Green projects save Plastipak some green

Becoming more energy efficient is simply good business. And that's the subject of this month's Best Practices report — as Plastipak Packaging Inc. earned a cool $1 million in rebates from for its packaging factory in Jackson Center, Ohio.

Plastipak Packaging boosted the energy efficiency of its heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, compressed air and motors and drives, and in turn, scored a rebate for the efforts.

Dayton Power and Light Co. announced the news Feb. 5, reporting that Plastipak becomes just the second DP&L customer to achieve $1 million in total energy efficiency rebates. And power company officials said the efforts in Jackson Center are part of a broader corporate effort to boost energy efficiency at Plastipak plants globally.

Plastipak President William Young credited employees with the green efforts.

“Plastipak is committed to shrinking the company's environmental footprint through a series of earth-friendly initiatives that continue to grow through the creativity of Plastipak's associates,” Young said.

That's a big deal. Plastipak Packaging, based in Plymouth, Mich., was No. 3 in Plastics News' most recent ranking of North American blow molders, with estimated sales last year of $1.86 billion from 17 plants. Only Graham Packaging Co. LP and Amcor Rigid Plastics were larger than Plastipak Packaging.

Two of the larger projects in the effort at Jackson Center was a new chiller and a cooling tower. The company switched from an air-cooled to a water-cooled chiller, saving more than 3 million kilowatt hours a year. A new 500-ton cooling tower will save more than 4 million kWh annually. Plastipak got rebates of nearly $600,000 for just those two projects — and saved a total of 7,404,995 kWh a year.

The total annual energy savings from all the work: 18,101,109 kWh.

It's so true that “green” initiatives save the green — as in greenbacks spent for power. Another truism: Sustainability, so now in vogue, is something that good companies already have as a goal. And when you can get money through rebates or government grants, that's icing on the cake.

Here are more details from Plastipak's $1 million rebate projects:

• Compressed air, saving 2,127,087 kWh a year, for $106,000 worth of rebates.

• Motors and drives, saving 3,198,011 kWh and generating $68,000 in rebates.

• Lighting, saving 2,879,775 kWh and racking up $83,000 in rebates.

• Other programs saving 2,491,241 kWh for $143,000 worth of rebates.

One final note about energy-efficient lighting. As the coordinator of the Plastics News Processor of the Year Award, I come across lots of companies that have installed new lights and save on their electric bills. It's now common, even at smaller companies, to see lights in the warehouse area automatically go on when you walk by; otherwise they shut off. I've even seen this in bathrooms at some plastics factories. And plant-floor employees benefit from new, high-quality lighting, even as the company cuts its costs.

Plastics factories, like most Americans, became accustomed to cheap energy for decades in the past. We didn't insulate our homes, and factory management had so many other things to worry about, so that energy took a backseat.

That seemed to change in the Great Recession. Suddenly, executives looked for savings in every single part of a factory, and energy use became a cost-saving target. For broader America, as well as the world, using less energy to produce the goods we consume, and the cars we drive, should be a permanent mindset, regardless of fluctuating energy prices.

Unless we one day get all of our energy from windmills, solar and hydroelectric dams, the world still gobbles up resources that are finite. One day those fixed resources will be gone, or so expensive that they become uneconomical.