Lighting Design from Finelite Helps National Grid Corporate Center Earn Double Platinum LEED Certification

Finelite is pleased to announce that its CEO, Terry Clark, will be speaking at NeoCon World’s Trade Fair about the lighting manufacturer’s involvement in National Grid’s award-winning green building project. The second largest utility in the U.S. earned a double Platinum-level LEED® certification for its new corporate center located in Waltham, Massachusetts. National Grid achieved accolades for both core and shell construction and for commercial interiors.

Mr. Clark will be joining Chad Groshart, Associate of Atelier Ten, an environmental and lighting design firm, to discuss how close collaboration achieved lighting for an office building as a whole at under 0.65 watts per square foot. The NeoCon conference, scheduled for June 15-17 in Chicago, is expected to attract over 50,000 trade professionals to discuss the latest trends, products, and concepts in office, healthcare, hospitality, residential, institutional, and government environments.

“National Grid demonstrated that by assembling the right team and taking a new approach to lighting offices, tremendous energy savings are achieved,” said Terry Clark. “National Grid also shows how lighting can improve the work environment of employees at the same time,” said Clark.

The utility’s new 312,000-square-foot, three-story building houses more than 1,500 employees. Atelier Ten designed the lighting for the entire project. Finelite provided over 1,800 6-Watt Personal Lighting System (PLS) desk lamps, which provided low ambient/task lighting for employees. Finelite also provided lighting for the open office space, including 7,600 linear feet of 1-lamp T8 Series 12 Indirect/Direct luminaires. Independent studies show that this approach reduces lighting energy use and peak demand while occupant satisfaction is higher. At 0.5 w/ft2 in the open office areas (0.65 w/ft2 overall), the lighting design creates a powerful demonstration for National Grid and its 6 million energy customers that energy conservation is achievable.

An independent review by the U.S. Green Building Council confirmed that National Grid’s lighting at the Reservoir Woods facility uses 40 percent less electricity than a typical commercial building in Massachusetts. Occupancy sensors, lighting that is task-focused, and daylight sensors at workstations save more than 800,000 kilowatt hours annually.