponsors can use carbon value indexes to advertise and mark their products much like they do to indicate fuel consumption (mpg) and energy efficiency ratings.

Project Manager

The Project Manager for the Foundation for this project is:

Donald E. Parker, PE, CCE, CVS, FSAVE
Director, President
Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation
c/o 1612 Brookside Road
McLean, Virginia 22101
Tel: 202-253-5550
E-mail: parker66@cox.net

Listed elsewhere on this website is the current Board of Directors of the Foundation. Each of these individuals may be contacted for information regarding value engineering. Most will be involved in providing support to the project and providing presentations during the year to interested organizations and groups.

One member of the Board will be designated to serve as Program Manager for a study sector and as mentor to the University selected.

Budget

Total resources needed to fully implement this proposal for the first year is estimated to be $1.4 million as shown below by the following Annual Budget plan of $350,000 to conduct one of the four research areas. This budget is subject to confirmation and acceptance by each University as it is selected to perform the research.

budget