Efficient LEDs light the way for a prominent university in Chicago

Committed to sustainability

A prominent university in Chicago is an urban research university that has driven new ways of thinking since 1890. The university is wholly committed to energy efficiency and sustainability. They track a range of environmental metrics to advance campus-wide sustainability goals – from greenhouse gas emissions to the types of cleaning supplies used – to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2025.

Since the university’s campus consists of older buildings, they were not using their energy efficiently. Inefficient infrastructure in these campus buildings resulted in high amounts of electricity and natural gas consumption – resulting in a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. As part of their initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they wanted to upgrade their lighting infrastructure to more efficient and easier-to-maintain LED lighting. These upgrades would enable them to remain aligned to their sustainability goals and use less energy, resulting in maintenance and energy cost savings.

Lighting the way to efficiency

The university partnered with Centrica Business Solutions to implement the lighting upgrades. They selected Centrica Business Solutions because they wanted to work with an energy services company that would provide ongoing measurement and verification and guarantee energy savings. Measurement and verification of energy savings are important, as they will allow the university to track the results of the efficiency upgrades against their stated sustainability goals.

Centrica Business Solutions upgraded existing lighting to LED in three buildings. Due to the historic nature of the buildings, Centrica Business Solutions installed LED retrofits, where they converted existing fixtures to LED lighting fixtures.

The results

With these lighting upgrades, the university will reduce their grid energy consumption by 624,000 kWh each year, saving $51,000 in annual utility costs. LED lighting is inherently much easier to maintain, so the university will also save on maintenance costs. These operational cost savings are savings that the university can divert from energy and maintenance costs to serve their students and faculty and enhance their campus to attract future students and staff.

The university will not only save money on energy and maintenance expenses. The LED lighting is part of campus-wide energy efficiency measures that will help the university reach their 2025 carbon reduction goals. The energy consumption reduction from these LED upgrades is equivalent to a decrease of 487 tons of CO₂ – to make these results more tangible, that’s the carbon emissions from over 488,000 pounds of coal.