The Michigan Baseball Foundation (MBF) acquired a grant from the Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network in the amount of $33,679 for converting lights and occupancy sensors to LED lighting on the exterior and front entries of Dow Diamond.

MBF teamed up with The Dow Chemical Co. and Dow Corning Corp. in last October with the goal of enhancing sustainability practices across all aspects of the organization. The Loons announced a goal to reduce total energy use, water use and waste by 50% by 2020. The grant from Saginaw Bay WIN will assist the Great Lakes Loons and Dow Diamond in achieving those goals.

“We are grateful for the partnership with Saginaw Bay WIN on this project,” said Paul Barbeau, Loons president and general manager. “This gift will accelerate our conversion to LED lighting fixtures. We hope our ambitious efforts to conserve energy resources will inspire other businesses and households to consider ways that they also can conserve resources and reduce costs.”

The first phase of Dow Diamond’s LED light and occupancy sensor conversions was completed in April 2013. The areas that phase one included were a main hallway, kitchen hallway, suite level and the guest elevator at Dow Diamond. The first phase cost $6,800 and its anticipated kilowatt-hour savings per year is $15,303.

The second phase will replace the light bulbs and fixtures in six different areas of the ballpark. These six areas of the park have heavy traffic and are in use the most with high energy light bulbs. This project will impact the track lighting in the Loon Loft, both trophy cases on the main concourse, exterior lighting on the wall packs, front light posts, parking lots and facade lights. This phase of the project will save 44,538 kilowatt-hours and reduces energy use by 2.6 percent annually.

In total, the project is estimated to save 59,841 kilowatt-hours and should reduce energy use at Dow Diamond by 3.6 percent annually.

Several local and regional partners have collaborated with MBF on the sustainability projects, including Blasy Electric, Consumers Energy, Dow Corning, Dow Chemical, Chippewa Nature Center, J.E. Johnson, Midland Volunteers for Recycling, Saginaw Bay WIN and Three Rivers Corp.