EDF Climate Corps fellow | September 22, 2010
By: Nirupam Khanna, EDF Climate Corps fellow at Alcatel-Lucent, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Member of New Impact
The fact that you are reading this blog online is a testament to how my host company, Alcatel-Lucent, has impacted the way you and I behave on a daily basis. Little did I know, on the last day of my EDF Climate Corps training that I was on my way to becoming a champion of energy efficiency at a place so steeped in history.
With numerous inventions and Nobel Laureates, the Alcatel-Lucent (Bell Labs) headquarters in New Jersey houses a jaw-dropping, two million square-foot space lined with labs. To date, I had only seen such a place in sci-fi movies. The vast areas of office spaces with little nuggets of history everywhere represented a great challenge for me.
With large projects such as a cogeneration plant and solar plants already in the pipeline, the opportunity for uncovering low-hanging fruit was quickly ticked off my list, as most of them had already been implemented by the facilities team. Nonetheless, this 60-year-old building presented some unique opportunities.
After snooping around the building and seeking opinions from everyone I spoke to, I stumbled upon over-lit areas and no sensory monitors to shut lights off when they weren't being used. Talking to vendors and contractors, researching best practices and tapping into EDF's rich information-support system, I was able to find logical solutions for these issues.
After losing my way one too many times in this huge maze of a building, I resorted to asking directions from co-workers to get back to my cubicle. Though at first I was embarrassed, I realized many of the people giving me directions were just as unsure as I was about whether or not they were guiding me the right way.