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Supporting a healthy environment through energy efficiency

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At Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), we strive for three big outcomes in everything we do: healthy people, a healthy environment and strong communities. From working to preserve our urban forests, to providing environmental education to youth, to encouraging Seattleites to connect to nature at local parks, to reducing our regional footprint through energy-efficient practices, our performance as an environmental steward is an indicator of our role in building strong communities and healthy people.

That’s why we are thrilled to report that SPR’s Sustainable Operations Unit, in partnership with Aquatics, recently finished a utility conservation retrofit project to replace old lights at Meadowbrook Pool with a new LED system. The project provides much better illumination in the natatorium, improves operations, will lower utility bills at the pool by approximately $6,500 a year, and virtually eliminates the need for bulb replacement for the next 12 years. SPR will receive a $19,000 utility conservation rebate from Seattle City Light for the work, which we will invest in other energy conservation retrofit projects. This project will help us meet the City’s goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020, as set out by the Climate Action Plan.

As a department, we manage more than two million square feet of building space that includes swimming pools, community centers and office buildings. Such a large portfolio of buildings requires continuous attention to operational and built solutions to move the needle on the reduction of energy use. Through small steps, such as the replacement of old lights, we are making big leaps forward in supporting a healthy environment.