Hanesbrands’ sock manufacturing facility in San Juan Opico, El Salvador, opened in March 2009. This 450,000-square-foot facility has 1,000 employees who knit, bleach, dye, board, and pack millions of pairs of socks annually. The facility was designed with a variety of features to save energy, including:

• Skylights to maximize the use of natural light.
• Daylight harvesting, which is the use of digital photo sensors to detect daylight levels and automatically adjust the interior electric lighting to create a balance.
• LED technology for task lighting for work that requires a higher light level.

These lighting features alone will avoid nearly 4 million kilowatt-hours per year, saving approximately $380,000 per year.

The facility is one of the first LEED-certified apparel manufacturing facilities in the world.

Enerim, Ltd. performed the energy modeling for the project.