Published: October 04, 2008 09:56 pm         

Company recognized for bright idea

Lighting changes at Ball Corporation help facility go ‘green.’

MONTICELLO — What started as an idea to improve lighting and save a little energy in the front office area of the plant turned into an effort that will help the Ball Corporation facility in Monticello save more than one million kilowatt hours of electricity each year.

The savings will come from the company’s initiative to go “green” by replacing 1,124 light fixtures in the Monticello plant. That effort was recognized last month with an award by Orion Energy Systems Inc.

“Since that electricity doesn’t have to be used, that energy doesn’t have to be generated,” said Linda Diedrich, director of corporate communications with Orion Energy Systems Inc.

Ball Corporation is an aluminum container manufacturer and it’s Monticello facility has been in production for the past 20 years. Orion Energy Systems, an energy management company based in Manitowoc, Wis., helped Ball Corporation complete the four-month conversion.

According to plant engineering manager Freddy Spencer, the Monticello facility began considering the lighting change in October 2007. Conversion of the facility’s light fixtures from high-intensity light to high-intensity fluorescent fixtures started in January and was completed by April.

“We started in the front office,” Spencer explained. “We were doing it as an energy-saving management.”

Though the plant initially intended to only convert the front office area, Ball Corporation made a corporate decision to fund the conversion of fixtures and bulbs throughout the entire factory.

The Monticello plant, located at 501 N. Sixth St., is the 13th Ball Corporation facility throughout the country to complete a lighting retrofit with Orion Energy Systems, said Diedrich. The combined effort among all 13 plants has reduced the company’s energy usage by 13,597,675 kilowatt hours per year.

“According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the savings resulted in a reduction of nearly 12,000 tons of harmful greenhouse gas emissions — the environmental equivalent of planting a 2,495 acre forest, removing 2,196 cars from the road, or saving 1,122,502 gallons of gasoline a year,” Diedrich added.

The Monticello facility alone will save 1,738,761 kilowatt-hours per year from the lighting change. Additionally, the new fixtures will reduce emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Although the conversion has resulted in a major energy reduction, plant workers have found the new system actually generates more light.

Spencer said the light was so intense workers had to change the layout of the fixtures as well.

“We have less lighting in the aisle areas and more in the task areas,” he said. “We have sensor lights in the warehouse, which really reduced a lot of energy.”

After the project was complete, the facility was recognized in September with the Orion Energy Systems Environmental Stewardship Award.

“In general, we are trying to do green things,” said Ball Corporation human resource manager Paula Thoennes. “This is one of many things.”

Orion Energy Systems first presented the award in 2002, and honors any project offering substantial environmental benefits, said Diedrich.

“We feel strongly about the energy crisis and doing what we can to solve it,” she said. “Whenever our customers take the time and resources to do something to benefit the environment, we all benefit. We think they should be recognized for that.”

Overall, the company is just happy to do its part to help out.

“It makes you feel good that you are accomplishing something for your environment and community,” said Thoennes.

Denise Massie can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or via e-mail at denise.massie@pharostribune.com