Green Facilities Partnership
Through high performance energy efficient renovations, LIVE Green facilitated the renovation of two landmark public use facilities in the City of Lancaster: Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, Mellor Building and the Lancaster YWCA. Comprehensive energy assessments were completed for each facility and priority upgrades including lighting, HVAC, plumbing, and solar thermal installation were completed at the Lancaster YWCA. air sealing and heating upgrades were completed at the Mellor Building on the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology campus. Combined these projects will save 4,873 McF (McF = 1000 cubic feet of natural gas) and 203,427 kWh of energy, 42,472 gallons of water and approximately $48,000 for these institutions per year. Funding for this projects was provided through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Energy Harvest Fund.
Experience form this grant has been leveraged to benefit other non-profits in the City of Lancaster and through a grant from the Lancaster County Community Foundation comprehensive level 2 energy assessments and reports were completed at the Susquehanna Association for the Blind and Visions Impaired and the Lancaster Public Library. From these reports both facilities are implementing energy conservation strategies.
solar thermal (hot water) installation at the Lancaster YWCA
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Thaddeus Stevens College
Approximately one third of primary energy is consumed in buildings such as dwellings, offices, hospitals, and schools where it is utilized for space heating and cooling, lighting, and the operation of appliances. Energy use in buildings represents a major contributor to fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide production.
The Green Facilities Partnership seeks to help Lancaster institutions achieve significant reductions of energy and waste while achieving more efficient procurement, and reductions in operating costs. The benefits of making these improvements include reduced environmental and health impacts, increased productivity, better quality of work life, and an increase in employee retention as well as reduced liability, legal costs and insurance. Furthermore, this program will assist some industries in complying with environmental mandates and policies.
Southern Market Center
The partnership will encourage members to share successes and challenges in a peer group setting, with on-going input from local experts and Green Seal. The goal is to transform the original institutional participants into model organizations that will lead other organizations down the path to sustainability.
Goals
The primary goals of LIVE’s Green Facilities Partnership are to assist each institution in
- Completing a comprehensive facilities audit
- Completing a green action plan
- Implementing green action plan
- Demonstrating measurable results
Partners / Resources
- Lancaster Chamber of Commerce
- Green Seal
- Department of Environmental Protection
- Environmental Protection Agency
- PENNTAP
- Environmental Management Assistance Program
We thank the Lancaster County Community Foundation for being a funding partner in this program
