Green fee award helps shine light on VIMS
Funds will reduce electricity usage and improve worker safety
The William & Mary Committee on Sustainability will support another eco-friendly project at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science as part of its fall 2017 Green Fee awards.
VIMS will use the $10,239 grant to reduce electricity usage and improve working conditions by replacing 52 dated, energy demanding bulbs with new light-emitting diode lamps in 3 buildings on the VIMS campus. The funds were requested by VIMS Ph.D. student Jaclyn Friedman, Maintenance Superintendent Mark Rogers, and Director of Facilities Management Mark Brabham.
The new bulbs will replace high-intensity work lights in the Field Operations Center, as well as security “night” lights in Andrews Hall and Chesapeake Bay Hall.
“Replacing bulbs that are in use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, will drastically cut back on electricity usage, save money, and promote more sustainable conditions,” says Friedman.
Describing the new bulbs in the Field Operations Center, Rogers adds, “Not only will these be more efficient—consuming just 30 percent of the electricity currently being used—they have a higher light intensity, allowing for meticulous work like ship repair and welding to be completed under optimum conditions.”
The Green Fee program began in 2008 as a grassroots initiative among W&M undergraduate students. Since then, it has funded more than 200 sustainability projects led by students, faculty, and staff, including 27 projects at VIMS totaling $156,524.
This semester, in addition to the lighting project at VIMS, the Committee on Sustainability supported 4 other projects on W&M’s main campus in Williamsburg, for an award total of $48,366.
Detailed descriptions of this semester’s funded projects, as well as those from earlier funding cycles, are available on the Committee on Sustainability’s Green Fee website.