Learning about “heat death of the universe” from a college physics professor is one reason Charlie Copeland has been at work for the past half-century as an energy conservation-minded mechanical engineer.

“At age 20 or so, I thought, ‘Whoa, so that’s the end of the universe?’” recalls the president and CEO of New York City-based engineering consultant Goldman Copeland Associates PC in sharing his thoughts on learning about the 19th-century theory by William Thomson, the First Baron Kelvin, of absolute-zero fame. It hypothesizes that when energy equalizes everywhere, stars will die and almost all matter will decay.

不断思考最大的图片有限公司peland embarked on a career in which he tackles issues of renewable energy, sustainability and conservation, with solutions that aim to be the least complex and easiest on the client’s wallet. From designing one of New York City’s first solar water heaters for a project that launched the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) to leading development of a 2018 geothermal prescreening tool for all 850,000 city lots, Copeland’s contributions have earned him ENR New York’s 2019 Legacy Award.

工程师在皇后区和城市其他地方的大学点部分长大​​。钱很紧张，他的母亲最终将家人搬到了韦斯特切斯特县的一家祖母的房子，科普兰在那里在高度评价的阿德斯利区上学。老师和同学鼓励他参加高级学术课程，一位朋友说服他就读一所廉价的密苏里大学。最终，谷轮回到了城市，并在纽约市城市学院获得了机械工程硕士学位。

The fledgling engineer supported himself by working nights and summers. Copeland got ground level views of construction by sling-blading rights-of-way for a natural gas pipeline in Arkansas and pulling concrete form pins for Interstate 80 in Iowa, among other jobs. These gigs and one small loan funded his education.

“Not possible with what universities charge now,” Copeland says, sympathizing with young people’s concerns about college tuition costs. The CEO’s empathy for others is apparent when talking with some of his employees who have thrived at Goldman Copeland.

“我的成功是他的成功，我从未感到有任何不同。”机械工程校长兼总监埃里克·米切尔（Eric Mitchell）说，他提名谷轮颁发了传统奖。

“He loves teaching people, he loves helping people advance their careers and continue their education,” adds principal Dan Colombini. “You can tell one of the things he takes pride in is seeing engineers grow. We all owe him the world.”

Tristan Schwartzman, Goldman Copeland's director of energy services, started at the firm in 2012 after teaching math in high school. With his degree in English literature, he and Copeland “talked about [novelist] Philip Roth books for about 20 minutes, then he offered me the job.” As he rose in the firm, Schwartzman says Copeland “would give me room to push the department into whatever direction I wanted to go. He gave me the chance to develop myself.”

The Legacy Award winner’s first job, meanwhile, was at Jaros Baum & Bolles. In 1970, he joined the start-up that became Goldman Copeland. The second line on his CV jumps out: “Designed one of New York City’s earliest multifamily residential solar collector domestic hot water systems at 519 East 11th St. The property subsequently installed a windmill to generate electricity, which became the standard for generation grid regulations.” The situation was actually much more colorful.

“Eleventh Street had completely abandoned cars lying on the sidewalk, with people taking parts out and selling them,” he remembers. “A lot of New York was in really bad shape … it had a ‘sweat equity program’ where you could literally get an apartment in an abandoned building like 519 East 11th if you were willing to put the work in to fix it up.”

他说，“半嬉皮士”接管了这座建筑，要求他在1975年设计一种使用太阳能收集器加热水的系统。当时，每加仑水需要多少太阳能收集器的规则“完全支持太阳能收集器制造商”，但谷轮想出了一种使用此类设备的方法。

通过使用太阳能和建筑物的宅基地设置的风车，有足够的能量将电力塞进Con Edison的网格中，并起诉了公用事业。前美国检察长拉姆西·克拉克（Ramsey Clark）代表居民，此案导致了1978年的PURPA法律，该法律允许非实用发电机生产电源，以供依附于公用事业网格的客户使用，从而鼓励开发替代能源。

谷轮’s conservation-minded engineering continued apace. Later in the 1970s, he traveled the country inspecting Veteran’s Administration hospitals to help them reduce energy consumption. In 1988, he managed engineering for the New York City Energy Conservation Capital program, the largest municipal energy conservation of its kind in the U.S., in which he studied some 500 buildings owned by the city and trained 20 consultants on how to perform energy audits.

同年，谷轮开始了为期15年的计划，以升级大中央航站楼的机械和电气系统，其中包括断开这种方式加热的码头和附近建筑物之间的蒸汽服务，安装洒水装置和烟气排气系统并带来空气适应没有它的主要大厅之类的区域。

他说：“我们有一条规则认为，一个人不允许自己走过隧道。”“有很多毒品，很多奇怪的人” - 包括一个在谷轮和他的团队最终用于新的低层厨房排气系统的空的垂直柱上的床垫，木板和衣服的人。

Entering the new millennium, Copeland upped his game. In 2004, he designed the first NYC office building built with a complete underfloor air system, for the Scholastic Books headquarters at 557 Broadway. The next year he created a similar system, using pew footrests at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, preserving the historic interior architecture. Other architecture-preserving projects have been the Alexander Hamilton Customs House, the Eldridge Street Synagogue and the Morgan Library.

该公司还在百老汇各个剧院升级了系统，包括舒伯特，哈德逊，回旋处，哈林舞蹈剧院和剧作家地平线。他说：“我曾经去过很多剧院……我现在很难呆在那天晚上去上班。”

In 2015, Copeland received a patent for a steam demand automatic control design that he did for Con Ed that helps high-rise office buildings reduce their peak winter demands. Three years later, he was principal in charge of developing the geothermal prescreening tool, at the request of the NYC Dept. of Design and Construction.

Copeland及其公司与结构地质工程师和其他公司合作，将数据放入工具中，查看地面表面，以了解什么可以防止建筑团队在地下进行地下并开发特定于情节的工程，以及什么样的结构可以建在上面。该工具着眼于25种建筑物，以确定所需的能量量。

“鉴于纽约的很多尺寸，候选人有限地做地热。有些人可以做零件，”工程师解释说。“许多网站都适合混合系统，但通常不会是任何高层建筑。皇后区一家或两户住宅是一个很好的应用或小公寓楼。”

The tool has sparked interest outside New York City, and the firm has a contract to create something similar for Westchester County. Copeland says college campuses and farms would be good applications.

In 2019, Copeland returned to his electricity-generating roots. He oversaw the chiller plant and cooling tower infrastructure upgrade at the Penn South affordable housing complex, which produces its own electricity and is off the grid.

谷轮has been instrumental in promoting sustainability, but his approach has been tempered by practicality rather than a need to create high end, complex solutions. And clients appreciate it.

“查理的不同之处在于，他鼓励客户对解决方案进行更具创造力的思考。纽约能源消费者委员会的联合主席，沃纳多房地产信托公司（Vornado Realty Trust）的可持续性和公用事业高级副总裁丹·埃根（Dan Egan）说，这并不总是是正确的解决方案。

埃根说：“他非常重视纽约市独有的现有基础设施，例如地区蒸汽，并弄清楚如何将其现代化以满足当今的期望。”“在可持续性成为流行语之前，他关心可持续性。他关心的事情运转良好，有效地工作并为客户省钱 - 这来自碳储蓄，这也具有环境利益。”

根据Vornado的ESG报告，该公司在能源效率资本项目上花费了超过1200万美元，并获得了27％的回报率。18luck官网

“We’re pushing the envelope to be efficient. We’re not pushing the envelope to add fancy gadget ideas that are going to be more trouble than they’re worth or going to disappear in five years,” Schwartzman explains of his boss’ approach.

Looking forward, Copeland is eager to help clients comply with city statutes on clean energy and buildings, such as the New Green Deal or Local Law 97, which mandates large commercial buildings to meet carbon emissions limits by 2024.

柯普兰德说：“我们已经看到的许多建筑物现在可以到2024年才能到达。但是在那之后，许多建筑物将遇到麻烦。”该公司从担心法律以及租户的担忧中“收到很多电话”。工程师说，如果它是一个新的租户，例如跨国银行“不想被视为浪费能源”，那将有很大的不同。“有些租户不会搬进不相当有效的建筑物。”

To Copeland, a grandfather of eight, it’s not just a money or legal issue. It’s about the industry helping to reduce global warming, whether by converting old mechanical systems or producing electricity more efficiently. “Eventually, if we can produce all electricity with solar and wind, that’s great, but that’s 20-30 years off. We need an intermediate technology,” he says. “What’s most important to me now is what the future of civilization is.”