Meet Eric Tanner, Melink Sales Engineer

Business Unit and Job Title

Sales Engineer with Intelli-Hood

What does your job entail?

As a member of a highly focused sales team I am responsible for identifying, tracking, quoting, and closing all New Construction opportunities across all Eastern U.S. Intelli-Hood® markets. I strive to stay as technically focused as possible so as to educate potential clients and specifiers to the benefits of our Demand Control Kitchen Ventilation system and technology, Intelli-Hood®.

What is your personal philosophy?

We only get one shot at life. We are all on this earth together at this very moment, for a reason.  Respect everyone.  Be kind to everyone.

What did you do before coming to Melink?

I was an IT Recruiter for just shy of 6 years.  Essentially, I “networked” for a living.

What is your favorite aspect of working at Melink?

Leadership listens.  People listen.  Everyone wants to help as everyone wants to succeed especially on the fringe of going to an ESOP.  It’s all about working hard and enjoying the ride while remaining laser line focused on proving insanely great service while changing the world one building at a time.

What do you like to do in your time off?

I’m a disciplined workout nut.  I truly enjoy running and, while I’m not super excited when going to the gym, I love the feeling once I am done.  Ultimately, I need to keep moving.  Anything outside like hiking, camping, exploring new state parks, traveling with my fiancé Kelly.  I’m truly up for any adventure and challenge.

Tell us something that might surprise us about you.

Despite always having to stay busy, waking up early, running, etc…I also love to sleep.  I’m definitely not the type who says, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”.

What are you most proud of?

I try to count my blessings and appreciate everything in my life. I’d say I am proud of my ability to stay mindful, thankful and levelheaded in times of stress and doubt.

What are your hopes for our industry?

It would be my hope that cerebral influencers and leaders overcome the selfish, greed-driven minds that influence our governments, economy and ultimately their own pocket books. Until this happens, we may never see true full adoption of sustainable practices that ultimately may disrupt the powerhouse fuel-giants of the 20th and 21st century.  As we only have one life, we only have one earth that life calls home.  I hope we can all protect it together.

Motto or personal mantra?

There is but one cause of human failure and that is man’s lack of faith in his true self.

Do you collect anything?

Running/Race Medals – So far, I am over 20!

Higher Education Taking Action Against Climate Change

Climate change has been a hot topic recently, and higher education is taking note and taking action. While hundreds of schools have already made pledges to increase sustainability across their campus, 13 schools are taking the lead and taking it a step farther. At this year’s 2018 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit, 13 North American research universities launched the University Climate Change Coalition, or UC3, a group committed to implementing green initiatives into their own campuses and leveraging their research and experience to help others do the same. For over a decade, these universities have been researching innovative ways to reduce energy consumption, and educating students on how to combat climate challenges that are quickly approaching, but now they taking it a step further to spread this expertise to accelerate change through all of higher education.

Colleges and Universities that have committed to take action on climate change
Colleges and Universities that have committed to take action on climate change. Source: Secondnature.org

As the first school listed on the Campus Carbon Neutrality commitment, Cornell University paved the way. They have made continual efforts to implement Energy Conservation Initiatives (ECI), committing $33M towards ECI’s over a recent 5-year period. The Ohio State University established goals to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to reduce total campus building energy consumption by 25%. Both of these schools have found ways to lessen their carbon footprint by implementing various sustainability practices and products campus wide. Reducing energy use in existing buildings have been an ongoing initiative by both universities focusing on modernizing building envelopes, implementation of building automation and control systems, heat recovery and lighting systems. Cornell states projects they’ve implemented to date have had a return on investment of five to seven years.

Intelli-Hood controls at Kennedy Center at The Ohio State University.
Intelli-Hood controls at Kennedy Center at The Ohio State University. Source: osu.edu

A place that can often be overlooked, but has a great impact, is the ventilation system in campus kitchens. With the demand of long hours to accommodate various student schedules, and high volume because of the dense population, campus kitchens tend to run a majority of the day. Depending where the university is located, various local and state codes may require fans to operate 24/7 if the site utilizes gas pilots on kitchen equipment which remain on overnight. The HVAC systems account for 29% of the energy consumption of a food service area, with up to 75% of this load able to be attributed to the commercial kitchen ventilation system.

Melink is the innovator of Demand Control Kitchen Ventilation (DCKV) with the Intelli-Hood® system. Both Cornell University and The Ohio State University found the benefit of utilizing dckv systems across a majority of their kitchens. Using Intelli-Hood®, systems operate at a lower overall fans speed average. In an average day, the Melink Intelli-Hood system can recognize up to a 45% reduction in fan speeds equivalent to approximately 83% electrical fan energy savings. Additionally, this reduced operation results in a decrease of load demand of surrounding HVAC equipment providing additional conditioned air savings that can be recognized.