In the past year we participated in the Ohio Development Services Agency, State Energy Efficiency Program for Manufacturers (EEPM). The program started with an energy audit to assess our current energy usage, identify areas for potential energy savings and a management plan for handling the implementation of energy saving projects. As a result, we invested in 60 motion sensor LED lighting fixtures for the northernmost part of our building, plus 20 exterior lights. That change alone reduced our wattage usage by 42,498 watts. Several other custom-engineering projects to reduce energy usage in our manufacturing processes are also underway as a result of the energy audit.
Our manufacturing process does produce plastic scrap from edge trim. It is our goal to ensure that scrap doesn’t end up in the landfill, which means researching and vetting vendors that have an outlet to reuse or recycle our scrap.
Finally, we have partnered with a firm in Monterrey, Mexico to develop cost-effective skylights for commercial and industrial buildings. These skylights are able to illuminate our test building in Mexico with zero electricity from approximately one hour past sunrise to one hour before sunset. Making the skylights more cost-effectively will be the key to making it affordable to implement them broadly, thereby greatly reducing energy use by our customers who purchase these skylights.