The summer months can mean different things to different people. For students, the excitement of a couple of months of unabated fun and frolicking without the need to do homework or wake early for classes the next day. For parents, well, often the total opposite is the case. For others, summer is the time when some much-needed vacation is on the agenda.
For school and university administrators, however, summer is one of the busiest times of the year as they address construction and improvement projects, upcoming school-year planning, deep-cleaning of facilities, and other projects that are more difficult to conduct while buildings are occupied.
An area many education institutions are focusing on in the summer months is energy-saving (and cost-saving) improvements to facilities. Lighting constitutes one of the larger energy expenditures at schools and universities, and administrators realize that lighting upgrades may result in not only improving the learning environment and making the space more welcome, but also saving an institution significant dollars over the life of the retrofit.
However, many institutions have difficulty securing the funding needed to conduct a lighting upgrade or other energy-saving improvements. Although numerous financing options are available to schools and universities for capital improvements, no one would disagree that the best financing option is no financing—more specifically: free.
That is what Osram Sylvania is offering to a deserving classroom through its Great Lighting for Education Challenge. One school will receive a full high-efficiency classroom lighting retrofit including lamps, ballasts, controls, fixtures and installation. Entering your school is free and easy. Visit www.ASUmag.com/great-lighting for more information and entry guidelines. Deadline for submittals is June 10.
American School & University will be part of the judging panel, and we look forward to following up with the selected school to illustrate how the lighting retrofit affected users and the institution.
Agron is editor-in-chief of AS&U.
