The City has taken another exciting step toward reducing energy use by performing lighting upgrades at the Coffon Building, Engine 8 (Taylor Square), Fire Headquarters and three buildings at the Cambridge Cemetery. Existing lights within these facilities have been replaced with high-efficiency lamps and fixtures, and occupancy sensors have been installed in many locations throughout the buildings in order to reduce energy use and costs even further. Projected energy savings from these lighting efficiency upgrades is an estimated 130,000 kilowatt hours/year, resulting in avoided costs of approximately $18,000/year for the City. These energy savings represent averting close to 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere annually, the equivalent of removing 18 cars from the road!

The electric use of these buildings will continue to be monitored as part of the City’s Green Community commitment to reduce energy use by 20% from its FY08 baseline. Energy efficient lighting technologies have been installed in 22 municipal buildings over the past two years with a projected total savings of 1.3 megawatt hours/year.

Stay tuned for future energy efficiency upgrades!