Mining the Green Manufacturing Gold Mine

When food manufacturer WhiteWave Plant Engineer Toby Duveneck sought ways to cut costs in the company’s Virginia plant, he looked at green initiatives. “That particular year [2009], our volume was not going to be as strong as we had projected it to be. We’re a cost center, so we worry about our budget, what our cost per gallon is.”

Duveneck knew from experience that the payback on lighting retrofits can be huge and immediate. To date the company has installed nearly 650 high-bay LED lighting fixtures in the warehouse and plant—almost all of the plant lighting. The lighting retrofit saves the manufacturer $15,000 a month in electricity bills.

That’s some gilded green.

Ecosavvy manufacturers have come to realize that most sustainability initiatives save money. Saving energy saves money. Managing waste well saves money. Conserving water saves money.

Moonlighting as Power Generators

Perhaps even more intriguing to me is how some manufacturers blacken their bottom lines not only by saving money, but by creating revenue streams from green manufacturing.

“Bioenergy fuels green paper mills: Cogeneration creates revenue source, enhances cost-effectiveness” (p. 38) delves into how paper manufacturers actually supplement their core business income from the energy they generate in their mills. Modern biofuel technology incorporates cogeneration capabilities, also called combined heat and power (CHP), to produce both electricity and heat or steam from one fuel source. Cogeneration is considered especially efficient because it maximizes the energy captured and minimizes the energy released into the environment as hot air or hot water and wasted.

It’s intuitive. They use their own waste wood sources as boiler feedstock, as well as residual wood, such as treetops, limbs, and bark, in keeping with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest sustainability standards.

But the mills go a step further. Not only do they use the heat and electricity their cogenerational boilers make in their own operations, they actually sell the energy directly to utilities—especially to those hungry to fulfill their renewable-energy standards (RES). Sometimes they sell the power they generate on the open market rather than use it themselves.

Generating energy has become a cottage industry, of sorts.

The industry has been moonlighting like this very well for years, but recently utility incentives have made the practice even more profitable.

Mining Copper, Gold, Lead—in Electronics

Brian Brundage, CEO of Intercon Solutions, recognizes the potential for mining electronics. There’s gold in them thar hills—and copper, glass, iron, aluminum, and plastics, as well as lead, mercury, and other toxic chemicals that have to be removed and disposed of properly (see “Optimal handling of end-of-life electronics means recycling,” p. 42).

E-waste is the fastest-growing element of the U.S. garbage stream. According to a report in Time magazine, Americans throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers every day. Each computer contains an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Brundage has made a good business of ecoresponsibly extracting the materials in a careful and safe demanufacturing process so that the toxic chemicals are not released into the environment.

Intercon Solutions has eight locations in North America, and indications are that the company will continue to grow as fast as the stockpile of discarded electronics.

For some manufacturers, green is gold.