By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
November 20, 2013

“It was a huge goal of ours to be as energy efficient as possible,” said Erick Jessee, president of Posty Cards, Inc. “We doubled our space here, and we’re only using five percent more energy. If you do the math on that, that’s huge. That allows us to keep more dollars for other things and to control our costs long-term.”

Posty Cards’ success and green initiatives attracted U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt to the facility, where he took a personal tour Nov. 8.

“What Posty Cards did was use the New Market Tax Credits that help to maintain and create jobs,” Blunt said.

Posty Cards, which designs and prints business greeting cards, expanded and remodeled its facility in 2011, and in 2012, it earned LEED Platinum certification, the highest distinction possible for being energy efficient.

“They were the first LEED Platinum manufacturing facility in Missouri, and one of the first seven in the country,” Blunt said.

Posty Cards planted rain gardens, began using rainwater reclamation for flushing toilets and irrigation, installed a retention basin for storm water management and installed low flow plumbing fixtures. Posty Cards also installed a variable refrigerant volume HVAC system, which is the highest energy efficient system other than geothermal, Jessee said. Due to the area’s geology, installing a geothermal system wasn’t possible, he said.

Also helping to save on energy costs are the solar panels on the roof, which produce just over 11 percent of the facility’s power. Posty Cards recently signed a contract to double the solar power generated on site. In addition, all of Posty Card’s products are recyclable and printed with soy ink.

Being energy efficient is vital, since one-third of the nation’s energy costs stems from manufacturing, Blunt said.

“Whatever you do to get that manufacturing cost down just makes you that much more competitive, that much more likely to create jobs here rather than see jobs go somewhere else,” Blunt said.

Blunt said he sees potential for manufacturing growth in the U.S. and that both he and U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller are sponsoring a bill to extend the New Market Tax Credit which expires this year. Both senators are proposing a multi-year extension which would help low income census districts either create or maintain jobs.

“The real key is what we do for private sector job creation; that should be the No. 1 domestic priority in the country today,” Blunt said. “And things like this business right here expanding in a way that creates more opportunity are the kinds of things that make that happen.”