FERNLEY, Nev., Sep 9, 2008 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX News Network) -- The Amazon.com distribution center in Fernley, Nev., has been presented with the Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:OESX) Environmental Stewardship Award in recognition of Amazon's switch to more energy-efficient lighting. Orion presents the Environmental Stewardship Award to companies that achieve significant environmental benefits through the use of Orion products and systems. The distribution center is operated by Amazon.com nvdc, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon replaced 465-watt High-Intensity Discharge lighting, with 221-watt Orion High-Intensity Fluorescent fixtures. This change lowered lighting power usage by approximately 1.9 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year in the facility.

"The switch to the new lighting has benefited us on a number of levels," said Julie Stronberg, facilities manager for the Fernley site. "Not only are we saving a lot of energy, but the new lights have brightened the building making it easier for our associates to do their jobs."

According to accepted government formulas, Amazon's reduction of more than 1.9 million kWh means that over the 20-year life of the replacement fixtures, more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases will not enter the atmosphere.

Stated another way, the reduction is the air-scrubbing equivalent of a 347-acre forest or removing more than 300 cars from the road. It is also the conservation equivalent of saving 3.1 million gallons of gasoline or 74,000 barrels of fuel oil over the same period.

"We all benefit when companies and individuals use less power," said Orion president and CEO Neal Verfuerth. "Best of all, though, Amazon didn't have to sacrifice or do without to get better lighting at a lower operating cost. That's the way we like to see things work."

Orion has deployed its energy management systems in 3,762 facilities across North America. Since 2001, Orion technology has displaced more than 357 megawatts, saving customers more than $402 million and reducing indirect carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6 million tons.

About Orion Energy Systems, Inc.

Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:OESX) is a leading power technology enterprise that designs, manufactures and implements energy management systems, consisting primarily of high-performance, energy efficient lighting systems and controls and related services, for commercial and industrial customers without compromising their quantity or quality of light. For more information, visit http://www.oriones.com.

The Orion Energy Systems, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4540

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books, movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics & computers, home & garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes & jewelry, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, and tools, auto & industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), and Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.

As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, significant amount of indebtedness, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and subsequent filings.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: Orion Energy Systems, Inc.

Orion Energy Systems 
          Media Contact
          Linda Diedrich, Director - Corporate Communications
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          ljd@oes1.com
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