Industrial Utility Efficiency

Energy Manager

20 Years of Case Studies: Plants Sharing Best Practices

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® 

For 20 years, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine has published articles focused on helping manufacturers reduce power demand, lower water consumption, and improve the performance of compressed air, cooling, blower and industrial vacuum systems. In this article, we highlight a sampling of those stories across the following industries:

  • Plastics and Packaging
  • Food and Beverage
  • Automotive and Transportation
  • Cement, Building Materials, and Mining
  • Metals, Pulp, and Paper
  • Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, and Research
  • Wastewater Treatment
     
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Sustainability Pillars at Intertape Polymer Group Inc.

By Roderick M. Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

In February 2021, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed members of the Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG) Sustainability Pillars team to gain an understanding of the work being done to improve energy efficiency. The team members interviewed were Michael Jones (Director of Corporate Energy), Michael Deitering (Senior Project Engineer), Jarrod Knapp (Maintenance Manager) and Mark Secord (Engineering Group Leader).  
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CalPortland® Continues to Walk the Walk in Sustainability

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

A major producer of cement and building materials, CalPortland’s energy management efforts have reduced the company’s overall energy intensity by 17.5% since 2003, avoiding \$149 million in unnecessary energy costs – and over 3.3 million metric tons of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In 2020, the company achieved what no other U.S. Industrial company has: It earned the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for the 16th consecutive year.
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Ford Motor Company’s Kentucky Truck Plant Helps Paint a Bright Energy Future

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The Ford Motor Company Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP) not only manufactures upscale SUVs and pickup trucks painted in wide variety of stellar, high-quality colors and finishes –  it does so cost-effectively by conserving annual compressed air energy of approximately 9.2 GWh thanks to a major overhaul of the plant’s compressed air system.
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Food & Beverage Ingredients Firm Tate & Lyle On a Mission to Protect the Planet

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Tate & Lyle’s sustainability actions involve countless initiatives worldwide to minimize its environmental impact by reducing emissions and using water sustainably. Whether it’s the use of a low-pressure blower instead of a high-pressure compressed air system to save energy, or a \$75 million natural gas-fired Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system to replace coal as a power source at its corn wet mill in Lafayette, Indiana, Tate & Lyle is on a mission to protect the planet.
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Saint-Gobain Makes Solving Sustainability Competitive and Fun

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Challenging teams of employees to generate energy savings while having a good time in the process is the idea behind Saint-Gobain’s “Compress It,” which is the name given to the company’s competition and ongoing effort to reduce compressed air energy and costs. The initiative, which Saint-Gobain rolled out to manufacturing plants throughout North America in 2018, has been met with success. Compress It identified potential energy savings amounting to 26 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity and \$2.5 million.
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TE Connectivity’s Focus on ROI Drives Sustainability Success and Compressed Air Savings

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The company is succeeding with sustainability at many operations, including its manufacturing plant in Lickdale, Pennsylvania. In fall 2019, officials from the Department of Energy’s Better Plants program joined company officials there to celebrate the plant’s energy achievements – including an 11% reduction in compressed air energy costs. Its ability to reduce the cost of compressed air to the tune of \$223,000 per year is a prime example how many TE Connectivity operations have fully embraced sustainability.
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IUE-CWA Labor Union Members Embrace Energy Treasure Hunts

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Manufacturers familiar with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® Energy Treasure Hunts initiative know it’s a great way to save energy and natural resources – as long as it’s done right – which is why some are turning to perhaps their best asset to achieve success: their unionized workforce.
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Sustainability is “Part of Who We Are” at Eastman

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

By making sustainability a requirement and a core element of its growth strategy, Eastman has improved the energy efficiency of manufacturing operations by 13% since its baseline year of 2008 (the year Eastman became an ENERGY STAR® Partner). By 2018, Eastman had decreased its greenhouse gas intensity by 20%, two years ahead of its goal. Additionally, Eastman received the 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence, marking the company’s eighth consecutive ENERGY STAR award: two years as Partner of the Year and six years of Sustained Excellence recognition.
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Better Plants® Partners Get a Leg up in the Battle for Energy and Water Efficiency

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

In 2019, more than 230 Better Plants partners took advantage of the program to gain considerable ground in their sustainability efforts. In so doing, they cumulatively saved more than \$6.7 billion in energy costs and more than 1.3 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs). These same companies have more than 3,200 facilities and represent approximately 12% of the U.S. manufacturing energy footprint. In addition to energy, partners are excelling at projects to improve water efficiency.
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Stanley Black & Decker Plant in Tennessee: A Beacon of Sustainability

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

New Britain, Connecticut-based Stanley Black & Decker has gained widespread recognition for its commitment to social responsibility and sustainability – and with good reason: The company has reduced CO2 emissions in 2018 by 8,840 metric tons and in 2019 it was on track to further reduce greenhouse CO2 emissions by another 4,000 metric tons.
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Corporate Sustainability Programs

Sustainable Operations in Practice at Klöckner Pentaplast
In most of our factories, we have installed detailed energy monitoring systems at multiple points
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