Cope Employees Participate in Earth Day Fair @ Eaton’s Cooper Lighting

AMERICUS — Power management company Eaton recently hosted an Earth Day Fair at its electrical facility in Americus to educate employees about how to live more sustainably at work and at home. In celebration of World Environment Month, the inaugural Earth Day fair invited local businesses and organizations to the site to generate interest in education, awareness and action around environmental protection.

More than 200 Eaton employees attended the event to learn more about how to reduce their environmental footprint and be more active in the community. Representatives from local organic grocery stores, farmers markets and coffee shops as well as Georgia Power, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and Advanced Disposal all were on site to educate Eaton employees about how to reduce energy usage, recycle locally, support local agriculture and businesses and volunteer in the community. At the event, Cope Plastics presented the Americus facility with a Green Level Milestone award for diverting more than 50,000 pounds of industrial plastic from the local landfill.

“It was encouraging to see the staff so engaged and excited to learn how they can make a difference in the community” said Wes Funsch, plant manager. “The enthusiasm of our employees at the Earth Day fair demonstrates Eaton’s commitment to doing business right is a core value to everyone within the company.”

The fair inspired employees to express their commitment to sustainable practices by participating in an Eco-Living Challenge throughout the week. Employees carpooled, ate vegetarian for a day and used reusable water bottles. Equipped with the reusable grocery bag and coffee mug handed out at the fair, 10 employees completed the challenge. Collectively, they carpooled over 400 miles and avoided using 100 plastic bags, 102 plastic water bottles and 99 Styrofoam cups.

“A small group of people making small, incremental changes to the way they live can make a large impact on the world we live in,” said Matthew Nezbeth, a manufacturing engineer in Eaton’s Leadership Development Program. “The results of our week long Eco-Living Challenge are proof of that.”

The Americus facility is part of Eaton’s Cooper Lighting Division and has 300 employees. Employees at the plant manufacture a range of innovative and reliable lighting fixtures for indoor and outdoor applications. Eaton’s lighting business serves customers in the commercial, industrial, retail, institutional, residential, utility and other markets around the world.

Eaton’s electrical business is a global leader with expertise in power distribution and circuit protection; backup power protection; control and automation; lighting and security; structural solutions and wiring devices; solutions for harsh and hazardous environments; and engineering services. Eaton is positioned through its global solutions to answer today’s most critical electrical power management challenges.

Eaton is a power management company with 2014 sales of $22.6 billion. Eaton provides energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton has approximately 102,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com