SmartWatt Energy Inc completed LED lighting retrofits at Americold’s cold storage facilities in Rochelle IL and Victorville CA recently. The Rochelle project produced higher-quality light and reduced overall energy consumption by 78%, while the Victorville project cut overall energy consumption by 88%.
Given SmartWatt Energy’s emphasis on preservation of the environment, Americold selected SmartWatt Energy as a partner in reducing energy consumption. After performing value-engineered energy audits at eight Americold facilities, SmartWatt Energy will drastically reduce Americold’s energy usage through LED lighting retrofits, which in turn yield cost savings for the company.
“We are very happy with the quality and speed of the SmartWatt Energy team,” said Fred Walker, Americold’s vice-president of engineering. “This is another example of how Americold’s sustainability program is having a positive impact on the environment.”
“From our inception, SmartWatt Energy’s goal has been to design energy-efficiency solutions that meet our customer’s needs. We’re not content to propose projects that simply save energy—we work to save energy, money, and the environment,” said Chris Covell, president of SmartWatt. “Partnering with Americold on this national accounts project has been a great opportunity, and we look forward to becoming their long-term energy-efficiency partner.”
The Rochelle and Victorville energy savings projects have reduced greenhouse emissions and will have the same effect on the environment as planting 258 acres of trees. Americold partnered with SmartWatt’s Chicago IL office for the Rochelle project and SmartWatt’s Roseville CA office for the Victorville project. SmartWatt teams will be upgrading six more Americold facilities, all set for completion by June 2011.
Based in Atlanta GA, Americold offers temperature-controlled warehousing, transportation, and logistics systems. The firm owns and operates more than 182 temperature-controlled warehouses in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, China, Argentina, and Canada with a total capacity of 1.1 billion-plus cubic feet of storage.
