For the second consecutive year, UCSC has been honored with a best practice award for lighting, design and retrofit, further demonstrating its longstanding commitment to sustainable practices.
From 2011-2012, UCSC upgraded the lighting at the East Field House gym and McHenry Library. The campus also upgraded an off campus building at 2300 Delaware leased by the university and in elevators and outdoor lights around the university.
Erin Linney, Green Campus Intern Manager, worked with other interns to help make these lighting retrofits possible. Interns located and audited fixtures for the project metrics.
Patrick Testoni, UCSC’s energy manager, worked with Andy Shatney, lighting design and retrofit specialist, to make sure the upgrades went smoothly.
Testoni said the projects are a great example of student, faculty and staff collaboration and helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
From a collaborative effort with students, UCSC’s initiative featured occupancy sensors, motion sensors for bi-level lighting, lighting and fan controls in elevators, wireless lighting controls, bi-level LED fixtures and LED streetlights.
The motivation amongst participants occurs when you “find the interested students and help them do the projects they want to do. You can find some really good, motivated workers that way.” – Andy Shatney
This sustainability effort will reduce UCSC’s annual energy use by 1,472,943 kWh and result in an energy cost savings of $184,000 per year.
The campus-wide retrofit is predicted for completion by the end of this year.
