Iron Mountain finds monumental savings with LED lights from Current 

Organizations across the globe count on Iron Mountain to protect what they value and unlock its potential, just as this records storage leader counts on Current, to unlock the potential of many of its facilities with LED lighting that is saving the company a significant collection of cash. 

 Farewell to Fluorescent 

Thousands of enterprises, including nearly all the FORTUNE 1000, already work with Iron Mountain to store and protect vital assets. With a global network of some 1,400 records warehouses and data repositories, this Boston-based information management specialist maintains more than 85 million square feet of space across 46 countries, which makes lighting a crucial consideration when it comes to the cost of doing business. 

By 2016, Iron Mountain was convinced of the energy-savings potential of LED fixtures but needed a partner that could accelerate its ambitions. Many of the company’s records storage centers were still lit by standard T5, T8, or T12 linear fluorescent lamps (LFL) that provided adequate illumination but did little to offset increasing utility bills, not to mention the tedious and frequent relamping that often comes with LFL fixtures. That’s when Iron Mountain turned to Current to tap into a new level of operational efficiency. 

 “Racking, fire suppression and lighting are the biggest spends Iron Mountain must consider, and they told us LED was already a home run—they just needed to round the bases faster.” 

–Gene Taylor, Strategic Account Director, Current.

Introducing LED 

After evaluating several storage locations, Taylor’s team proposed a commercial LED retrofit kit to Iron Mountain’s facility managers. Current showed how the Current Refit™ RLB Series fixture could provide high light uniformity and excellent energy efficiency at each site. With the illumination of more than 120 lumens per watt, the RLB Series offered Iron Mountain an improved outcome that allowed the recordkeeper to archive its old lights. 

 “On average, where they had a 40- or 50-watt fluorescent fixture, we took that down to just 12 watts by installing these LED retrofit kits,” said Taylor. “That allowed us to deliver 70 percent energy savings for our customer, and we followed that by putting the logistics in place to meet an aggressive deployment schedule.” 

Added Control for Extra Savings 

 At several Iron Mountain facilities, Current also installed occupancy sensors that automatically switch lights off after five minutes when no motion is detected, creating additional savings that add up quickly over months and multiple properties. In fact, many Current customers that use lighting controls today have experienced up to an additional 20 percent energy savings on top of the reductions already seen by switching to LED. 

Based on the demonstrated success of these and other LED installations, Iron Mountain’s facilities team succeeded in showing company management the positive financial impact energy-efficient lighting projects can make. The team was recently awarded four times its traditional budget allocation for buildings improvements in 2018, meaning Iron Mountain can roll out LED installations even faster, allowing for bigger and more immediate savings. 

 “There’s always effort on our part to really understand the customer’s environment, determine the best product for their specs, and be sure we can deliver based on their timetable; ultimately, we put together a package Iron Mountain felt great about,” Taylor added. 

Ideal for Industrial Spaces 

It takes a lot of space to store the world’s most important records, and more than a few lighting fixtures to illuminate all those seemingly endless aisles, but with Current by its side, Iron Mountain won’t be spending a small fortune on electricity anymore. And given that its new LED lights have a longer rated life than their fluorescent predecessors, Iron Mountain can be secure in the knowledge that maintenance costs are locked up for years to come. 

 Looking to make a positive impact on your storage center or warehouse’s bottom line?