Skyline Launches Massive Lighting Retrofit Across Canada

Skyline Launches Massive Lighting Retrofit Across Apartment Portfolio

Over 300,000 bulbs to be replaced with high-efficiency LEDs

For Skyline, the name of the game for 2017 is “out with the old, in with the new.” We’re proud to have a reputation for environmental excellence in the Canadian apartment rental industry, and we’re honoured to have been awarded for our efforts.  However, the work doesn’t stop there. We’ve launched an exciting project that will make our apartment buildings across Canada even greener.

Through the new Skyline “Illumination Project,” we will be replacing all interior light bulbs across our apartment portfolio with high-efficiency LED bulbs. In total, Skyline will be replacing more than 300,000 bulbs in 16,000 apartment suites, including more than 3,600 suites in which the residents pay for their own hydro (saving these residents money on their own hydro bills), as well as all common areas, hallways and service rooms.

“We have been improving the portfolio efficiencies of our apartment properties for more than 11 years, through our Skyline Portfolio Efficiency Plan,” said Roy Jason Ashdown, Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer of the Skyline Group of Companies.

“LED bulbs come with a number of benefits when compared to CFL and incandescent bulbs. They last 20 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and use 85% less energy. Plus – they contain zero mercury. This is a powerful way for us to drastically improve the ‘green factor’ in our buildings. We owe it to our residents to take advantage of the latest technology, so they can be proud to rent from a landlord that cares about the environment.”

Notices about the Illumination Project are being posted in Skyline’s apartment buildings across the country.

The project is already underway in several regions across Canada, and is scheduled to be completed by autumn 2017.

With all of the new LED bulbs installed, Skyline will be cutting the hydro consumption (through lighting) of its residential buildings (currently totalling 176 properties in 46 cities in 4 provinces across Canada) by over 50%. All old CFL and incandescent bulbs will be properly recycled, saving landfills from mercury pollution.

Each family within Skyline’s apartment buildings (more than 30,000 families across Canada) will also receive a box of LEDs for them to use in their personal lamps and fixtures.

“This project is about so much more than saving money,” Ashdown says. “The main point of the Illumination Project is that through this new technology—and the hard work of our on-site field staff to install these bulbs—we’ve come up with an effortless way for our residents to be greener. Just by using these LED bulbs in their lights, collectively we are saving massive amounts of energy. When a product this efficient is available, it only makes sense to offer it to your residents. We want them to be a part of the difference we’re making for the environment.”