Overview

Located near the University of Virginia on 49 scenic acres in Charlottesville, Virginia, St. Anne's-Belfield School is a leading co-educational private boarding and day-school serving students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

Our Approach

The challenges at St. Anne's-Belfield, like those seen at similar institutions across the country, were all too familiar. Aging infrastructure and inefficient lighting and HVAC systems were causing energy and maintenance costs to spiral out of control. Additionally, water costs were also rising, adding to the school's financial strain.

To address these challenges, St. Anne's-Belfield selected Southland to develop and implement a comprehensive energy efficiency and water conservation project that included 7 buildings and 300,000 square feet across 2 campuses. The project's scope of work included a lighting retrofit, HVAC and energy management controls system (EMCS) upgrades, and domestic and irrigation water upgrades.

A self-funded project that reduced the school's carbon footprint by 28% and operating costs by $4.5 million over the life of the project.

Result

The $2.3 million project was the first award under VirginiaSAVES, a program designed to reduce the cost of energy efficiency projects and provide low or no-cost long-term financing. By teaming with the school's finance and operations staff, we developed a self-funding project that reduced the school's carbon footprint by 28% and will decrease energy and operating costs by $4.5 million over the life of the project.