Brisa: Reducing GHG emissions
In 2009, half of the electricity consumption of Brisa Group resulted from highway illumination. Brisa saw this as a big opportunity for reducing GHG emissions and cutting energy costs so launched a test using electrical ballasts to limit the current in the lamps, significantly increasing their life-time and allowing remote control.
The technology has been extended to the whole network through an ongoing eight-year project, thanks to an investment of 1,023,000 € with a payback of 3-4 years. Brisa’ s approach was qualitative and quantitative and aimed at adding value to business and society.
- No, but aligns with the Protocol’s framework
- Climate & Air Emissions
- Energy
- Materials & Resources
- Corporate
- Monetary
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
- Value to business
- Value to society
- Direct operations
- Transport and Logistics
Key findings
The most significant result of this project is a 40% reduction in GHG emissions. This allowed Brisa to contribute to mitigating the risk related to climate change. More efficient illumination also leads to less failures in the system and consequently increased security in the network. Eventually it results in a reduction of the number of accidents and a better service for Brisa’s clients.
Compared to the gains in efficiencies, the cost of this project is low. Whereas some projects need to completely replace obsolete infrastructure by building a costly new one, here, Brisa made use of an available technology that led to a huge gain in efficiency. The lifetime of the lamps doubled, significantly reducing maintenance costs. Remote control allowed big progress in cutting energy loss. Brisa also concluded that an efficient energy management program could lead to relevant savings in costs related to energy consumption.