Sustainable Savings: GM Retrofits Facilities With TLED Technology

A few miles outside Detroit, Lake Orion, MI is home to the General Motors Orion Assembly plant, a 4.7 million square foot facility built in 1983.

The Orion facility has produced over 5 million vehicles over that period, and earned both the Clean Corporate Citizen designation and the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Award for 2016. The awards come from Orion’s Energy Optimization Leader, Edward Fish, who led the charge to retrofit the building’s dying fluorescent lighting with tubular LED (TLED) products.

After a thorough review process, Fish and his colleagues chose Starco Lighting in Buffalo, NY for the source of the replacement, and DES Electrical Services handled installation in both office and manufacturing spaces. The new Starco lamps produced higher lumen output and consistent performance until end-of-life compared to fluorescent and other traditional lighting solutions.

Fish says the Starco lighting has reduced energy consumption in office and manufacturing spaces by 40% and 54%, respectively. That newfound efficiency is expected to save the facility  $300,000 or more, and employees say their working environment is brighter, more productive and safer. Starco has since retrofitted 17 GM facilities in North America and contracts for more TLED lamps are on the way.