"It's our job to look after your environment
and make it a better place"

This is the mission statement of the Environment Agency, so it’s good to see this philosophy being implemented at their Brampton offices in Cambridgeshire.

Responsible for monitoring the UK’s rivers and associated flood risks, the Environment Agency is seeing at first hand the effects of climate change. So back in November 2007, they embarked on a programme of energy saving initiatives to help reduce fuel bills and their carbon footprint. One of their first priorities was to look at obvious energy savings and lighting was quickly identified as a potential target.

The Environment Agency’s Facilities Team leader, David Howarth says:

"With lighting being, on average, responsible for around 45% of the energy consumption of a typical office, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that working towards non-reliance on electric light for the majority of the working day, has the potential to make a considerable impact our energy use."

"The first areas we identified, and most obvious, were the long corridors that runs through the spine of the building. With no natural light whatsoever, the electric lights were on constantly.

Twenty nine Solatube Daylighting Systems were installed in late 2007 and have been providing us with ‘free light’ ever since. We do have to use some electric lights in the middle of winter, but I’d estimate that we’ve been able to reduce their use by around 90%."

Having evaluated the systems for the first half of 2008, Solatube were called back in to explore the potential for further savings in other areas of the building. Whilst some of the offices have large windows, the design of the building tends to exclude most of the available light so electric lighting was being employed even on bright days.

Solatube worked with the Environment Agency to produce a proposal that was then submitted to the Carbon Trust to assess the eligibility for funding to assist with the project. The funding was granted and work on the project began in early June 2009. A further 26 systems have now been installed throughout the offices to provide a natural daylight solution for all viable areas of the building.

"Now that we’ve achieved a high level of daylight throughout the offices, I believe that we can greatly reduce our requirement for artificial lighting, and subsequent energy usage and carbon output. It’s also great to get the positive feedback from the staff benefiting directly from their access to natural light."

commented David.