Global Building Products Company Achieves $1.83M in Potential Annual Savings in Waste, Water, and Energy Reduction Opportunities
Executive summary
Sustainable Solutions Corporation (SSC) was engaged to develop a Sustainability Action Plan for a global building products company with ambitious 2020 corporate sustainability goals, including 20% reductions in energy use, carbon emissions, water consumption, and waste.
SSC collaborated closely with the facility and management team to provide a holistic view of operations and identify measurable, actionable reduction opportunities across materials, energy, water, and waste streams. The results: over $1.83 million in achievable annual savings at a single facility—through operational efficiency and process improvements.
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Key Findings
$1.83M Annual Savings Identified:
Through targeted assessments and a facility site visit, SSC uncovered high-value opportunities to reduce energy, water, materials, and waste.Comprehensive Waste Audit:
Our team analyzed all waste at the facility—any input not ending up in the final product was considered waste, including scrap materials, support materials, packaging, water, and emissions.Strategic Data-Driven Process:
SSC collected and analyzed detailed site-level data to align the client's operations with their enterprise-wide 2020 sustainability goals.Cross-Functional Engagement:
Worked hands-on with facility operations and leadership to build momentum and ownership around sustainability actions.
Results
Estimated Annual Savings For One Facility: $1,830,000
Clear alignment with 2020 sustainability goals across energy, water, carbon, and waste
Identified efficiency improvements across all major input and output streams
Equipped facility leaders with an actionable roadmap for continuous improvement
Positioned the client as a sustainability leader within the construction sector
“As technology use grows, fast and consistent data transmission is critical to the success of the industry. Understanding the scale of the emissions and infrastructure growth impacts is key to effective decarbonization strategies.”
Cara Vought, Senior Technical Consultant
Sustainable Solutions Corporation
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This manufacturing company is committed to advancing environmental sustainability by setting ambitious sustainability goals. To support these commitments, the company engaged Sustainable Solutions Corporation to investigate their flagship facility and operations site to develop a comprehensive decarbonization and waste reduction roadmap so they could hit their public 2020 sustainability goals. The opportunities identified outlined cost saving steps across operations, while hitting their greenhouse gas reduction goals, ensuring measurable progress toward a more sustainable and resilient future. By hitting their publicly stated goals, this allows the manufacturing to maintain trust and brand awareness with their investors and customers.
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Waste Diversion: a broad definition of waste—any input that does not end up in the final product was considered waste, equating to lost profit. This definition includes waste heat, energy, water, scrap product, excess raw and support materials, packaging waste, and air and water emissions. By capturing and analyzing material and energy costs in addition to waste disposal fees, this provides a more holistic impact on waste management and waste diversion.
Scope 1 Emissions: Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that come from sources owned or controlled by an organization. These emissions result from activities that release GHGs directly into the atmosphere, typically through on-site operations. This category is defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Scope 2 Emissions: Scope 2 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, or cooling that a company consumes. While the organization does not directly produce these emissions, it is responsible for them because it uses the energy. This category is defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
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Sustainability Action Plans are a strategic, data-driven roadmap designed to help organizations improve operational efficiency, increase cost savings, reduce risk, and decrease environmental impact.
These plans are tailored to address key operational areas, including energy, carbon emissions, water usage, material use, and waste management.
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An audit and analysis of operations’ energy usage to identify inefficiencies and opportunities to reduce overall spend and energy consumption.
A strategic roadmap that identifies opportunities for emissions reduction across operations, supply chain, and energy use.
Detailed review of water use and reclamation/reuse opportunities to reduce total water usage and identify cost savings throughout.
A measurement, characterization, and quantification of material flows and all waste streams in order to properly understand your operations. We evaluate your current system for handling and management of materials and waste.
Waste Diversion and Zero Waste
Our proven process to understand the waste, develop a waste diversion roadmap, find new outlets for difficult-to-manage waste streams, and create processes for waste minimization to achieve zero waste to landfill.
