Under Armour knows a thing or two about performance. Founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank, the Baltimore-based company specializes in sports apparel engineered to enhance athletes’ comfort and performance.
Under Armour applies that same discipline to operating its own facilities. With the help of the BGE Smart Energy Savers Program®, the company recently completed lighting upgrades in two distribution houses, a move that both enhances Under Armour’s energy efficiency and improves the working environment for its employees.
Under Armour operates two 300,000-plus-squarefoot distribution houses in southeast Baltimore, where “teammates” perform order fulfillment for distribution to customers. The company’s “UA Green” initiative challenges teammates to build and deliver the world’s greatest performance gear with minimal environmental impact—without sacrificing performance.
When it comes to facility operations, supporting this mission means looking at ways to use resources—and energy—more efficiently. Working with BGE, Under Armour tried out half a dozen fixtures before settling on energy-efficient T5 technology. “Obviously, we didn’t want to select a fixture that wouldn’t qualify for the incentives, so BGE guided us through the process,” Giordano says. Under Armour ended up installing 373 4-lamp high-bay T5s and 72 2-lamp high-bay T5s in one facility’s processing and storage areas. At its second facility, the company put in 432 fixture-mounted occupancy sensors to provide greater control over the operation of the existing high-efficiency T5 lighting fixtures.
BGE incentives saved Under Armour nearly 50% of the total retrofit cost. Giordano cites a variety of benefits associated with Under Armour’s lighting retrofits. First, the projects readily aligned with the company’s UA Green corporate mission, reducing energy consumption while improving lighting quality and the working environment. Second, the projects’ 28% reduction in kilowatt-hour (kWh) use per year will generate ongoing energy savings for years to come.
