MassMutual expands green initiatives on State Street

Date: 4/21/2010

April 21, 2010.

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- A new project at the 1295 State St. campus of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) is taking the insurance giant's 30-year commitment to sustainable business practices to a new level.

Already heavily vested in such green initiatives as recycling and energy conservation, the company is now adding an experiment in renewable energy technology to its arsenal.

Earlier this month, MassMutual began replacing a 40,000 square foot area of its building's 9.6 acre ballast-style stone roof with a white membrane material that is designed to reflect solar rays and reduce overall roof temperatures.

At the same time, the company has contracted with a local company to install 616 solar panels -- 528 photovoltaic and 88 thermal -- on the reroofed section.

MassMutual spokesperson Laura DeMars said when the project is complete, the panels are expected to generate 2 percent of the company's electric power and 50 percent its hot water.

"The roof was built in 1981 and still had a lot of life left in it, but we didn't want to put solar panels over a roof that would need to be reroofed in the near future," MassMutual Assistant Vice President and Director of Green Initiatives Sean Anderson said. "The new roof and solar panels will reach their useful life at the same time, in about 20 to 30 years."

According to material provided to Reminder Publications by MassMutual, the panels are expected to save the company "more than $100,000 a year [in energy costs] with an estimated payback of less than 10 years."

"It was something we looked into for a number of years," Anderson said, adding that MassMutual's business partners and project team did a thorough analysis before deciding to invest in this technology.

"Our goal is to lower our energy consumption and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are responsible for," he added. "This solar project will help us to evaluate the sustainability of solar technologies for our company and if it is deemed a successful endeavor, the company will consider expanding it to cover more of the 9.6 acres of roof currently available on our campus," DeMars said.

The project is expected to be completed by late summer.