Westfield Corporation saves energy in SoCal

Westfield Corporation is the U.S. unit of the Westfield Group, the world’s largest retail property company. 4 Westfield Group owns and manages over 100 shopping centers across the globe, including 25 in California.

Millions of Californians visit Westfield centers to purchase clothing, find a new cell phone, see a movie, or buy a gift. But visitors to the seven Westfield malls in San Diego might not notice that Westfield installed new, efficient lighting systems. Company managers looked closely at utility bills, and potential savings from the new lighting were clear.

SOURCE: Environment California
Pam Stevens, Senior Director of National Operations for Westfield summarized their strategy, “We found that there were new technologies that could help us reduce our energy use, saving money.” In 2005, Westfield began a major lighting retrofit at its shopping centers near San Diego. The lighting at these facilities was nearing the end of its useful life, and the company had identified the retrofit as a major opportunity to reduce energy consumption and cut energy costs while maintaining levels of customer service.

Altogether, the seven shopping centers now use 19 percent less electricity, reducing consumption by 5.6 million kWh per year. The lighting systems have the added benefit of reducing California’s global warming pollution. By using less energy to light its shopping centers, Westfield prevents 5.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Other energy...and cost saving steps taken include:

Installing motion sensors to make sure lighting is used only when needed in janitorial closets and other utility spaces

Increasing the efficiency of large motors in central air conditioning equipment, using variable frequency drives

Installing energy management systems with automated controls to optimize use of lighting and air conditioning equipment.

Westfield is also investigating the option of solar photovoltaic panels as a way to generate its own electricity on-site.

Westfield has completed lighting upgrades Westfield installed solar power modules on exterior lighting fixtures and in the outdoor parking lots.

Westfield is piloting projects to install solar photovoltaic systems on the order of 350 kW (large enough to reduce global warming pollution by nearly half a million pounds per year.)