The City of Kentwood was Awarded for the 2021 Battle of the Buildings Competition in the Warehouse Category

Over the past 50 years, the City of Kentwood has maintained a culture of excellent customer service, actively providing a responsive and responsible local government with a focus on continuous improvement. The City’s dedicated and professional staff stand ready to serve, including 24/7 year-round professional police, fire and EMS services. With planned investments in infrastructure, parks and trails, Kentwood provides high quality services today while keeping the next 50 years in view.

Focusing on continual improvements, the maintenance team sought out energy usage reduction projects to lower utility costs. In April of 2020, they signed 4 of their buildings on to the Consumers Energy Building Tune Up (BTU) program which included the Department of Public Works (DPW) building. The DPW maintains the streets, keeping them clean, the pipes underground, and the drinking water. They also house a service center for the city vehicles. The maintenance team implemented 6 recommendations at the DPW building, most of which focused on HVAC system schedule updates. The hot water pumps, air handling units, and boilers now run based on demand, set points were adjusted, and night setbacks were implemented. The return on investment for this facility was less than 6 months largely due to incentives from Consumers Energy. 

Kentwood is “a community effort.” They are continuously looking for ways to save money for taxpayers and community funds while also reducing their carbon footprint. Their future plans include installing all new LED lights in 8 of their buildings. This project saved 75,846 kWh with a cost of $6,195, seeing an immediate benefit with cost and usage reduction. Driven by the City’s mission, vision and core values, their goal is to serve the needs of all who live, work and play there.

We were excited to celebrate the City of Kentwood’s accomplishments in energy efficiency at our annual Michigan Energy Summit on June 15, 2022 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were awarded in the Warehouse Category!