The City of Kentwood District Library was Awarded for the 2022 Battle of the Buildings Competition in the Education Category
The Kent District Library – Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch is a state-of-the-art, 46,000-square-foot, two-story facility. The branch opened in August 2010 and was renamed in 2012 after former Kentwood mayor Richard L. Root in honor of his dedication to the community and the library. The library provides a space for the community to come together and includes amenities to support a wide variety of needs, such as an early literacy play space, an entrepreneurial center, a designated teen area and more.
For the last three years, several buildings in the city have participated in Consumers Energy’s Building Tune-Up (BTU) Program, including the Richard L. Root KDL Branch. The Consumers Energy BTU Program provides an energy audit and recommendations for potential energy-saving projects. Through this program, the library reduced energy consumption through scheduling, added frequency drives to circulation pumps, utilized occupancy sensors to
control exhaust fans and zone temp, installed replacement LED lights in the building and parking lot, and improved building static pressure sensors to the makeup air unit. These measures resulted in a 15% reduction in weather-normalized source energy use when compared to 2021 annual use. The City worked with Control Logic and Quality Air for the controls and mechanical work which was completed in February 2022. In the future, they plan to upgrade interior lighting to LEDs and update some of the mechanical equipment. The cost of the project was $17,210 with an incentive of $5,479.75 for work completed in 2022. With estimated implementation cost, Consumers Energy calculated the payback for work verified in 2022 with incentives at 0.2 years. The City of Kentwood is always looking for ways to save taxpayers money and bolster community funds while also reducing their environmental impact.
The City of Kentwood spans 21 square miles, is home to more than 54,000 residents and is one of the fastest-growing cities in Michigan. Kentwood began as a small agricultural township and has grown into a suburban destination for shopping, dining, lodging and recreation. The City’s core values are extraordinary customer service, integrity, equity, communication and leadership. Their values related to energy reduction are to safeguard their fiscal and natural resources through best management practices and transparency. When asked what their favorite part of the project was, they mentioned “seeing a reduction in energy use while maintaining excellent service to community members.”
We were excited to celebrate the City of Kentwood’s accomplishments in energy efficiency at our annual Michigan Energy Summit on April 18, 2023 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were awarded in the Education Category!