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		Johnson Controls made the city of Lafayette, Colorado, a model of energy efficiency Green City Helping a particular building or company achieve greater energy efficiency is terrific. Meeting that same goal for an entire community is perhaps even more rewarding.

That’s just what Johnson Controls did with its work for the city of Lafayette, Colorado. The company recently announced the completion of a $1.2 million energy performance-contracting project that is expected to save the city more than $100,000 in annual utility and maintenance costs. In addition, various improvements are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 959 tons annually. 

The project used the technology that the company has worked so hard to develop to allow such an overhaul of an entire city’s infrastructure. 

As part of the project, Johnson Controls upgraded heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, weather stripping, computer monitors, building automation systems and related networks throughout many of the city’s facilities. Other improvements included the application of solar electric and solar thermal systems at the city’s recreation center; reusing methane at the wastewater treatment plant to generate heat for a portion of the wastewater treatment process; and an upgrade of the city’s traffic lights to LED technology.

Calling Itself Green

In addition to financial and environmental benefits, the project also met a number of other objectives that helps make Lafayette a model city, including: 

• Support of the City Council’s goal of focusing on overall energy efficiency.
• Capital improvements and modernization of older building systems.
• Support for the city’s facility maintenance team with tools and strategies to help team members become even more efficient.
• Educational opportunities for citizens and establishment of an energy-efficiency benchmark for other Colorado cities. Lafayette is one of the first communities in the state to take advantage of an energy performance-contracting program administered by the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office.

The projected cost savings makes the city’s overhaul pay for itself over time. The program will allow the city to significantly reduce utility costs while using those savings to repay the project capital investment over the next 10 years—without increasing the city’s operating budget. That means that funds that would normally pay for monthly utility expenses will be redirected to repay the capital investment for the project.

The staff of Johnson Controls is excited for other opportunities to help cities around the world attain this kind of efficiency and reduction in carbon emissions. The technology that made this possible is available to costumers around the world.