Almo Corporation’s Philadelphia warehousing facility now runs entirely on solar power.
By Alan Wolf, YSN
In separate efforts to boost their sustainable business models and reduce their carbon footprints, BrandSource distribution partner Almo Corporation and major bedding vendor Tempur Sealy International have made significant investments in harvesting the power of the sun.
For 70-year-old Almo, that meant flipping the switch on its 430,000-square-foot warehousing facility in Philadelphia, which is now running entirely on clean, sustainable solar power. The appliance, consumer tech, home goods and pro A/V distributor installed 3,200 solar panels on the building’s rooftop, which will generate enough electricity in one year to offset 100,000 gallons of gasoline, 900,000 pounds of coal or 2,100 barrels of oil.
What’s more, observed Executive Vice President Ed Gibbons, the panels will pay for themselves in less than five years thanks to the savings in energy costs.
“Almo Corporation is committed to responsible environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices,” Gibbons said. And, as an added bonus, “We have been pleasantly surprised to find that by offsetting the need to purchase electricity from the utility company, these solar panels will have contributed enough savings to pay for themselves in less than five years.” Given the expected 30-year lifespan of the system, that leaves an estimated 25 years of free electricity for Almo, he said.
Meanwhile, Tempur Sealy has announced plans to invest in solar power technology for its largest mattress manufacturing operation, located in Albuquerque, N.M. Once completed by year’s end, the project will provide a renewable source of electric power sufficient to run all of the facilities’ mattress assembly lines, and reducing the annual power consumption purchased from the public utility by about 2 million kilowatt hours.
Tempur Sealy is no newcomer to environmental awareness. Its manufacturing plant in Duffield, Va., has achieved the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Energy Star Challenge for Industry by reducing its energy intensity by nearly 40 percent within four years. By doing so, the Duffield facility has reduced its greenhouse emissions by over 3,800 tons a year and has saved enough energy to power over 500 homes.
“These renewable energy projects are exciting additions to our other environmental initiatives here at Tempur Sealy,” said Tempur Sealy Chairman/CEO Scott Thompson. “This reduction in our carbon footprint from the solar energy initiative alone equates to powering all mattress assembly lines at our largest facility, and at the same time, allows us to improve the cost effectiveness of our operations.”
BrandSource is a unit of YSN publisher AVB Inc.
