To celebrate Acme Brick’s’s 118th birthday on April 17, the company gave 8800 compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to employees. Each employee received four 100-watt CFLs. Over its lifetime, every bulb will save employees about $90 compared to a standard light bulb. “If you include an estimate for the birthday bulbs’ impact on air conditioning requirements, our employees will save nearly one million dollars,” said Bill Seidel, senior vice president of Marketing.

The U. S. Government’s Energy Star Program estimates that if every American home replaced just one 60-watt light bulb with an Energy Star-qualified bulb, the country would save enough energy to light more than three million homes for a year while saving more than $600 million in annual energy costs and preventing greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

In addition to the Energy Star light bulbs, all employees received an enameled lapel pin that bears Acme’s motto: From the Earth, For the Earth. Both items are contained in a reusable shopping bag made of recycled materials.

“We felt that, in addition to the many energy-conserving things that we all do together as a company, it was our duty to take the green, energy-conservation message from the workplace into our employees’ homes,” said Dennis Knautz, president and chief executive officer.

The company’s website is located at www.brick.com.