Saving Green by Going Green

Sometimes you can save a little green by going green. If you have been in our Factory Store in Dalton, OH in the last couple of weeks you may have noticed a steady crew working their way through the store changing out light bulbs. We are doing more than just answering the question, how many Mennonites does it take to change a light bulb? Like nearly every business across the country, P. Graham Dunn has spent considerable resources identifying and correcting wasteful and inefficient ways in which the company operates. A big part of our business is the use of computer controlled CNC routers. It requires a good deal of electricity to run these machines. After a careful review of our energy use we found that our retail store track lighting was drawing a lot of that electrical usage. Now I'm no electrician, but I do know basic math. While the cost to change out all the lights in our store (about 600 in total) was rather significant, we found that the return on investment would come in after merely 1.5 months of use! The compact fluorescent lights have to warm up a bit before reaching the full intensity, but there was no loss in light. They do have a slightly different color compared to the halogen bulbs, but we're pretty sure it actually looks better. We are almost done changing out the remaining bulbs and we invite you by to see for yourself. It feels good to save energy, but it feels even better when it can have a positive impact on your finances as well. If you haven't looked into compact fluorescent lights for your home, there are plenty of resources on the web to help you compare energy costs.