Saint-Gobain recently announced the winners of its sustainability awards program, which recognizes company locations across North America for their sustainability efforts. The winning sites were recognized at a companywide sustainability conference this fall.

“Saint-Gobain’s commitment to sustainability compels us to consider the environmental impact of our business at every stage, from product design to product disposal at the end of life,” said John Crowe, president and CEO of Saint-Gobain North America and CertainTeed. “As a company, we realize it is the aggregate of efforts made by our approximately 14,000 employees that will allow us to reach our ambitious targets for waste, water, energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction, and we believe recognizing sites for their world-class programs will advance achievement across our portfolio.”

The Waste, Water, and Energy Program was established in 2016 by Saint-Gobain’s environmental, health, and safety department. The program reportedly is designed to highlight practical and effective solutions for increasing the sustainability of sites.

“Many of the champions were selected based on their commitment to improvement and the systems they put in place to achieve it, not simply one-time projects,” said Lauren Alterman, vice president of environmental, health and safety. “Our plants take incredible sustainability measures every day, and it’s exciting to be able to review all the efforts collectively and celebrate the biggest achievements with such a fun competition.”

The Saint-Gobain Environmental, Health and Safety Department recognized the following plants in 2016:

• Waste: Saint-Gobain Crystals (Hiram/Newbury, Ohio) for its development of a comprehensive program designed to reduce hazardous waste. The site reportedly achieved a 46% reduction in the identified waste stream through programmatic and technological advancements by working with a coalition of third-party waste handlers; process quality engineers; Saint-Gobain Environmental, Health and Safety Department personnel; and within its manufacturing program.
• Water: Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials (Wheatfield, N.Y.) for its water reduction program. The program reportedly began with a cooling water system opportunity and expanded from there by pursuing water reduction strategies in a number of areas around the plant. The focus went beyond a single project and instead evaluated how the site uses water as a system, allowing the site to achieve a reduction of 10.1 million gal of water used per year through various project efforts.
• Energy: SageGlass (Faribault, Minn.) for its comprehensive energy reduction strategy. The site reportedly evaluated all of its energy-using systems, from lighting to HVAC to process, and designed programs, capital projects, and educational tools to reduce energy intensity by 54% year over year.
• CO2: CertainTeed Roofing (Oxford, NC) for its substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product made. Using ISO systems 14001 and 26000 (Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility) to design a system focused on energy and carbon reduction, the management systems reportedly guided its energy team to focus on the large users of energy and creators of carbon, which ultimately resulted in projects addressing fume burner improvements, more efficient process heating and the elimination of No. 2 fuel oil from usage.
• Overall: CertainTeed Roofing (Ennis, Texas) for being a finalist in all four sustainability categories due to a broad and extensive focus on its impacts inside and outside of its plant. For water, waste, energy and CO2 emissions, the team undertook a multitude of projects including an LED retrofit, a program to recycle used wood pallets, and a system that resulted in the reuse of 50% of process cooling water.

“This program is unique because it encourages some fun internal competition in a way not seen before in the industry,” said Ryan Spies, manager of process sustainability and energy. “There’s nothing quite like a plant manager holding up a 20-lb, custom-designed, bejeweled belt for all his or her plant to see and then having to defend that belt next year.”

For more information, visit http://saint-gobain-northamerica.com.