Continental’s St. Marys, Ohio, plant, its premier North American manufacturing facility for engineered products, recently received the Ambassador of Energy Efficiency award from Efficiency Smart, a Columbus-based company that assists companies with implementing energy-efficient products and services.

“We are proud to receive this award,” said Frank Smith, St. Marys’ plant engineering manager.  “We had a great experience working with Efficiency Smart for our energy-efficient lighting upgrades. Their technical staff proved a valuable resource in measuring our energy usage and verifying the amount of energy and financial savings.”

During the year, Continental partnered with Efficiency Smart to replace metal halide lights in its facility with high-performance T8s (HPT8s).  The company also installed LED wall-packs and LED flood lights. “Since we operate 24 hours a day, the new lighting fixtures were able to reduce the company’s electric costs significantly,” said Smith.  “As a result of the project, we expect to save 348,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annually and $341,500 over the lifetime of the installed products.”

The St. Marys plant is the 30^th recipient of the Ambassador of Energy Efficiency award since its inception in 2013.