Beverages & more!, California's largest chain of wine, beer and spirit superstores, undertook a lighting upgrade at 90 retail locations to slash its total energy use by 51 percent and save $1 million a year, according to Environmental Leader.
BevMo! operates 100 superstores in Northern and Southern California and Arizona. BevMo! replaced thousands of 250-watt magnetic high intensity discharge (HID) fixtures with lower wattage electronic high intensity discharge (EHID) fixtures, allowing the company to reduce it lighting maintenance costs by nearly 50 percent, Environmental Leader said.
BevMo!’s lighting upgrade was made possible in part by $300,000 in utility rebates, the article said.
Lighting upgrades are among the first recommendations for reducing energy consumption and costs in buildings by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EnergyStar program and Environmental Leader. Many businesses are increasingly looking to lighting as a means to reduce operating costs and environmental impact. Government agencies are at the state and federal level are focusing on energy efficiency in buildings.
The private sector, likewise, is expanding services in sustainable property management. One private company, LED Saving Solutions is in the business of making energy efficiency possible and has forged production and financial partnerships that allow it to take on the initial cost of replacing conventional lighting, making the retrofit cash-flow positive for properties from the start.
Small and large businesses and universities are taking advantage of the savings and return on investment building retrofits have to offer. For example, large companies such as Dole, Walmart, Holiday Inn, New York Times, Arby’s, and SunGard have reduced costs by installing energy efficient lighting in their buildings.
