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Seeing the light, and green, at the Phila. Fed

The office aims to be a green leader, with a pilot project that goes beyond installing some new bulbs.

Inside the stately, granite-clad Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia are economists researching and analyzing money matters of the nation and the world.

And there's Chris Ivanoski, whose focus as a facilities manager is considerably more narrow: the building's lighting bills.

That's understandable. Throughout the Fed's 800,000-square-foot, nine-story headquarters at Seventh and Arch Streets, there are 13,500 light fixtures.

We're not talking energy-efficient compact fluorescents. Dedicated in 1976, the bank building last underwent a lighting upgrade about 12 years ago.

But that's about to change as the quasi-governmental institution aims to be a leader in the green movement.

Later this month, it will implement a pilot program that, if adopted building-wide, would cut the Fed's lighting-energy consumption in half and reduce its annual electric bills by $200,000, Ivanoski said.

"The goal is to be green, but really the result is we save green," he said.

The program would involve replacing 265 traditional fluorescent lights on one-quarter of one floor with higher-efficiency versions. Sensors connected to a computer program fed with such information as the building's latitude and longitude will automatically dim or brighten the lights and raise or lower window shades, depending on the amount of natural light in the room.

Meters will log electricity use, so the Fed will be able to compare whether the system is, indeed, saving energy.

"Hopefully, we will project out savings for completing the rest of the building," Ivanoski said.

Last week, Kay & Sons, a Norristown company, was awarded the contract to design and install the Philadelphia Fed's "daylight management" system. It will be manufactured by Lutron Electronics Inc. of Coopersburg, in Lehigh County.

Kay & Sons' president, Barry Kay, said landing the bank job was "huge," particularly to "a company like ours that is pioneering in this industry to legitimize or validate" the idea of using high-tech combination lighting and shading systems to help improve corporate bottom lines. His is believed to be one of the few companies offering such systems.

Ivanoski would not disclose what the bank's energy bills are, but he said achieving a higher level of efficiency and sustainability was a top priority.

"This building was built in the '70s with minimal thought toward energy consumption," he said.

Although the Fed has no specific goal for reducing its carbon footprint, Ivanoski said, "I see this beast moving forward and picking up speed."

Already, low-flow toilets have been installed and motors replaced with speed drives in all major plant equipment, such as heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation systems. Under construction across the street is a facility where all trucks headed to the Fed will be screened - it will be topped with a green roof.

The impetus for the lighting project came from the Fed's only tenant, the architecture and engineering firm EwingCole, which designed the building more than 30 years ago. The firm occupies the Fed's sixth floor with 260 employees and, as part of its lease negotiations, asked for more efficient lighting.

With double-tube fluorescent lights and a plentiful infusion of the sun's rays through the windows lining the perimeter, "we had twice as much illumination as we needed," said Mary Alcaraz, a lighting designer and principal with EwingCole, which promotes green building practices in its work. Its own office at the Fed is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Manual shades on the windows were of little help, she said, because "people pull them down when it's too bright, but then they leave them down," thus blocking out natural light at other parts of the day that could be used instead of energy-burning artificial lights.

The Fed's pilot lighting project will be confined to EwingCole's office, giving the firm a staging role that has Alcaraz "very excited."

Her enthusiasm is shared by Heather Shayne Blakeslee, acting executive director of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council.

"As we work to transform the market for green building," Blakeslee said, "it's imperative that government walk the talk and help to create economies of scale that will leverage other change."