Speech before Sustainability Seminar at University of Mount Union:
Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our 2nd Sustainability Seminar. This seminar focuses on Energy Efficiency and Waste-to-Energy Solutions. Tonight we have three top speakers, who will not only discuss their success stories in the areas of reducing energy consumption and waste-to-energy solutions, but will dispel the common misconception that reducing greenhouse gas emissions increases costs. Quite to the contrary, I think you’ll find time and again, that reducing energy consumption and costs, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions go hand and hand. I and the other speakers are not so naïve as to suggest that you do what is not in your economic best interests. Irrespective of what you believe or don’t believe about global warming, I submit to you that opportunities abound to reduce energy consumption and costs, and companies that focus and capitalize on those opportunities will enhance their competitive advantage and sustain improved short and long term profitability.
Dell Computer, for example, is a company in an extremely competitive business with significant cost pressures. They are “going green” by making their worldwide manufacturing operations carbon neutral, and installing solar and wind power generation. Dell is also engineering their PCs and notebooks to consume less power. Michael Dell recently announced that Dell computers sold to date with energy saving technologies are saving consumers $1 billion per year in power savings. Why is Dell doing all this? The power cost savings from their manufacturing plants is going directly to their bottom line. Secondly, investors, public, institutional, rating agencies and investment bankers are all watching. And lastly, they know that consumers recognize the value of more energy efficient products and brands.
S.C. Johnson Company, the makers of Windex, Pledge, Glade and Ziploc is another example of a company that is “going green”. Recently after taking note of a large land fill across from one of their major manufacturing plants, they embarked on a project to capture and burn Methane from that land fill and generate all the power that plant needs. Today, they’ve not only completely cut the emissions associated with that plant, they’ve cut fossil fuel consumption across their worldwide operations by 34%; they’re saving money, and they’ve developed a competitive edge in promoting their brands.
On a smaller scale and from my own experience, a few years ago we helped a mid sized cement products company here in northeast Ohio increase production in their Rotary Kiln 80% and decrease energy consumption per ton by 35%. Last year we helped a mid sized ceramics products company here in Ohio increase production 30% with no increase in energy consumption at all. And, a few years ago we worked with a minerals processing company here in northeast Ohio to increase production 85%, while decreasing energy consumption per ton by 40%.
Today I’m working with a large Glass Plant in the far northern part of New England where we’re not only in the process of doubling productivity of a Rotary Kiln that constrains their plant and business, but we’re doing it while completely eliminating the use of a mid sized industrial burner that runs that process, by reusing waste heat from another process in their plant. While that burner is relatively small by heavy industry standards (5 million Btu per hour), it runs 24 hrs per day, 7 days per week. While working on the productivity of the Kiln, I happened to look out the window and saw a large, eight foot diameter duct that was vented to the atmosphere. Being rather curious I went out to take a look at it and was repelled by the enormous amount of heat pouring out of it. I asked the plant engineer where all the heat was coming from, and he said: “Oh, that’s from our number 2 Heat Exchanger”. Then I asked: “How big is the burner on the other end of that thing?”, and he replied: “15 million Btu per hour”. Then I asked the question: “Why don’t we take the waste heat from that process and use it in this process?” Today, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Every business I walk into I see opportunities to reduce energy consumption. Sometimes it just takes a fresh focus or a fresh set of eyes to see those opportunities.
Another company I’m working with is a large Steel Company here in northeast Ohio where plans are underway to recover waste heat from the stack of a 350 million Btu per hour Reheat Furnace. That single furnace burns roughly $10 million natural gas per year, and its stack produces roughly 40,000 cubic feet per minute of air at 800F. From that stack, a new small power plant will co-generate steam that will be sold to a local hospital a mile away. Phase 2 of that project is to burn locally generated waste wood to produce synthetic gas to replace the natural gas used in that same furnace. And there are dozens of reheat furnaces like that all across Ohio and the Midwest. This example demonstrates the viability of heat recovery, the use of waste products to generate energy, and the importance of collaborative efforts between heavy industry, hospitals, colleges and universities, and local governments to create and capitalize on “win-win” opportunities which no single party could effectively do alone.
All of these examples of reducing energy consumption demonstrate that “going green” not only helps to sustain our environment: it’s good business. Companies that proactively focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are and will reap substantial short and long term rewards. Those that choose to ignore the problem will likely face an increasingly difficult regulatory environment, public opinion, and cost pressures.