Owens Corning Earns DOE Better Project Award and Surpasses Better Plants Energy Reduction Goal
Owens Corning is proud to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants program, which works with leading manufacturers to boost their competitiveness through improvements in energy efficiency.
As a participant in the Better Plants program, Owens Corning has committed to a 12% reduction in energy intensity by 2025, compared to our base year of 2018. To date, we have achieved a 15.04% reduction in energy intensity, already surpassing the initial goal. This marks the second time Owens Corning has exceeded an ambitious goal — we had originally intended to reduce energy intensity by 25% over our 2010 base year, and by 2017 our total savings was 31%.
In addition, Owens Corning has committed to the higher-level Better Plants Challenge, in which we pledge to share our energy performance data and energy-efficiency solutions, so that many more companies can see a pathway to savings.
Throughout our operations, our efforts to increase our energy efficiency have led to a number of tremendous success stories. By restructuring production at one plant, we were able to reduce our energy intensity by 37%. We have also implemented a range of capital projects at several of our facilities, including LED lighting upgrades, controls for our chilled water systems, optimization and monitoring of our compressed air equipment, and the installation of more energy-efficient furnaces.
Energy efficiency is an integral part of Owens Corning’s overall sustainability efforts, as evidenced by the implementation of Total Productive Maintenance as a method of reducing our footprint. TPM is an Operating Management System focused on eliminating losses and wastes from our processes and making continuous improvements. By empowering employees to identify and address inefficiencies in our equipment and processes, Owens Corning is creating even more opportunities to achieve our sustainability goals.
Owens Corning is also proud to be recognized with a 2021 Better Project Award for our efforts in implementing an advanced HVAC control system at two of our facilities. The systems detect when low humidity and moderate temperatures make it possible to cool without the use of chillers, ensuring optimal cooling with the lowest possible energy use. In addition, the new systems enable Owens Corning people to maintain them without outside support.
According to Don Scarsella, Energy Program Manager for Owens Corning’s Composites business, the Better Plants program has proved to be an invaluable aid for the company as we have worked toward our sustainability goals. “We’ve had many in-plant trainings and assessments from the Industrial Assessment Center,” he said, “and we’ve used their software tools to analyze our systems and look for opportunities.”
Better Plants is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, and the Better Buildings Initiative. More information about Better Plants partner results, showcase projects, and innovative solutions can be found in the 2020 Better Plants Progress Update.
