Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’
Meet Future Engineers Luke Jones and Nathan Wygal
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Today, Wikipedia says one of the notable past residents of Searcy, Arkansas, is current Arkansas governor Mike Beebe. In the future, the names Luke Jones and Nathan Wygal might be on that list.
These two high school students attend Searcy High School. They showcased a project they designed in Solid Edge at the recent EAST Initiative conference in Hot Springs. Continue reading “Meet Future Engineers Luke Jones and Nathan Wygal” »
Notes from the Grocery Manufacturers Association Executive Conference, Part 3: Sustainable packaging for sustainable cities
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
Through all of the discussion at the GMA Executive Conference about the importance of energy management and water conservation in consumer products/food & beverage manufacturing, product packaging reduction remains a hot topic as well. When manufacturers and retailers look to make their products, manufacturing, and supply chain more sustainable, the first place many of them look is packaging redesign – for good reason. There are many downstream benefits to reducing the amount of packaging, from less energy & water to manufacture, to improving logistics efficiency – all positive for municipalities and cities. Consider the following research from McKinsey and Co., published in the GMA report, “Reducing our footprint: The Food, Beverage and Consumer Product Industry’s Progress in Sustainable Packaging”, that depicts these benefits:
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FROM PACKAGING IMPROVEMENTS, 2005-2010
- One company reduced landfill waste by 20.7 million pounds and green house gas emissions by 11 million pounds
- One company was able to eliminate 2,000 trucks from its fleet
- One company saw a 50 percent improvement in transportation efficiency
- One company saw 26 percent less water usage, 18 percent less electricity usage, 56 percent less fossil fuel usage, 10 percent less resin usage, 35 percent reduction in transport distance and 40 percent less greenhouse gas emissions
- One company saw a 43 percent improvement in shipping efficiency
Source: McKinsey’ & Company Winter 2010-2011 Survey
Notes from the Grocery Manufacturers Association Executive Conference, Part 2: Sustainable water for sustainable cities
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
Another critical challenge food & beverage manufacturers deal with every day that also impacts the municipality they exist in, is water conservation and wastewater management. Snack Food Company Snyder’s-Lance, which I visited recently in Charlotte, NC has their own wastewater treatment plant to pre-treat the effluent, or wastewater, that results from food and beverage production so the municipal system is not over-burdened. If this pre-treatment did not happen, the local wastewater treatment system could be compromised. Beverage company Sunny Delight is another CPG manufacturer focused on this: its CEO Billy Cyr spoke passionately on the topic of water conservation at a sustainability session during the GMA Executive Conference, and the company’s sustainability report states the following:
“While water reduction and conservation are important internally, we also are committed to protecting bodies of water and ecosystems surrounding our facilities. In some communities and ecosystems bordering our sites, water is a very valuable and, at times, scarce resource. SDBC is mindful of this and only withdraws water from municipal supplies and water tables that have an adequate supply to support the surrounding water demand and ecosystems.
In addition to decreasing water usage and carefully considering water sources, we closely monitor the quality of our wastewater discharge. This discharge results from operational equipment, such as cooling towers, boilers and water conditioners, as well as from the daily processes of equipment cleaning and sterilization. Each facility balances the pH of its wastewater prior to discharge to the local water treatment facilities. Only our Littleton, Massachusetts plant treats and discharges wastewater directly to open surface water. The site ensures the quality of its wastewater through a comprehensive treatment process and monitors the characteristics and frequency of its discharges.”
At Siemens, we work with food & beverage companies to address these problems. One such example is the Khon Kaen brewery in Thailand, which worked with Siemens for their wastewater management solution. 6,000 cubic meters of biogas/day is used as a supplementary fuel in the plant boiler system. Please see the video below for this story.
Notes from the Grocery Manufacturers Association Executive Conference, Part 1: Sustainable energy for sustainable cities
Friday, September 9th, 2011
At the GMA Executive Conference in August, the primary topics of discussion included food safety, retailer and manufacturer collaboration, innovation, operational efficiency, and sustainability. Siemens Corporation CEO Eric Spiegel hosted a panel on sustainability with the CEOs of Cargill, Kroger, and CH2M Hill – all made it clear their companies sustainability strategies very much take into account what impact their manufacturing and retail practices will have on the environment, cities, and municipalities that they do business in. Here’s a link to a recap on this panel discussion. Areas like water consumption, wastewater management, solid waste, and energy usage all are considered in developing a sustainability strategy by these and other organizations. One of these other organizations is General Mills: they use the waste from Cheerios production as biomass to power two of their plants in Minnesota.
The company, which won the 2011 CPG award for innovation from the Grocer Manufacturers Association (GMA), is very focused on making their plants more energy efficient, while at the same time, doing good for their surrounding community. Their innovation is an oat hull burner: essentially, they use the leftovers from Cheerios oat production (80,000 tons per year!) as a source of energy. In fact oat hulls have the same BTU as bituminous coal. They now power 100% of their plants in Fridley and Minneapolis, MN using oat hull biomass. The results are impressive: not only are they now avoiding a $540,000 natural gas bill per year, but they are also reducing their carbon footprint by 21%.
As a bonus to the energy and financial savings General Mills experiences, leftover oats hulls are sold to local electricity provider Koda Energy to power approximately 17,000 homes per year. Truly a triple bottom line achievement: people, planet, profit. See the following video for more on this alternative energy innovation from General Mills:
Greetings from the GMA Executive Conference
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
The Siemens team is here in beautiful Colorado Springs at the GMA Executive Conference. The past few days have provided excellent opportunities to speak with the industry leaders in food & beverage, and hear some great insights on topics such as food safety, value chain collaboration, leveraging emerging technologies like social media and mobility to engage customers, and sustainability.
Siemens Corporation CEO Eric Spiegel moderated today’s panel discussion on sustainability strategies – a lively, varied conversation among a retailer (Kroger), a manufacturer, and a water industry EPC. Dave Dillon, CEO of Kroger, Greg Page, CEO of Cargill, Lee McIntire, CEO of CH2M Hill all spoke to their sustainability strategies as noted in previous posts (see http://blog.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/?s=gma). The topics of innovation (how can sustainbility innovation do good for the world, and drive business), minimizing impact (meeting the needs of feeding 9 Billion people while not compromising the environment) renewable packaging (because of the tremendous positive affects on the environment downstream), CO2 emissions (the Carbon Disclosure Project a focus for Kroger and Cargill now), improving production efficiencies (using less energy to produce the same product), and water conservation (wastewater pre-treatment, water reuse) were all big topics of conversation.
As far as key takeaways of the event: Dave Dillon from Kroger cited looking at the totality of your sustainability impact and the need for supply chain transparency, Greg Page of Cargill talked the importance of working in an interdependant world where business and government need to work together to solve the world’s sustainability problems, Lee McIntire of CH2M Hill cited the challenge of meeting the food needs of the world in an efficient way that conserves water and energy. Eric Spiegel of Siemens wrapped up with reiterating the importance of water conservation, as well as improving production plant efficiency, and waste reduction. You can learn more about sustainability solutions from Siemens, including our 2011 US and Canada Green City index, at this special GMA Executive Conference microsite.
Countdown to the GMA Executive Conference… Meet the Sustainability Panelists: CH2M Hill
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Lee McIntire, Chairman and CEO of CH2M Hill brings a slightly different perspective to the discussion. His company is one of the world’s largest EPCs (Engineering, Procurement, & Construction) focused on designing and building sustainable manufacturing plants, and providing water and wastewater management solutions to industries including food & beverage.
The primary areas of sustainability focus for the company, based on their sustainability report are:
- Environmental compliance
- Efficient (CH2M) office operations
- Supplier management
- Enabling clients to be sustainable in their operations
Here’s more from Mr. McIntire and Nancy Tuor, Group President of Sustainability, on CH2M Hill’s sustainability approach:
Countdown to the GMA Executive Conference… Meet the Sustainability Panelists: Kroger
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Dave Dillon, Chairman & CEO of Kroger will also be a participant in the sustainability panel, ”Practical Industry Strategies for a Sustainable Future”, Monday, August 22 at 2:15 p.m. MST.
The primary areas of sustainability focus for the company, based on their sustainability report are:
- Solid waste reduction
- Building/Energy efficiency
- Packaging reduction
- Transportation Efficiency
- Use of renewable energy
- Local, safe, organic food
Read more about Dave Dillon and Kroger’s sustainability vision in their sustainability report:
Countdown to the GMA Executive Conference… Meet the Sustainability Panelists: Cargill
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Following my post yesterday which included a video from Siemens President and CEO Eric Spiegel on sustainability, here is a video interview with Cargill Chairman and CEO Greg Page. The primary areas of sustainability focus for the company, based on their sustainability report are:
- Responsible sourcing & sustainable production
- Efficient supply chains
- Sustainable farming
- Food Safety
- Environmental innovation
Here’s Mr. Page:
Countdown to the GMA Executive Conference… Meet the Sustainability Panelists
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
It is less than a week before the GMA Executive Conference, the annual gathering of the elite in the food & beverage industry - looking forward to a great event. Yesterday, GMA hosted a call with three participants of the Executive Conference sustainability session, “Practical Industry Strategies for a Sustainable Future”: Greg Page, Chairman & CEO of Cargill, Dave Dillon, Chairman & CEO of Kroger, and Eric Spiegel, President & CEO of Siemens Corporation. Although intended to be primarily a preparation/logistics session, the conversation between these three industry leaders evolved into a great discussion on sustainability – just a precursor to the event on Monday!
My next posts will highlight the views on sustainability of each of these companies/CEOs, plus that of the other panelist for the session, CH2M Hill CEO Lee McIntire.
Kicking things off, let’s take a look at a video on sustainability from Eric Spiegel of Siemens:
A Conversation on Computing and Water From COFES
Friday, April 29th, 2011
“Fifty years ago computer science didn’t exist, today it is frothing into every aspect of life…By 2047 almost all information will be in cyberspace.”"
That is a quote from a book John Voeller highly recommends you read. In the video clip in this post, he called it Beyond Computing – but meant Beyond Calculation, written for the 50th anniversary of the Association for Computing Machinery.
It was interesting to see where the conversation with John Gage and Voeller went. They started off talking about language and metaphors in computing, then they discussed how computers must become companions that present us with the impact of our decisions. In this clip, they go beyond computing (thus the book reference above) to discuss the difficult problems we face such as water conservation and distribution. Continue reading “A Conversation on Computing and Water From COFES” »
