Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin has taken the lead among Berlin hospitals for its energy efficiency efforts.

The hospital — recently given a governor's award for environmental excellence — has been working with the statewide energy-saving program Efficiency Vermont for the past five years and has reduced total energy consumption by 26 percent.

Richard Morley, the hospital's vice president of support services, says that degree of energy efficiency improvement is unprecedented for a Berlin hospital.

A hospital-wide energy audit was followed by improvements to interior and exterior lighting; heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems; and computer and information technology systems.

The result has been a $440,000 annual savings in energy costs.

Truong Duy