By Bruce Lung and Clifton Yin, Better Building
s, Better Plants, U.S. Department of Energy
As any energy manager can tell you, the more energy you save, the harder it can be to discover new efficiencies. This is why continuous innovation and setting long-term ambitious energy reduction goals is key to winning the battle against energy waste.
Manufacturers that are a part of President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative have an advantage. DOE helps Better Buildings, Better Plants partners reach their goals by providing technical support, training opportunities, access to energy-saving resources and national recognition. These organizations then pay it forward, by agreeing to transparently share their energy performance data and market solutions, so that others can follow their lead.
Shedding Light on Proven Solutions
Some of the specific solutions that Partners are sharing with their peers include:
- Harbec Plastics, a custom injection-molder located in upstate New York, uses third-party financing that allows it to pursue all clean energy projects that pay for themselves over the projects’ lifetimes. This is a marked departure from industry norms that typically call for one-to-two year payback thresholds for these types of projects. As a result of its financing approach, Harbec has been able to build two on-site wind turbines and a combined heat and power (CHP) system.
- Ford Motor Company’s innovative Go Green Dealership Program works to promote energy efficiency throughout the automaker’s extensive network of franchised dealerships. Ford supports dealers by providing energy audits and preferential pricing on energy-efficient technologies. Ford is working with DOE to provide recognition to those dealerships that show exceptional energy savings through this initiative.
- Alcoa links variable pay for key employees to the achievement of energy efficiency targets. This linkage was championed by the company’s CEO as a way of ensuring that top executives continue to prioritize energy efficiency even as they juggle other pressing business concerns.
Recognizing Leadership
DOE is also working with its partners to recognize their leadership in the local media by profiling and visiting exceptional energy saving projects at the plant level. In November of last year, DOE traveled to Jamestown, NY, to help lead a tour of a Cummins engine plant where a series of energy efficiency improvements are expected to lead to a 33% reduction in energy intensity. Earlier, DOE worked with Nissan to showcase the company’s new, $200-million paint plant in Smyrna, Tennessee that is using about 40% less energy than the plant it replaced.
New Initiatives Address Market Needs
As the program evolves, DOE and partners are tackling new barriers in important areas. Last year, DOE launched a water savings pilot across the Better Buildings Challenge. Seven manufacturers signed up, setting ambitious water savings goals across their manufacturing operations.
DOE also has been working with Legrand and United Technologies to engage a set of those companies’ key suppliers on energy efficiency. Through this initiative, DOE is providing cohort-based technical assistance to the two sets of suppliers. Similar to other Better Plants Partners, these companies have set ambitious energy savings goals and will report their progress to DOE once a year. DOE will analyze the data that comes in from the suppliers and provide UTC and Legrand with an annual summary report on the progress their suppliers are making.
Most recently, DOE has expanded the Better Plants Program to cover water and wastewater treatment utilities. While often publicly owned and operated, these plants resemble industrial operations in the way they use energy. DOE is working with an initial cohort of 10 utilities to understand the unique challenges they face in pursuing energy efficiency, with a special emphasis on tracking metrics appropriately.
DOE also helps Partners receive access to industrial energy efficiency resources, such as free, one-day energy audits from the Department’s Industrial Assessment Centers; technical assistance on combined heat and power deployment from a regional network of DOE-funded partners; and tools and resources to advance strategic energy management, including certification through the Department’s Superior Energy Performance Program.
Better Plants by the Numbers:
- Over 150 companies, including 32 Fortune 500 members, are a part of the Better Buildings, Better Plants Program.
- Better Plants Partners agree to cut energy intensity of their plants and facilities by about 25 percent over 10 years.
- On a cumulative basis, dating to 2010, Better Plants Partners have racked up about 320TBtus of energy savings.
- That’s about $1.7 billion in cost savings, and 18.5 million tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
- Sixteen companies have already met their targets, and several of those, including Legrand North America, Toyota and United Technologies, have recommitted to a second round of ambitious energy efficiency goals.
The Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge is a broad initiative with ambitious goals. As the program continues to grow, the continuous innovation and new solutions discovered by partners, with the help of DOE, are making a clear impact in lowering energy bills and curbing greenhouse gas emissions across the industrial sector.
Please contact BetterPlants@ee.doe.gov for more information on how to get involved.