Situated on the banks of the river Thames and boasting a World Heritage Site as its main campus in a trio of buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren, Greenwich Uni has won several awards for its commitment to reduce its impact on the environment. Not least amongst these was the award from the People & Planet Green League Table in May 2012, who praised Greenwich in the judges’ comments and highlighted the fact that emissions had been reduced by 22% since 2005.
In order to continue this commitment to lowering their carbon footprint, the University investigated the benefits of LED lighting, and knew that as well as cutting costs and energy consumption they could also achieve further carbon reductions, in-keeping with their carbon reduction plan and helping to meet future targets set for 2016.
The previous lighting setup on campus was a mixture of 150W and 70W high pressure sodium street lights that were coming to the end of their 15-year lifespan. When looking at replacements for these lights, Greenwich knew that LED lighting could help them achieve their carbon targets, and after looking at a number of companies contacted Gemma Lighting, after seeing their range of LED street lighting through the website.
After an account manager from Gemma Lighting had visited the campus site, product samples and lighting plans were used to asses which of Gemma Lighting’s LED Street Lighting range would be best suited for the project. It was decided that the Jaguar 24 LED Globe Light was the ideal solution for the University’s needs, and more than a hundred were ordered for the project to replace the previous setup on a like-for-like basis.
With a protection rating of IP66 and a long-lasting lifetime of up to 100,000 hours, the equivalent of over 18 years of operation, the Jaguar LED Globe offers savings of around 70% when compared to traditional lighting sources. The new LED lighting successfully reduced the environmental impact of the lighting on the Greenwich campus by reducing carbon emissions from 36 carbon tonnes per year to just nine, saving almost 500 carbon tonnes over the estimated lifespan of the installation.
The amount of power being consumed by the university on its previous lighting scheme totalled over 60,000kWh, however thanks to Gemma Lighting’s LED Jaguar Globe this figure was reduced by 76%, down to just 15,375kWh. The lighting was so reliable that the university was able to make further savings by not renewing the contract with the company responsible for maintaining the lighting on site. Couple this with a dramatic £5,000 annual reduction in energy bills, and the campus is well on its way to achieving a very stringent environmental target.
Students on site have been impressed with the new LED scheme, stating that unlike the old style sodium lighting the illumination provided by the new LED globes was not too intrusive, and Building Services Engineer for the University Jon Hudson said: “Throughout the process Gemma Lighting were very friendly, very knowledgeable and I would recommend them to anyone looking at LED lighting projects.
“The new look is better than that of the old setup, where you could see the yellow haze from down the road. We dealt with Gemma Lighting direct and found them and their LED lighting cost-effective and beneficial to our carbon reducing commitments.”
