Green Solutions

For the past several years, adopting green and sustainable practices has become a common trend among large corporations. In recent years, small businesses have joined in opting for energy efficient utilities that would not only save costs, but reduce their carbon footprint. With the increasing amount of resources that have become available, facilitating small businesses who are interested in environmentally sound practices has become more attainable and affordable.

In 2004, we needed to replace the roof of our building. After researching our options, it became clear that we would choose the energy efficient route. We chose Carlisle Roofing – sure flex reflective, energy efficient, white PVC roofing system that was comprised of white membrane plastic roofing. The roofing was designed to reflect sunlight, which kept the building cooler in the summer, thereby reducing our building’s energy costs.

Unfortunately, in 2005 we had a destructive fire in one room of our production floor that had to be completely re-built. During the reconstruction, we continued retrofitting our facility with energy efficient solutions. Some of the upgrades that have been completed are:

Solar:

Solar Panels:

We currently have 181 Sharp 236 Watt Panels by Dynamic Solar LLC and a Fronius USA Grid Connected PV Inverter.  The solar power electrical inverters connect the solar energy to a building’s electrical supply and the utility grid.

Light and Heat:

Windows

Shortly after installing the Carlisle Reflective roofing system we replaced every window in the facility with Alderfer low emissivity sunlight reflective windows. Each window has a thin, translucent, metallic oxide layer that helps control radiant heat.

Boiler

Our boiler is an American-made, 400,000 btuh Hydro Therm KN-4 series. Due to its extremely low CO2 and NOx emissions, it qualifies for the South Coast Air Quality Management Divisions (SCAQMD) Rule 1146.2 standards and is known for how well it optimizes its propane usage.

Lighting

As of February 2012, we completed replacing all of our lights with Cree CR-Series lights. These light-emitting diode (LED) lights produce nearly no light in the Ultraviolet (UV) or Infrared (IR) spectrum and are designed to last as long as 50,000 hours.

Other:

Sustainable Waste Solutions (SWS) – Landfill-Free

SWS converts our waste into either renewable fuel or energy through a Energy-from-Waste (EfW) process. Through single stream recycling, they collect all our paper fibers, plastics, metals, and other containers combine them in a specialized processing truck where they are broken down and converted to energy that lights thousands of homes.

Cardboard Perforation

We take all of our incoming cardboard shipment boxes and put it through a perforator and use it as packing material for our outgoing shipment boxes.

 

For more information on the companies that we used visit their websites:

Carlisle Roofing – http://www.carlislesyntec.com/

Dynamic Solar – (website not found – Phone: (484) 323-1152)

Fronius International – http://www.fronius.com/

Alderfer Windows – http://www.alderferglass.com/

Cree Led Lighting – http://www.cree.com/