Sustainability for the Long Haul

He added that energy reductions have come primarily from investment in infrastructure for lighting retrofits and heat recovery from boiler stacks and hot process exhaust streams. Solid-waste-to-landfill reductions were accomplished through both source reduction and improved recycling, which was applied to all materials, including paperboard, packaging, and processing byproducts, he said.

On the Small Side

Such savings are being enjoyed at smaller companies as well. For Sierra Nevada and Kettle, sustainability started with the companies’ foundings, and the benefits have continued rolling in.

“Our roots are in the natural food business, so we’re all about environmental concerns and good ingredients in food,” said Jim Green, spokesman for Kettle Foods. “So such things as saving energy and recycling waste were embedded into the DNA of the company.” Kettle, which makes potato chips, started more visible projects in 2003 by installing solar panels in its Salem, Ore., headquarters. Its more than 600 solar panels generate more than 120,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, enough to make 250,000 bags of chips and reduce annual CO₂ emissions by 65 tons.

The company also began reusing cooking oil in biodiesel fuel instead of sending it to the candle and soap industries. It now sends out all of its waste oil—2,300 gallons—to be recycled into biodiesel. For every 7,600 bags of potato chips the company produces, it creates one gallon of waste vegetable oil. In 2006, Kettle also began purchasing renewable energy credits or “offsets” for 100% of its electricity use of 12 million kilowatt hours per year. Green said Kettle pays extra money for the electricity, money that is used by a third party to fund wind farms in the United States.

Hydrogen fuel cells contribute sustainable power to manufacturing

More recently, Kettle’s Beloit, Wis., site became the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified food facility in the United States, because it doesn’t disturb wetlands or fish, Green said. That facility, which has 18 small wind turbines on the roof, generating more than 28,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, also sees a 20% annual energy savings (gas and electric), which translates into an estimated cost reduction of $110,000 on natural gas and $51,000 on electricity.

The power from the turbines can make 56,000 bags of potato chips per year. Additionally, the electrical power use at that factory is 100% offset with wind credits equivalent to 12.3 million kilowatt hours annually. Annual water savings of $34,000 are realized by reclamation systems capturing and reusing 3.4 million gallons of water from potato washing. Excess filtered process water is diverted to restrooms, saving an additional 120,000 gallons of water a year.

And with the new plant in Wisconsin, taking 420 trucks off the road between the two plants eliminated some three million pounds of CO₂ emissions. The various sustainability efforts have improved sales by 26% compounded annually over 10 years.

As with many manufacturers, however, a big challenge for Kettle comes from dealing with huge amounts of raw waste. In both Salem and Beloit, the company has two sorts of wastes: raw and finished. Raw waste comprises potatoes that don’t make the grade or are inspected out; those go to commercial composting operations. Finished waste from chips that are inspected out of the process goes to an outfit that turns it into animal feed.

“Our raw waste is about zero,” said Green, who added that the investment the company made in recycling is insignificant compared to putting the waste into a dumpster and having it hauled away.

Another major improvement for sustainability is air compressors, which are used in most factories. “It’s a big use of electricity,” said Green. “A new generation of air compressors is variable speed, and they save us a tremendous amount of electricity.” An outside company approached Kettle to look at its electric bills, and the compressors stood out, so it went with the newer models. “The payback was so quick it was a no brainer.”