Maybe it's because we enjoy breaks and picnic lunches in the park-like area surrounding our headquarters in Temecula, California.

Maybe it's because some of Opto 22's best customers and integrators focus on conserving energy and finding solutions to environmental problems.

Or maybe it's because our own employees set an example by recycling and bicycling to work.

Whatever the reason, Opto 22 as a company is aware of our impact on the environment and our responsibility to lessen that impact through conservation, recycling, and sustainability.

Over the years we've changed to recyclable packaging for our products, increased our own recycling of materials in our factory, replaced grass with drought-tolerant landscaping, and worked to reduce energy use in our factory and headquarters.
 

Using Our Own Products for Energy Management

Summers in Temecula are hot, and during the day the temperature can exceed 100 deg. F (38 deg. C). Back in June 2006, we decided to combat another scorching summer with some major changes designed to reduce our energy consumption while still staying cool.

Our local electricity provider already uses some renewable resources—such as geothermal and wind—to produce the electricity we use. Using our own control and monitoring products, we made irrigation and HVAC systems more efficient, maximized the use of natural sunlight for lighting, and minimized heat absorption through roof and windows.

Over the following 12 months, we reduced overall power consumption by nearly 30%.

In 2010 we developed OptoEMU Sensors as easy-to-use appliances for monitoring energy usage. We currently track facility energy use with these industrial-grade all-in-one units. 
 

Green Power for Our Customers

We're also delighted to help Opto 22 customers focus on using alternative energy and reducing their energy consumption. Here are a few:

  • Arizona Facility Services—In the Arizona Facilities Services video case study you'll learn how a 30-year-old data center in the desert realized substantial gains in energy efficiency.
  • SCADA Solutions—Watch the SCADA Solutions video case study and see how Internet of Things technology helps wind turbine owners maximize profits.
  • New Belgium Brewery—Watch the New Belgium Brewery video case study. Engineer Igor Valuyev explains how NBB produces great "green" beer.
  • Verizon Communications—Read the Verizon Case Study, which describes cogeneration system monitoring and energy management.
  • Sotavento Power Plant in Galicia, Spain—Read the Sotavento Case Study. The plant uses wind power, supplemented by hydrogen, to produce electricity.
  • Mariah Meat Packing—Read the Mariah Meat Packing Case Study. Rising utility costs were threatening the plant's very existence, until a Holmes Energy monitoring system found longstanding problems that were costing Mariah hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Thomson/RCA—Read the Thomson/RCA Case Study. This multnational company acquired accurate, detailed energy costs to bill individual departments and lessees at their 80+ acre facility in Indiana.
  • SUPERVALU—Read the SUPERVALU Case Study. The large grocer saved well over $100,000 per year at a large refrigerated distribution center, through an automated demand-response energy program developed by system integrator Advanced Energy Control (AEC) and energy curtailment service provider NetPeak Energy Group.

Thanks for Helping Opto 22 Go Green

Nowadays almost all our customers have Internet access, and documentation on our website is always the latest available. Years ago we shipped paper documentation with products, but not anymore. Now you don't have to keep track of paper documents or give them storage space. You can access them online at any time and from any location.

And if you need a printed version, just email your request to forms@opto22.com. We'll send it out to you right away.