Orion Energy Services: Packaging manufacturer earns environmental award for containing lighting power usage

For further Information contact:

Dave Cary, Communication Specialist

Orion Energy Services
1204 Pilgrim Rd.
Plymouth WI 53073
(920) 892-2935
dcary@oriones.com

Tim Fredman Jr., President
Fredman Bag Company
5801 Bender Ct.
Milwaukee WI 53218
(414) 462-9400
tfredmanjr@fredmanbag.com

Although cost reduction, rather than environmental considerations, was the driving factor in Fredman Bag’s recent lighting retrofit, the 90,857 kilowatt-hours (kWh) the company saved annually has qualified the firm for Orion’s Environmental Stewardship Award.

The environmental benefits come from the fact that power saved does not have to be generated at all – and this has definite and measurable environmental impacts.

According to US EPA formulas, a reduction the size of Fredman Bag’s 90,857 kWh means that some 89 tons of carbon dioxide, 24 tons of carbon, four-tenths tons of sulfur dioxide and two-tenths tons of nitrogen oxides – all pollutant by-products of electric power generation — will not enter the atmosphere each year.

Stated differently, the reduction is the air-scrubbing equivalent of a 17-acre forest or removing 15 cars permanently from the road. It is also the conservation equivalent of saving 7,501 gallons of gasoline each year.

“We appreciate receiving the award,” commented Tim Fredman Jr., company President. “although we saw environmental benefits as an indirect incidental to the energy savings involved. Saving energy is becoming a bigger issue – and the natural gas bills at higher rates haven’t even hit us yet.”

“The change to Orion came about because we had purchased a new building and were looking improve its energy efficiency,” Fredman continued. “I became aware of Orion lights through its advertising and looked into their alternatives. Orion was willing to install demonstration lights, hooked up with a meter. We let that run for a few months, analyzed the results and then decided to go ahead with the project.”

“Another major factor with Orion was their lights gave us more illumination per kWh. We also were drawn to the instant on-off capability, which means you can turn lights off more than we could with the metal halide lighting we had previously. We don’t have motion detectors (devices that turn lights off in unoccupied areas and back on when movement is detected), but I’m sure we’ll go to those in the future. “

“We also liked the fact that the light from the Orion fixtures is also much whiter — we happen to be a printer so it gives us a much better light to view our materials,” Fredman said.

“All things considered, I think it’s been a very good move.”

All told, Fredman Bag replaced 58 400-watt metal halide fixtures with the same number of Orion Illuminator ® T8 fluorescent fixtures. As a result, usage fell from 175,305 kWh per year to 84,448 kWh — a 52% saving of 90,857 kWh per year.

“Important as they are, the benefits of this project do not end with cost savings, positive environmental impact and a better quality of light,” commented Orion president Neal Verfuerth. “Taking 90,857 kWh off the power grid benefits our economy because it tends to lessen the upward pressure on electric power rates by decreasing the demand – and that is an issue we are all facing.”

“Best of all, Fredman Bag didn’t have to give anything up or ‘do without’ to achieve all this. I see nothing but benefits in their move in any direction I look. And that is the way we think things should work.”

Founded in 1889 as a dealer in used feedbags, Fredman Bag is a fifth-generation family owned business that employs about 75 and is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fredman Bag prints and converts flexible packaging materials, making products applicable throughout numerous industries (retail, institutional food, hardware and housewares, lawn & garden and more). The company also distributes a number of textile materials such as burlap, paper, woven polypropylene bags, jute matting and Typar. Fredman Bag has capabilities in flexographic, process and stochastic 8-color and 6-color printing on numerous substrates, including polypropylene and polyethylene. Visit the Fredman Bag website at http://www.fredmanbag.com/

Orion Energy Services, Plymouth WI, manufactures and markets energy efficient lighting solutions for the manufacturing, distribution center, warehousing, commercial, school, and gymnasium markets. Orion provides capacity displacement solutions for supply side management, transmission management, and demand side management for the electricity industry. Neal Verfuerth, Orion President, received one of Wisconsin’s most prestigious awards, the Ernst & Young 2004 Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year, and Orion has won numerous awards as a company. For more information, visit www.oriones.com.