Cerritos College Receives Two Honorable Mentions at Sustainability Conference

College’s Energy-Efficient Infrastructure, Central Plant and Lighting Upgrade Recognized as Best Practices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 2, 2009

Media Contact:Aya Abelon, Public Affairs; (562) 860-2451 ext. 2287

NORWALK, Calif. - July 1, 2009 - Cerritos College was honored by the eighth annual Sustainability Conference held at the University of California, Santa Barbara June 21-24, 2009. Attended by nearly 800 individuals from the University of California, California State University, and California Community College systems, the conference honors and shares innovative and best practices in campus sustainability for all three public higher education systems statewide.

Cerritos College earned recognition for efforts in areas such as building retrofits and operations. The two honorable mentions specifically recognized the college’s infrastructure,  Central Plant and lighting upgrades.

The college’s Central Plant, completed early this year, provides chilled water for  building air conditioning systems  on campus. Before the new plant was built, the college used individual out-of-date, non-energy efficient chillers in each building to keep the buildings cool.

Three central chillers work together energy efficiently by running only when needed and by allowing all of the water to be chilled in one location instead of numerous locations.

The campus-wide infrastructure project runs new chilled water piping, high voltage lines and communications lines to all of the building on campus.

The campus wide lighting retrofit touched many buildings on campus including classrooms, restrooms, mechanical rooms, storage and custodial rooms.  Existing lighting was retrofitted with new state-of-the-art energy efficient electronic ballasts, T-8 light tubes, and compact florescent light bulbs/fixtures. 

“These projects have been completed since last December, 2008,” said Robert Riffle, director of physical plant, who oversees the entire facility master plan at Cerritos College. “Over the past four months we are experiencing a savings of approximately $17,000.00 per month in electrical cost and approximately 194,000 per month in reduced kilowatt-hours usage.”

The UC/CSU/CCC Higher Education Energy Efficiency Partnership Program recognizes new buildings and major facility renovations that employ effective sustainable design techniques to achieve reduced use of natural resources during construction, as well as on-going energy conservation outcomes throughout the life-cycle of these facilities.

“These honors show our strong commitment to striving towards developing a campus that is energy efficient and sustainable in order to minimize our environmental impact, save operation and maintenance costs, and to ensure a safe and quality education for our students,” said Riffle.

These retrofits, along with other campus transformation projects, were made possible through community support for the 2004 CC bond measure.

Cerritos College serves as a comprehensive community college for southeastern Los Angeles County. Communities within the college’s district include Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, La Mirada, Norwalk, and portions of Bell Gardens, Lakewood, Long Beach, Santa Fe Springs and South Gate. Cerritos College offers degrees and certificates in more than 180 areas of study in nine divisions. Annually, more than 1,200 students successfully complete their course of studies, and enrollment currently surpasses 26,000 students. Visit Cerritos College online at www.cerritos.edu.

###