On December 17,
URBN will take its sustainability practices to new heights with the installation of an alternative energy source at its home office in the Navy Yard. Called fuel cell technology, the new system is expected to cover 60 of URBN’s electrical usage, significantly reduce CO2 emissions and provide a return on investment within five years.
Fuel cell technology is not a new discovery—it has been around since the mid-1800s. But it wasn’t until recently that utilizing the technology made financial sense, thanks to the work of a California-based company,
Bloom Energy, specializing in on-site power generating systems using fuel cells. By leveraging breakthrough advances in science, Bloom Energy has made fuel cell technology affordable, reliable and clean.
"URBN has been researching alternative energy—wind, solar, fuel cells—for a long time, but until now we’ve never been able to make the financial component work," says Chief Development Officer Dave Ziel on the company's blog.
Ziel put together an alternative energy committee to research different sources of energy and their related financial burden. After looking at a number of options, the committee agreed that fuel cells were the way to go for the company’s home office. They began working with Bloom Energy to develop a system specific to URBN’s needs.
The committee attained a $1.2 million alternative energy grant from the State of Pennsylvania and a $400,000 custom incentive grant from PECO to offset the costs.
"The timing of this project was very fortuitous because there were incentives available," explains Pete Epstein, construction project manager with URBN and member of Ziel’s alternative energy committee. "The state was looking to support projects like this and PIDC [Philadelphia Industrial Development Coorporation], the stewards of the Navy Yard who had simultaneously launched green initiatives, were very interested in helping us apply for grants when they heard about what we were doing."
Construction on the project began in August 2011 and early construction is expected to be complete this week. If all goes according to plan, URBN will soon become one of the first east coast companies to use fuel cell technology, capping off their biggest green effort to date. Considering the company’s long held devotion to sustainability at their Navy Yard campus, that’s no small feat.
Source: Dave Ziel, Chief Development Officer, URBN; Pete Epstein, Construction Project Manager, URBN
Writer:
Greg Meckstroth