KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Western Michigan University’s renovated Heritage Center, which sits high on Prospect Hill overlooking Kalamazoo, has just won the Governor’s Energy Excellence Award.
The university took a 110-year-old building with no insulation, open chimney chutes, heat-leaking single pane windows and steam heat and turned it into one of the most-energy efficient in the region.
It now uses geothermal technology to heat and cool. It has also been sealed and insulated, the utilities and windows have been replaced, and LED lightbulbs have been installed. The facility is essentially state-of-the-art now.
They claim that changes made during the renovation will prevent the equivalent of 124 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
The Parchment School District was also a finalist for the award.
