JCB North America in Savannah, GA, was presented with the 2015 Savannah Chamber of Commerce Environmental Awareness Award on June 11, 2015. Annually, the Savannah Chamber of Commerce recognizes businesses that excel in various areas including: environmental awareness, community involvement, safety and international business.
The Environmental Awareness award honors a corporation that has demonstrated outstanding performance in its efforts to continuously improve environmental quality. JCB North America was nominated by several business partners due to the recent sustainability projects focusing on waste stream reduction and energy conservation.
“Sustainability and the reduction of our environmental footprint is something JCB values” said Stuart Hughes, Executive Vice President of Manufacturing Operations. “Our facility has undergone several environmental initiatives led by our Facilities Manager Roger Myerly. We’ve not only been able to reduce our waste streams but have also turned these streams into a source of revenue for the company.”
Partnering with Nexeo solutions, a global leader in environmental services, JCB has been able to reduce its waste stream by 92% since the program’s implementation. In order to reach this achievement, several areas of waste were addressed—including wood that at one time amassed two million pounds annually and was sent directly to a local landfill. Since the program’s introduction, scrap wood from pallets, crates or loose lumber is ground into mulch then sold across a variety of markets.
JCB’s most recent environmental improvement project included replacing a 240 ton air cooled chiller that served the office’s HVAC needs. JCB worked with Johnson Controls to develop a new system which utilizes the natural cooling source of JCB’s man-made/well fed lake. The new chiller uses the fountains from the lake as a means of natural evaporative cooling along with the natural geo-exchange of the lake for chiller heat transfer, resulting in an energy consumption reduction of approximately 2,900,000 kWh, reducing peak consumption by more than 60%.
“Finding new ways to positively impact the environment is one of the most exciting things in my role here at JCB,” said Roger Myerly, JCB North America Facilities Manager. “I’m proud to be able to lead the company in these efforts as well as share our successful methods with other companies in our area.”
