In October 2016, Legrand North and Central America, a global provider of electrical and digital building infrastructures, concluded the first leg of its Energy Marathon 2.0 competition, an internal company-wide event designed to save energy through ready-to-implement technology and process changes. The 2016 Energy Marathon 2.0 saw a high level of employee participation and innovation, yielded significant saving, and set the foundation for continued energy reduction best practices.
At the conclusion of Energy Marathon 2.0 in October, three sites were named winners of their respective building class categories (manufacturing, distribution, and office), and a fourth was awarded the Superlative award for saving the most kWh and energy costs during the 26.2-day event.
But, the competition was not yet over. The Legrand North America locations of Fort Mill, Middletown, Hickory, and Fairfield entered into the second leg of the competition where they were asked to sustain their energy savings for the next several months.
Based on an energy intensity measurement, each site was tracked on their performance compared to the same time period one year before. In the end, the Hickory, NC location team emerged as the ultimate winner with a 16.3% reduction in energy intensity.
Since the conclusion of the Energy Marathon (November 2016 through March 2017), the four competing sites saved $33,334 in energy costs, a total of 310,705 kW hours, and the equivalent of 218 metric tons of carbon dioxide worth of electricity.
Site reduction strategies involved ensuring that machines, lights, and other equipment were properly shut down at the end of the workday, as well as reconfiguring lighting controls to only illuminate occupied spaces, and issuing friendly energy waste infractions to fellow co-workers who were unnecessarily using energy.
“Our Energy Marathons are designed to challenge employees and managers to find innovative and effective ways to save energy,” said Susan Rochford, vice president, energy efficiency, Sustainability and Public Policy, Legrand, North and Central America. “The ultimate goal of this program is to establish and develop best practices that can be adopted for long-term conservation. Our four finalists certainly succeeded in this area.”
Based on the idea that a marathon is 26.2 miles, the Legrand Energy Marathons bring energy efficiency to the forefront for a focused, 26.2-day period. The Energy Marathon 2.0 ran from October 3-28, 2016 with the four winners competing in the final sustainability leg.
Adding to the overall success of the program, in 2016 the 22 competing sites saved a total of 722,941 kWh and $79,725 over the course of the near-month-long event. This level of electricity savings equates to 508 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Overall, Legrand North America reduced its electricity use by 15.9% during the event, compared to a September 2016 baseline. This was a significant result increase over Energy Marathon 2014 which, with 18 participating corporate sites, had a total savings of 588,540 kWh and $46,732.00 on electric bills.
In other company news, this week Legrand North and Central America announced the purchase of AFCO Systems, a company that designs, engineers, and manufactures racks, cabinets, enclosures, and air containment systems for the data centers. The AFCO Systems product line will become part of Legrand’s newly formed Cabinet and Containment Solutions business within its Data Communications division.
