Bloomsburg Carpet, located in the beautiful Susquehanna River Valley of central Pennsylvania, has, since its founding in 1976, prided itself on manufacturing the highest quality, American-made carpets. Like all small businesses, they seek to control expenses as best they can. One fixed but necessary expense in a manufacturing enterprise such as this is the thousands of light bulbs needed to illuminate their production area.

In their attempt to save money and make their factory more energy-efficient, they decided to install LED lights throughout their carpet-making factory. And through USDA’s Rural Development, they found a program to assist them in their endeavor, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Loans and Grants. The purpose of this program is to assist rural small businesses in developing renewable energy systems and in making energy efficiency improvements in their operations.

Bloomsburg Carpet was awarded a REAP grant of $7,223. The company invested $21,670 themselves and the project was able to make upgrades to approximately 3,500 lights throughout the plant which will result in an estimated annual savings of $20,656 as well as a reduction of 322,754 kilowatts of electricity.

Keeping their 191 employees working at good manufacturing jobs in this rural part of the state and the benefits that such an established forty-year-old company bring to their Pennsylvania community are the reasons such grants are given. Not only has a great company been made more energy-efficient but the cost savings of doing so will benefit them, their customers and their employees for many years to come.