New Paper Mill Sets Standard for Sustainability and Net-Zero Water Use
Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) helped Green Bay Packaging open the first new papermill in Wisconsin in more than 35 years, providing power and process solutions that increase production capacity, improve reliability, and meet sustainability goals.
Rockwell’s digital technology connects islands of automation that generates real-time data for better decision-making at the mill and across the enterprise. When paired with larger paper-making machines and upskilling of current employees, the new drive and controller technologies help the new plant more than double the output of the previous plant.
The data also enables predictive maintenance, and the ability to schedule work orders before equipment runs to failure—saving the company time and money by preventing downtime. The new mill exclusively uses recovered paper as its feedstock, recovers leftover heat for reuse, and leverages a state-of-the-art water treatment system that significantly reduces the amount of water required to support the process.
One year after the mill opened, UL certified it as a net-zero water user that returns as much or more water of the same quality to the Great Lakes as it draws.
