Assessments are FREE of charge!!! There is no out of pocket expense for the facility.
You can contact us via e-mail at njme@caes.rutgers.edu or by phone (732)445-5540 and speak to one of our staff members. We will send you the necessary paperwork we need for you to fill out as well as a tentative assessment date.
We ask that you fill out our pre-assessment forms to the best of your ability. These forms outline what your facility produces, what type of energy consuming equipment you are using, a brief process outline as well as information regarding pollution prevention. We ask that you send us copies of your most recent 12 months of utility bills (both electric and natural gas).
Using your bills we are able to generate charts for the facility’s energy consumption over the course of the year as well as come up with rates that can be used in our calculations so as to provide you a more accurate measure of savings and paybacks associated with our recommendations.
Assessments are free because NJME is funded by the NJDEP (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection). This funding allows us to offer plants assessments free of charge. There is absolutely NO catch.
NJME does this to assist facilities in the state of New Jersey become more energy efficient and competitive while reducing pollution in the environment. NJME is part of Rutgers University and hence, the program also benefits students as well as full-time engineering staff at NJME to gain valuable experience and do meaningful work.
NO. The NJDEP does NOT use this as a means of enforcement. We are in no way, allowed to enforce any regulations upon you. The NJDEP is only notified of the names of the facilities visited. Any other information regarding your facility is completely confidential as per our agreement with the NJDEP.
NO. There is never a NJDEP member accompanying us on assessments. It is strictly NJME staff members. Although we do need to inform NJDEP the names of the facilities visited, everything else is confidential. No recommendations can be imposed upon you nor can any regulations be enforced in lieu of the visit.
NO. Just like your information is confidential from the NJDEP, it is also kept confidential from the rest of the public. We visited many facilities with confidential processes and that information is kept confidential.
Absolutely NOT! Your contact information will be kept with NJME and not passed onto anyone without your permission for any reason. We may contact you a few months after the report just to follow up on the quality of report and if you need any help in implementing any recommendations of your choice.
Typically, assessments are a one day visit to your facility. We provide a tentative itinerary of what we want to accomplish throughout the day. Occasionally due to the size of the plant or if there is too much going on at the facility we may decide to prolong the assessment to a two day visit with plant personnel permission. This decision is only made by the end of the initial assessment day.
NO. Nothing needs to be done to your operations. We merely observe the processes and take notes.
After our visit to your facility, we do a full write up of the assessment and have it sent to you within 60 days of our visit.
NO. As mentioned before, nothing comes out of your pocket for this assessment.
NO. You are free to implement any of the recommendations you wish. Just like we can’t enforce any regulations upon you, we cannot make you implement any of our recommendations
NO. There are no obligations, everything is on voluntary basis.
NOTHING. Once again, everything is on voluntary basis. NJME may contact the facility a few months after sending out the report to follow up on the quality of the report and if the facility needs any help implementing one of our recommendations. In addition, if the assessment was highly successful, we may decide to contact you to ask you to volunteer as a case-study facility which you may decline. Once again, everything is on voluntary basis and you did not sign-up for anything.
The NJME staff is headed by Dr. Michael Muller. Among the staff there are full time engineers as well as PH.D, graduate and undergrad engineering students. Most of our staff includes mechanical, chemical, and industrial engineers with extensive experience performing assessments.
The staff at NJME has over 100 years of combined experience in this field. Our staff members are very well experienced and educated in this field and our undergrad students are learning a great deal about the industry.
YES. We are insured as employees of the Rutgers University NJME program.