Efficiency Can Be Affordable

Mitch Klinger has a piece of advice for corrugated box makers thinking of making efficiency upgrades. “If you’re going to do something, do it fast,” he says.

The CPA at M.S. Ackerman & Co. LLP, Fort Lee, N.J., addressed members of the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC) at its Annual Meeting last week in Atlanta. At an early morning session he told them to act sooner rather than later if they want to take advantage of federal tax incentives because many of them expire at the end of the year.

Dec. 31, 2008 is the expiration date for the following federal tax incentives:

•Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction: includes equipment insulation, water heaters, lighting, lighting controls and sensors, chillers, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, air conditioners, caulking and weather stripping, duct/air sealing, building insulation, windows, doors, siding, and roofs.

•Bonus Depreciation

•Business Energy Tax Credit: includes solar water hear, solar space heat, solar thermal electric, solar thermal process heat, photovoltaics, geothermal electric, fuel cells, solar hybrid lighting, direct use geothermal, and microturbines.

•Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit: includes landfill gas, wind, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal electric, municipal solid waste, refined coal, Indian coal, and small hydroelectric.

Klinger called bonus depreciation the best incentive available. In addition, there’s pending legislation that would extend some of these incentives.

For information on tax incentives on the local and state levels, Klinger directed box makers to the website www.dsireuse.org/index. The site allows you to search by state for things like income tax credits, grants, loan programs, local property tax exemptions, and rebate programs for renewable technology and energy. A glossary of terms can also be accessed on the site.

Sutherland Packaging, Inc., Andover, N.J., has taken advantage of state funds for efficiency improvements. The company replaced light fixtures on the production floor with high efficiency florescent fixtures, saving the company $2,500 a month in electricity, and received $13,000 in funding from the state that was used as a down payment on the project.

At the meeting Sutherland’s Sales and Marketing Director Mike Sutherland shared this and other efficiency improvements the company has made with AICC members.

For information on tax incentives on the local and state levels, Klinger directs box makers to the website www.dsireuse.org/index.OBM