MNN - Mother Nature Network

The 650,000 square-foot Ernst & Young headquarters building in New York City’s Times Square has been the target of a massive lighting retrofit project. Now that the project is complete, the facility will realize a 54 percent reduction in lighting-related energy use and a more than 50 percent reduction in lighting maintenance costs.

 

Lighting-related energy use topped 6.2 million kilowatt-hours, annually, before the retrofit. The company expects that this figure will be reduced by 2.9 million kilowatt hours annually. The reduction in energy consumption will reduce Ernst & Young’s CO2 emissions by about 2 million pounds.

 

“Reducing the carbon footprint of our office space is part of our firm-wide strategy to reduce our environmental footprint as our business grows,” said Leisha John, Ernst & Young Americas Director of Environmental Sustainability. “In fact, by the end of 2013, we plan to have a majority of our employees working in LEED and or Energy Star certified space. The completion of this lighting retrofit project in the New York office brings us one step closer to that goal, and will be part of that office’s Energy Star application.” Source: Ernst & Young

 

In addition to the lighting retrofit at the Ernst & Young headquarters facility, the company’s other sustainability goals include ensuring that 50 percent of its employees work in a LEED certified office space by 2013 and offering shared workspace to reduce the amount of physical space needed.

 

For more information about these projects and other sustainability goals, visit the Ernst & Young Environmental Sustainability website.