Commercial, Energy Efficiency, Commercial, Finance, Solar  -  October 5, 2016

C-PACE helps packaging company complete $2.5M energy efficiency, renewable energy project

 Curtis Packaging, a provider of luxury packaging for some of the world's biggest brands, is nearing completion of a $2.5 million project to improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable energy systems at its production headquarters in Sandy Hook, Conn.

The project is being financed through Connecticut Green Bank's Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy, or C-PACE, program, the green bank said in an Oct. 4 news release. The program allows commercial and industrial property owners access to affordable, long-term financing for green energy.

Curtis Packaging has financed a natural gas conversion project; new energy efficient HVAC and lighting systems; and a solar array capable of producing an average of nearly 950,000 kWh of electricity annually, according to the release.The project is being financed over a period of 16 years and is expected to produce energy cost savings of $4.5 million over the life of the project.

The packaging company, which supplies luxury packaging for brands such as Diageo, Elizabeth Arden and DKNY, says using green energy is very important to Curtis Packaging and its corporate customers, who benefit from the ability to market their products as having a reduced impact on the environment.

"Green companies want to work with other green companies," Curtis Packaging President and CEO Don Droppo Jr. said in a statement. "So this has opened up an entire new avenue of growth for us."

Droppo added:

Curtis is the first luxury packaging company to be 100% carbon neutral and the first to rely on 100% renewable energy. With the help of the C-PACE program, we were able to further our sustainability efforts and make these most recent upgrades, including getting rid of a 50-year-old oil burner with very little out of pocket investment. Everyone wins in this deal and we couldn’t have done it without the Connecticut Green Bank.

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