Agenda - Council Work Session - 12/08/2009

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J ; \ . Vision-Ease Lens Sustain ability Initiatives Vision-Ease Lens (VEL) used to ship lenses cross-country twice before being shipped to the customer. By re-shifting the manufacturing process, VEL ships directly to the customer, eliminating two extra shipments and producing the following benefits: . Saving 12,872 gallons of gas in 2006 by producing LifeRxTM in one facility . Saving 113 metric tons of C02 emissions, which is equivalent to: o C02 emissions from 20.8 passenger vehicles for one year o C02 emissions from the electricity for 15 homes for one year o Carbon sequestered by 2,908 tree seedlings over ten years By replacing all lighting in the Ramsey facility with energy efficient fluorescent lighting, VEL is saving 799.2 metric tons of C02 emissions. The power usage at Ramsey over the last 12 months totaled 17,571,150 kilowatt hours. By contracting for renewable energy to power the Ramsey plant, VEL will eliminate 15,759 metric tons of C02 emissions per year. These savings are equivalent to: · C02 emissions from 1,788,767 gallons of gasoline · C02 emissions from the electricity for 2,087 homes for one year · Carbon sequestered by 404,078 tree seedlings over ten years Each pair oflenses produced at Ramsey using renewable energy eliminates 10.5 pounds of C02 emissions. With renewable energy, the production of VEL lenses delivers the following comparable C02 reductions: · Each pair of lenses is equivalent to the carbon sequestered by one tree seedling for one year · Two pair of lenses avoids the carbon release of one gallon of gasoline consumed · 100 pair of lenses is equal to the carbon release of one barrel of oil · 1,000 pair of lenses is equivalent to the reduction of one passenger vehicle for ten months · 10,000 pair of lenses equals the reduction of carbon release of the electricity to power six homes for one year * Calculations were made using the carbon calculator on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.