Water
3M Cumberland – Sludge Reduction
3M Cumberland switched to a ‘dry’ method of cleaning its mixing vessels to reduce the amount of suspended solids sent to the publicly owned treatment works (POTW). The project resulted in a 50% reduction is in suspended solids sent to the POTW, a water usage reduction of 5,000 gallons per year, and a labor reduction of 75 hours per year.
American Family Insurance – Cooling Tower Retrofit
Case study on American Family Insurance’s addition of a water softener to their cooling towers. Water savings were achieved with no price premium over taking no action.
In an effort to reduce stormwater runoff, Berres Brothers built two rain gardens. The rain gardens keep 98% of the suspended solids out of the Rock River Basin and have cut the company’s stormwater impact fee by 75%.
Briggs & Stratton – Green Space
Briggs & Stratton Corporation converted an under-utilized parking area into turf to be used to conduct performance testing previously completed offsite. This has saved money in transporting equipment for testing, and provided a green space to be used as a gathering/event space. In addition, it has diverted 7.4 million gallons of storm water runoff annually from entering the city’s storm sewers, by using the excess water from cooling ponds for irrigation purposes. In total, the project saves $3,800 annually.
Flambeau River Papers – Water Recovery
Case study on Flambeau River Papers’ project to recover and re-use heated seal water in the paper-making process.
New Glarus – Cleaning System
New Glarus Brewing Company decided to ‘close the loop’ on their cleaning system by installing a Clean-in-Place (CIP) tank system which reuses water which has already been heated and infused with caustic. By upgrading to a system which does not have to use new cleaning solution as much and is automated to more efficiently use water and caustic, the Brewery reduced water usage by 12% and caustic use by 26%.
Rockwell automation – Green Roof
Case study on Green Tier participant Rockwell Automation’s green roof on its headquarters in Milwaukee. The green roof, installed in summer 2010, serves to divert hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater from entering the city sewer system each year. It also provides insulation and aesthetic benefits.
Sentry Equipment – Saving Water
In 2006 as Sentry was preparing for a move to a new building, they were notified by Oconomowoc Utilities of a $75,915 impact fee tied to their water usage. The utility indicated that they were using 1,440,000 million gallons per year at their existing facility. An investigation into the major water uses in the facility identified two large water-cooled compressors on their factory floor that used water at the rate of 4 gallons a minute 20 hours a day for 260 days a year. These were replaced with air-cooled compressors in the new facility.