How 10 Manufacturers Took Best-in-state Environmental Trophies

Mannington Mills installed 3.3 acres of solar panels—3,900 units—on seven rooftops at its Salem, N.J. facility.

Sustainable manufacturers are winning impressive environmental awards at the state level for cutting waste, reducing water and energy consumption, lowering emissions, and improving environmental performance.

Although the companies exhibit environmental stewardship in most areas, most excel in one—often of regional significance, such as bioenergy from corn in Iowa, and water conservation measures in Texas. Generally, the state environmental trophies are presented by the states’ Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA) for exceeding regulatory compliance obligations with their own environmental stewardship endeavors. Other awards are given by the states’ own environmental offices, recognizing outstanding achievements by individuals, businesses, organizations, educational institutions, and agencies for outstanding contributions to protecting the natural resources and environs in their states and communities.

1. Ohio: Crown Equipment (Waste Management) The Ohio EPA recognized Crown Equipment Corp., New Bremen, for setting the highest standard of environmental stewardship, especially for achieving zero waste to landfill in three of its plants. The material handling equipment manufacturer received the agency’s first gold level Encouraging Environmental Excellence (E3) Award in April for its achievements in 2013. In 2008, Crown Equipment won a Governor’s award for environmental excellence for its zero-waste-to-landfill achievement. ________________________________________________________________________

Crown’s efforts to minimize waste saves disposal costs while diverting waste from landfills. The company also made energy efficiency improvements throughout its operations, including reducing compressed air use, upgrading its lighting, and simply turning off equipment when not in use. Read Crown Equipment’s story, “Environmental management system formalizes zero landfill achievement.” ________________________________________________________________________

2. Iowa: DuPont Pioneer (Renewable Energy—Biomass) Phil Alden Robinson chose the right state to site his “Field of Dreams” film. It’s unusual to venture into the state without encountering rows and rows of the green stalky plant, and corn mazes are plentiful this time of year. Iowa produces the largest corn crop of any state; the U.S. is the world’s largest corn producer.

Seed products manufacturer DuPont Pioneer won Iowa’s 2014 Environmental Excellence Award from Gov. Terry Branstad in July. In 2013, the company’s Johnston plant installed a 3.0 million BTU biomass corn boiler to offset costs for transportation, landfill disposal fees, and electricity. The renewable fuel for the systems comes from corn seed that cannot be allowed into a food or feed stream. The $1.1 million investment will save the company $160,000 per year and reduce carbon emissions by nearly 1,400 tons annually.

The campus also harvests rainwater in a 100,000 gallon cistern made from 100 percent recycled plastic and manufactured in nearby Webster City. The 3.3 million gallons of water captured will meet up to 90 percent of the facility’s irrigation needs in its greenhouses, saving $32,000 per year.

DuPont Pioneer says it is committed to environmental sustainability with goals of lowering emissions by at least 10 percent, generating zero waste, decreasing water usage by at least 10 percent and ensuring that 100 percent of off-site fleet cars use the leading technologies for fuel efficiency and fossil fuel alternatives by 2015.

3. Illinois: J.L. Clark (Materials Management) Chances are, you have something in your cupboard or office that is made by J.L. Clark. This mid-sized packaging design and manufacturing company, based in Rockford, makes product containers and casing for household brands such as Burt’s Bees, Energizer, Hershey, and McCormick Co. J.L. Clark received its second Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award in 2013 for its waste reduction, materials management, and energy reduction initiatives.

The packaging maker’s eco-minded clientele, such as Burt’s Bees and McCormick, look to J.L. Clark to bolster their sustainability initiatives. Its green team was formed to support the company’s eco-friendly packaging design as well as its operations. In 2012 the manufacturer reduced its waste by 8,145 pounds, recycled 1,365 tons of material, and reduced its energy consumption by 1,297 megawatt-hour (MWh). The company makes its containers to be recyclable, and that minimize environmental impact with material reduction strategies.

Some of the strategies the company used to reduce material usage and waste include using thin-wall injection molding technology, an extensive internal waste characterization effort, and plastic scrap regrind and reuse.

Methods to reduce energy were improving compressed air efficiency, designing an efficient floor layout that eliminated the need for two sets of chillers and cooling towers, rail shipping, and a regenerative thermal oxidizer. Its energy savings and waste reduction initiatives realized annualized financial savings of more than $335,000. The award is administered by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.

4. Texas: Raytheon (Water, Energy Reductions) Texas’ drought conditions have been well publicized, but the oil-rich state is not reputed to have an energy drought. Yet industrial companies with cooling needs are likely to consume massive units of electricity to maintain temperature control. The subsequent cost can be quite large. As the saying goes, everything’s big in Texas.

The McKinney Raytheon Co. plant was recognized with a 2014 Texas Environmental Excellence Award in the technical/technology category for its electricity, water, and emissions reductions. Presented annually by the Governor of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Commissioners, the awards are intended to honor the state’s most outstanding waste reduction and pollution prevention projects.

For the defense and aerospace industry manufacturer, thermal testing of its products across a range of temperatures is critical to ensuring their proper performance in the field. However, at the company’s McKinney site, the 50 environmental test chambers used to perform these tasks were also one of the largest consumers of electricity.

Typically a chamber uses two 30-HP compressors to cool the system very rapidly. Once the desired temperature is reached, however, the system continued to run at full power by creating a false load on the compressor through a bypass loop. To reduce the high electricity demand, the manufacturer developed and installed an additional mini-chiller system with a programmable controller.

The new controller replaces the existing chamber controller and integrates the mini-chiller into the refrigeration package as needed for required temperature conditions. The original, primary compressors operate during the rapid cooling phase, but once the target temperature is reached, the mini-chiller takes over to maintain that temperature.

Because this small system only uses one or two 6-HP compressors instead of the two 25- to 30-HP compressors in the standard chamber, chamber energy consumption is reduced by as much as 90 percent. Since the mini-chillers were installed, Raytheon has reduced energy usage by 3,600 MWh annually, which, in turn, reduced carbon emissions. The mini-chillers also consumed less water.

5. Oregon: Norpac Foods (Water, Waste Reduction) With some of the country’s most abundant natural beauty, it comes as no surprise that Oregon would place a high priority on sustainability and expect industrial companies within its borders to do the same. Oregon Sustainability Board and Business Oregon honored NORPAC with a Governor’s Sustainability Award for reducing waste, water, and energy.

Founded in 1924 as a cooperative of family farms, NORPAC’s commitment to agricultural stewardship and sustainability is found in both the operation of its manufacturing facilities and the practices of its farmers. The food producer cut its fresh water consumption by recycling process water.

The company also increased its waste recycling and composting, thereby diverting solid waste to landfills. It invested in new packaging technologies to reduce source materials and improve shipping logistics. NORPAC farmers practice soil and water conservation, integrated pest management practices (IPM), and habitat preservation.

6. Pennsylvania: Phoenix Contact (Renewable Energy—Solar) Proving that it’s not all steel mills, fracking wells, Liberty bells, and Amish tills, Pennsylvania honored a sustainable manufacturer. Phoenix Contact received a 2014 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for its solar-powered charging station for electric vehicles (EVs).

Phoenix Contact develops and manufactures industrial electrical and electronic technology products that power, protect, connect, and automate systems and equipment. The manufacturer’s SunPlug solar-powered EV charging station went into commission as part of its Contact’s Earth Day activities.

Since that time, it has delivered about 200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, which represents nearly 1,000 hours of driving time. Almost entirely student-designed and built, the charging port includes 12 south-facing solar panels that collect the solar power, an Apollo Solar inverter, and Concorde AGM batteries that store the energy during the day. The control panel cabinet comprises Phoenix Contact products.

7. Tennessee: Bridgestone (Waste—Product Takeback Program) It’s hard to imagine more scenic drives than some of Tennessee’s scenic byways in the Smoky Mountains. You might be taking that drive on Bridgestone’s fuel-saving tires, and, thanks to Bridgestone, your drive probably won’t be spoiled by the sight of discarded tires along the Tennessee River.

The Tennessee Governor’s Awards for Environmental Stewardship honored Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas with an Excellence in Sustainable Performances for its Tires4Ward Program, launched on Earth Day 2012. The awards are the most prestigious environmental and conservation awards in the state, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation maintains.

Sell a tire, recycle a tire—that’s the idea behind Bridgestone’s Tires 4ward Recycling Program. an initiative it began to rid the roadways and waterways of discarded spent tires. The company calls the program “no tire left behind.” The tire-maker’s goal is to take back one spent tire for every tire it sells in the U.S. That includes tires as small as 15-in. tires on cars like the Prius to the supersized agriculture and mining tires.

The manufacturer has achieved a 100 percent success rate of valuable reuse in  applications such as rubberized asphalt, mulch, and athletic surfaces for all tires received at its more than 2,200 company-owned stores. The program partners with more than a hundred nonprofit organizations, citizen groups, and communities nationwide.

To date, company volunteers have supported more than 240 cleanups and collected and recycled more than 70,000 tires from streams, waterways, and in communities nationwide. States that did not award manufacturers in the 2013-2014 timeframe, but had notable manufacturer winners the year prior, include New York, New Jersey, and California.

8. New York: Owens Corning (Air Quality) The Department of Environmental Conservation of New York honored the Albany Owens Corning plant with an Environmental Excellence Award in 2012. The manufacturer was awarded for developing and producing EcoTouch (TM) insulation, which replaced its formaldehyde-based binder with a nonhazardous starch-based binder.

This not only improved the product and provided a healthier working environment for employees, but improved air quality by eliminating hazardous air pollutants. As a result of the EcoTouch product, the insulation-maker has reduced emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) by 98 percent annually, according to the company. The Delmar plant is one of the first Owens Corning facilities in the U.S. to manufacture the new insulation product.

9. New Jersey: Mannington Mills (Renewable Energy—Solar) Perhaps one of the more surprising facts about New Jersey is its very progressive renewable portfolio standard (RPS)—20 percent by 2020. (An RPS is the percentage of a utility’s portfolio that must source renewable energy.)

Who knew Chris Christie was a such a tree-hugger?

The aggressive standard, coupled with generous state incentives, has prompted a steady stream of New Jersey companies to install solar energy systems. One of them is flooring manufacturer Mannington Mills, which was awarded by the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection with a Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award in 2012.

The manufacturer installed 3.3 acres of solar panels—3,900 units—on seven rooftops at its Salem facility—the largest solar array in the flooring industry, the company says.

Nearly 1 million kWh of clean energy are generated by this solar system. Mannington states that the array is part of its strategy to reduce its energy consumption and GHG footprint by 25 percent over 10 years. The company also joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership to reduce GHG emissions from its freight operations.

10. California: Gallo (Renewable Energy—Biofuel) Joseph Gallo Farms won a 2012 Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award from the California EPA for using biogas digesters in its cheese plant—the first of its kind to integrate green energy with its operations, according to the company. The manufacturer reclaims or reuses 100 percent of its effluent.

Award-worthy? Think your company may be eligible for a state award? States’ award periods vary. Some present the awards early in the year for the previous year’s achievements; others have their ceremonies at the end of the year for that year’s accomplishments. A few still have applications open for the 2014 timeframe. To apply, visit your state’s EPA office or Governor’s office for details.