Cigna is a leading health service company whose environmental sustainability mission is grounded in the important connection between the health of the planet and the health of people. As part of the Cigna Connects Corporate Responsibility platform, Cigna takes a careful approach to identifying areas where it can improve efficiencies and reduce its operational energy use emissions and costs. Cigna's global real estate team manages a portfolio of approximately 7.65 million square feet of owned and leased properties worldwide.

An important piece of Cigna’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) vision is to effectively manage all these properties so that they are both meeting the needs of employees and serving the environment by operating sustainably, as they work towards becoming carbon neutral across their portfolio by 2040. One of these properties – the Wilde building in Bloomfield, Connecticut – offers a strong example of how Cigna is putting that vision into practice.

Strategy

Following significant investments made between 2019 and 2021 – including a major renovation of its headquarters in Bloomfield – Cigna was eager to explore additional opportunities to ensure effective energy management and identify new opportunities to meet its corporate ESG goals.

In partnership with Eversource, Cigna participated in the Sustainable Office Design (SOD) program and received expertise and incentives to help implement thoughtful, integrated efficiency improvements at the Wilde building – a three-story steel frame and glass office which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Cigna also partnered with CBRE – their commercial real estate partner – to create a robust strategy focused on enhancing energy efficiency at the Wilde building. This approach involved comprehensive assessments to identify key opportunities for operational improvements and carbon footprint reduction, as well as energy efficiency upgrades including new lighting and controls, extensive HVAC improvements, a new, insulated roof, and reconfiguring the Uninterrupted Power Supply System to handle the power demands of the building.

With a new building management system in place, the Cigna facilities team now has total visibility of all components within the building and how they operate. As more employees began returning to work in the Wilde building post-pandemic – bringing occupancy back up to approximately 80 percent – they began to see the overall energy consumption at the building increase, and knew that they needed a plan to continue operating efficiently.

In 2023 Cigna returned to the Eversource team and together began the process of implementing Strategic Energy Management (SEM) at their Bloomfield campus. 

Results

Through this partnership with Eversource , CBRE and Cascade, Cigna has continued meeting their ESG objectives at the Bloomfield campus, even with increased building operations activity. With a strong SEM approach in place, Cigna will enjoy continuous achievement towards their energy reduction goals – both from their improved building systems and from employees learning and changing their behaviors.

The efforts at the Wilde building have been so successful that the facilities team now has plans to replicate the process at other Cigna locations. Site audits will begin across their portfolio, followed by engagement, collaboration and training with the facilities management teams to elevate SEM best practices. Leveraging internal systems for data reporting and tracking will also be key to ensuring that each site is prioritizing their focus and investment in the right areas. The energy use in each location will vary depending on the building’s size, the number of employees and the specific energy efficiency measures in place.

The work at the Wilde building is an example of what can be achieved when multiple partners – Cigna, Eversource, CBRE, and Cascade - come together. Energy-efficient technology and improvements garner the best results when paired with a data informed strategy to manage them effectively. For Cigna, this one building is just the start of proving the success of a global strategy for sustainable operations.