KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasCompany Goes Green, Saves Big

Company Goes Green, Saves Big

LAS VEGAS -- Governor Jim Gibbons is calling for a 20-percent energy reduction in government offices. Doing so will save the state millions of dollars a year.

One Las Vegas company has already made some energy-saving changes that could dramatically drop their energy costs by thousands.

Old lights were replaced with new LED bulbs. They're now all over the 400,000 square-foot Wirtz Beverage warehouse.

"Within the state of Nevada, we are the first LED implementation of this scope," said Gustave Backman with Wirtz. "This is a good business decision. And, on top of that, it's the right thing to do."

That's because these lights burn less energy. They're only 64 watts, compared to the old 400 watt bulbs.

"Just in our first week we had those up, it saved us 35,000 kilowatt hours of power," he said.

According to Backman, that's about $3,000 a week.

"They save a tremendous amount of energy. This particular case, they're saving 85-percent of the energy versus the old technology," said Bob Tretiak with International Energy Conservation of Nevada. "Plus, they don't generate heat. They run cool. They also have no mercury disposal problems the way fluorescents do."

Backman says this is just the beginning because going green is one of the company's main initiatives.

The old 400-watt bulbs only lasted about two years then they had to pay someone to replace them. The new LED lights last eight years.

So it saves this company money on replacement bulbs and the maintenance as well.