Orion Energy Systems: Orion Receives 2004 Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air Award

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Steve Heins, Orion Energy Systems, 920-892-9340, ext. 226

DNR Secretary Hassett Helps Honor “Exemplary Efforts to Protect Air Quality”

Plymouth, WI. The Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air named Orion Energy Systems as one of three winners of the 2004 Clean Air Award. Other winners were the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Madison Environmental Group. According to DNR Regional Director Lloyd McCutcheon, “These awards provide an opportunity for businesses to share information on successful efforts, receive public recognition and attract customer attention.”

All told, Orion’s customers were able to save over 450,000,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) this last year. Using EPA formulas for energy savings, this means that the annual environmental impact is the equivalent of removing 337,500 tons of carbon dioxide, 92,037 tons of carbon, 1,240 tons of sulfur dioxide, 2,877 tons of nitrous oxide, and 52 pounds of mercury from the atmosphere. This amount of energy savings is the same as planting 82,569 acres of trees or saving 40.9 million gallons of gas.

Orion Energy Systems received the Clean Air Recognition Award “for their extraordinary outreach to help businesses reduce emissions and operating costs through their energy efficient lighting fixtures that deliver almost twice the light of a standard commercial light while using less than half the electricity. These savings mean a reduction of emissions from electrical generation and financial savings to the company installing the lights.”

As an emerging Wisconsin company, Orion Energy Systems has received the prestigious Spirit of Ecology Award at the 32nd Annual Governor’s New Product Award Program for the Illuminator. Orion has received the Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Grand Award winner for the Emerging Growth category by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Business Friend of the Environment Award. Recently, Orion’s Neal Verfuerth received the prestigious Ernst & Young’s Wisconsin Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

“Orion Energy Systems has been providing energy efficient products to many of Wisconsin’s best companies, including Quad/Graphics, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Charter Steel, Trane, Kohler and Regal Ware for some time now, so it is a distinct honor to receive official recognition from the DNR and Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air,” stated Neal Vercfuerth, President of Orion Energy Systems. “Secretary Hassett is exactly right when he says all of Wisconsin must ‘protect air quality in general and reduce emissions contributing to elevated levels in the non-attainment area’ located in southeastern Wisconsin. Energy efficiency is the quickest, cleanest, cheapest way to do just that.”

About Orion

Orion Energy Systems has been innovating in the energy business since 1996. The company recently won the Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Grand Award in the Emerging Growth category, given by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Association, the Wisconsin Business Friend of the Environment Award, was chosen as a “Success Story” for the 2002 Governor’s Summit on Capital, and owns numerous patents.

Orion is an energy systems company, which manufactures and markets energy efficient lighting solutions for the manufacturing, distribution center, warehousing, commercial, school, and gymnasium market. Orion provides capacity displacement solutions for supply side management, transmission management, and demand side management for the electricity industry. For more information, visit the web site at www.oriones.com.