Sean O’Connor Lighting has been recognized as a leader in the development of sustainable lighting strategies, not only through minimizing energy usage but also through the integration of daylighting and other passive strategies to create projects which meet and exceed programs including LEED, Title 24, IECC, and ASHRAE 90.1.
One of these recognized projects is the LEED Platinum Sidwell Friends School, winner of the American Institute of Architect’s Committee on the Environment Honor Award for 2007.
Of particular importance to achieving these goals is the deployment of advanced control systems, minimizing environmental impact while maximizing economic payback for both interior and exterior spaces. These lighting and control solutions are able to be tuned specifically for a given task and be controlled for a range of occupancy levels within a space, enabling a project to remain flexible and responsive to the needs of its users.
Finally, it is the incorporation of passive technologies that are developed in close coordination not only within the lighting design team, but also among the project’s architects, interior designers, and mechanical engineers that have allowed projects such as Sidwell Friends School to achieve dramatic reductions in energy use. The coordinated design of shading, lighting controls, and daylighting measures for the project are the single most energy conserving designs deployed in the project, the first LEED Platinum K-12 school in the world.
