Brazil Post’s bright idea set to reduce energy use by a quarter

Brazil Post proposed a simple but effective idea as part of a national programme to secure public procurement funding in the “Public Authority and Public Services Institutions” category – and won not only the financial support in the short term also but made energy efficiency gains that will continue to reduce the organisation’s operating costs for years to come.

Brazil Post replaced 8,000 incandescent light bulbs with 4,000 energy efficient LED lights in its letter and parcel mail processing facility in Belo Horizonte, the sixth largest city in Brazil. The success of this programme has led to further funding of approximately US$0.3m to replace traditional bulbs with LED lights across all the postal organisation’s facilities.

The switch to newer technology is expected to reduce energy consumption costs by as much as 27.5% compared to current levels. This reduction is expected to yield savings in excess of US$0.25m each year. The magnitude of the project is reflected by the estimated monthly saving of 99,000kWh which would be enough to supply electric power to an average of 621 households.