Our Tea Plantation
Energy Conservation
Energy Conservation
Making Our Operations More Efficient
We at Bigelow Tea believe if we do the right thing, good things
will follow. Across our three manufacturing facilities and
our corporate headquarters, we identify opportunities and share
best practices to reduce our energy use, greenhouse gas emissions
and water use.
All facilities: Reduced electricity usage by
nearly 10 million kWh
since
2007
Over the past several years, we have
reduced our energy consumption by over 2.5 million kWh in our
Fairfield plant alone through energy efficiency measures. This
translates to savings of over 2.7 million pounds of carbon, or the
equivalent of planting 41 million trees.
Here are just a few examples of the things we've done in our
facilities:
- Lighting: Replaced light bulbs with
energy efficient bulbs in all offices in all three facilities
- Replaced lighting in common areas with efficient LED lights
(e.g. exit signs, loading docks, kitchen), saving 15,000 kWh, or
enough energy to power 1 house for 14 months
- Installed compact florescent light bulbs throughout the three
facilities
- Motion Sensors: Installed motion
sensors in all of our offices and conference rooms as well as on
all conveyor belts in our plants to automatically turn off when not
in use at our Fairfield Headquarters and Boise Plant, reducing our
energy consumption by over 345,000 kWh annually, or enough energy
to power 27 homes for 1 year.
- Auto Programming: Added automatic
programming "On/Off" switches to our dust collecting machines,
reducing the machine run time and only running the equipment when
necessary
- Timers and Insulation: Installed on
all hot water tanks and HVAC systems. This has saved over 7,000 kWh
of energy translating to over 7,000 pounds of carbon or the
equivalent of planting 114,000 trees annually.
- Air Compressors and Storage Tanks:
Our Boise facility has replaced aging equipment with more energy
efficient air compressors that supply air based upon demand,
significantly reducing run time. The air is then stored and
released as needed, and air pressure was reduced from 105 pounds to
85 pounds with no loss of productivity. Our Fairfield plant
has installed air storage tanks in order to compress and store the
air during off peak hours when it is more cost efficient. This air
is used to cool the laser printers used to print barcodes on our
tea bags as well as to control the valves that push the teabags
into the tea boxes. These efforts have reduced our energy
consumption by over 365,000 kWh, or the equivalent energy needed to
power 28 homes for 1 year.
- Air Conditioners: Installed energy
efficient air conditioners, reducing more than 26,000 pounds in
carbon emissions; equivalent to planting over 380,000 trees.
- Heating: Added an "economizer" to our
Boise plant HVAC heating and cooling system to pull in outside air
when temperatures permit. In the past, we would have run the air
conditioning during the cold Idaho winter to offset the heat
produced by our packaging equipment. NO MORE! Additionally, we
studied and improved our thermostat settings and sealed leaks
around our windows, doors, and docks.
- Water: By adding low-flow "water
restrictors" to reduce the amount of water per minute released from
the sink faucets, our Fairfield headquarters reduced its water
consumption by over 100,000 gallons.
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Energy Conservation
© 2012 R.C. Bigelow, Inc.
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