Orion Energy Services: Handrail firm earns gets grip on lighting costs, earns environmental award as a result

For further Information contact:

Dave Cary, Communication Specialist
Orion Energy Services
(920) 892-5804
dcary@oriones.com

Rick Kettler
Chief Operating Officer
The Wagner Companies
Milwaukee WI
(414) 214 8335

A reduction of 234,577 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year in power consumption has earned for The Wagner Companies of Milwaukee WI — the firm on West Brown Deer Road with the sign featuring beautiful blue loops that are actually formed handrails — an Environmental Stewardship award from Orion Energy Services of Plymouth.

The reduction was the result of a lighting change in the Wagner facility from conventional outmoded metal halide lighting to state-of-the-art Orion T8 fluorescent technology. The 234,577 kWh saved has a beneficial effect on the environment because this power now no longer has to be generated at all.

According US Department of Energy formulas, the reduction means that, over the 20-year life span of the Orion lighting, some 4,574 tons of carbon dioxide, 1,247 tons of carbon, 19.9 tons of sulfur dioxide and 9.6 tons of nitrogen oxides will not go into the atmosphere. Stating the benefit another way, the power reduction is the equivalent of saving 19,365 gallons of gasoline per year, and is the equivalent of creating a 43-acre forest or removing 38 cars from the road.

“We’re very gratified to receive this award,” said Rick Kettler, Chief Operating Officer for Wagner. “Along the way, we’ve looked at doing a variety of things along environmental lines – for instance, we are now 100 percent on recycled water. I wouldn’t say we’re a ‘green’ company but we try to do what’s right.”

“This was a case where what was right also made a lot of sense economically to us.” The change has meant a saving of over $20,000 per year to the firm in power costs.

Wagner consolidated three locations into a single facility in 2002, Kettler said, after remodeling the site the year before, including brand-new metal halide lighting. “At that time, we didn’t know about the very energy-efficient lights that were available but we became concerned about the increases we were seeing in the utility rates.”

“As miserable as we felt in replacing lighting we had replaced only three years ago, the economics were compelling,” Kettler said. “And having since seen our utilities’ latest projections on what’s likely to be happening in utility rates, I think we were pretty wise in doing it.”

“It is not hard to see benefits in Wagner’s project,” said Orion president Neal Verfuerth, winner of the 2004 Wis Ernst & Young 2004 Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award. “Wagner saves substantially on power costs and the air is that much cleaner.”

“But there is still another benefit here,” Verfuerth continued. “Government data we use indicates that the business sector of our economy uses 70% of the electricity generated in the country — and that about one third of that goes for lighting.”

“In our own analysis,” he continued, “we find that if all businesses did as Wagner did — change to energy-efficient lighting — the total power saved in the country would be equal to the output of sixty typical power plants. That’s sixty we wouldn’t have to build, sixty we wouldn’t have to wire into and make room for on the power grid, sixty we wouldn’t have to provide fuel for.”

“And that’s just from lighting. This is why our company feels energy efficiency is vital to our future, and we congratulate Wagner on this achievement.”

The Wagner Companies manufacture custom architectural products, primarily involving handrails, and also stock standard products for metal fabricators. The company comprises three product divisions — R&B Wagner, JG Braun and Wagner Industrial – and is a complete source for custom and stock railing components, as well as glass railing, spiral stairways, bike racks and flag poles. Wagner has over 30 years of pipe, tubing and rail system bending experience; custom bending in steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and bronze is an everyday event. Founded as an ironworking shop in New York in 1850, the company moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1870, where it has been since. Wagner acquired the J.G. Braun Company in 1997. Visit Wagner’s website — and view their catalogs of surprisingly attractive products at http://www.rbwagner.com/

Located in Plymouth, WI, Orion Energy Systems has been innovating in the energy and lighting business since 1996. Orion’s innovative Illuminator ® fixture, an energy-efficient lighting platform for industrial applications, has been awarded a series of 14 patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, Orion has applied for numerous other patents related to metering and control technologies for lighting.

Orion provides capacity displacement solutions for supply side management, transmission management, and demand side management for the electricity industry. Visit the Orion website at http://www.oriones.com/.