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"The award winners are leaders in their
industries because of their ongoing commitment to the environment,
their communities and their employees," Gov. Blagojevich said. "Many
of them have sustained pollution prevention programs over a number
of years, striving to find new ways to reduce waste and show how
pollution prevention is good for our economy and for retaining and
creating jobs in Illinois."
The 18th annual Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards were
presented in Glen Ellyn during a luncheon hosted by the Waste
Management and Research Center, a division of the Illinois
Department of Natural Resources.
"The exceptional accomplishments of
these companies in reducing, reusing and recycling waste and
improving air and water quality are enhancing our environment and
conserving valuable natural resources," said Joel Brunsvold,
director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
The pollution prevention projects
saved the honored companies and organizations millions of dollars in
material and disposal costs. The companies and organizations also
prevented hundreds of tons of waste materials from being released
into the environment and saved millions of gallons of water from
being sent to treatment facilities.
Applicants were judged in a
statewide competition on criteria including technological innovation, environmental
significance, economic benefits and commitment to pollution
prevention. Waste Management and Research Center pollution
prevention engineers reviewed the applications, while the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency determined company environmental
compliance.
"Again this year, we were impressed
with the variety and quality of the projects undertaken by the
award-winning companies," said George Vander Velde, director of the
Waste Management and Research Center. "These businesses and
organizations have proven that pollution prevention makes good sense
for the environmental and economic health of Illinois. They have
achieved their pollution prevention goals and saved millions of
dollars in pollution control, waste disposal, energy and raw
material costs."
Information on the Governor's
Pollution Prevention Awards program and technical assistance on
pollution prevention are available from the Waste Management and
Research Center, One Hazelwood Drive, Champaign, IL 61820; phone
(217) 333-8940;
www.wmrc.uiuc.edu.
Winners of the 2004 Governor's
Pollution Prevention Award
Large industry
category
Behr Process Corporation
in Chicago Heights manufactures stains, varnishes and paints and is
committed to meeting and exceeding environmental regulatory
requirements whenever possible. Behr Process Corporation is an ISO
14001-certified company. Behr plastic pails and cans are made with
post-consumer plastics so that they may be recycled. The company
saved approximately $6,000 by recycling and has diverted
approximately 479 tons of recyclable material from disposal. Behr
Process Corporation not only prevents waste but also buys recycled
products.
The Crown Cork & Seal USA Inc.
facility in Aurora coats and decorates metal sheets for the eventual
fabrication of cans and ends at other locations. The project
implemented was to reduce and eventually eliminate the backwash
solvent used on two sheet-coating lines. Prior to implementing the
projects, Crown used in excess of 23,000 gallons of solvent and
disposed of 375,000 pounds of hazardous waste. The total amount
spent on these items was in excess of $300,000 per year. Crown
developed a method for recycling the waste solvent generated so that
the waste material would never leave company property and the risk
of contamination from other waste would be eliminated. The purchase
of virgin solvent was reduced from 23,000 gallons to 3,100 gallons,
and hazardous waste disposal was reduced from 375,000 pounds to
234,000 pounds. In total, the establishment of the program generated
annual cost savings of $129,000. Crown made a modification to the
coaters that allows them to operate without the use of the backwash
solvent, and the company continues to recycle the small amount of
solvent used on the two coaters. As a result, plantwide disposal of
hazardous waste was reduced another 77,000 pounds and total costs
decreased another $71,000.
GM Electro-Motive
in LaGrange manufactures and rebuilds
diesel engines and locomotive components. The facility generates a
variety of waste materials from the manufacturing and testing
operations, including used oils, cutting fluids, alkaline cleaners,
paint and solvents, concrete, pallets, scrap wood, cardboard, and
paper. These materials are segregated and recycled using an
environmental management system. GM Electro-Motive has reduced the
disposal of caustic liquid solutions by 1,200 gallons per year at a
savings of $2,500 per year. Product substitution of xylene with
"Simple Green" in engine cleaning reduced the amount of hazardous
waste generated and disposed of by 2,000 pounds and saved $1,500 per
year. By segregating used oils, the facility increased the amount
recycled by 35 tons, decreased the amount going for secondary fuel
at a savings of $3,500 per year and eliminated 80 tons of water in
sludge that would be sent for disposal offsite, saving $5,000 per
year.
Cadbury Adams
in Rockford worked with a water treatment company to reduce the
volume of brine solution used during the regeneration process of its
potable water. After reviewing the materials, analyses were
performed to determine what the operating and environmental benefits
would be from implementing such a system. An environmental
evaluation was also conducted that showed there would be a reduction
in water usage and a reduction in the amount of brine solution
discharged to the sanitary sewer system. The final qualifier was
that the quality of the softened water would not be diminished. The
project was implemented with the purchase of a control system that
monitored concentrations of the effluent from the regeneration
process and installation of some additional piping for returning the
brine solution to the brine tank.
Educational
institution
Community Unit School District 3
Cuba School -- The board of
education, the administrators and staff of CUSD 3 in Fulton County
worked together to design a building that has been called a
"benchmark" school in a small, rural district. Grants were sought
for energy efficiency and sustainability. The school district
incorporated as many elements of "green" design as it could afford
in building the new Cuba Middle/Senior High School. Consideration
was given to air quality, acoustical comfort, geothermal heat pumps,
photovoltaics, recycled materials, additional insulation in the
walls and ceiling, energy-efficient windows, de-lighting, and a
possible wind turbine. The district plans to write cross-curricular
environmental units of study into its curriculum and apply for
future grants to develop natural areas.
Service organization
Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory is located in
Batavia. Fermilab employees proposed and implemented a liquid
nitrogen recovery system at D-Zero, a 5,000-ton subatomic particle
collision detector, which detects particle collisions occurring
within the world's largest particle accelerator. Near the collision
point, Fermilab uses liquid nitrogen to cool the visible light
photon counter chips at a temperature of -444 Fahrenheit. The
nitrogen cooling system left some of the liquid nitrogen not
vaporized, producing liquid exhaust and vaporization in a large
vertical heat exchanger outside the D-Zero assembly hall. This
recovery system will save the lab approximately $43,000 and 207,360
gallons a year in liquid nitrogen, increase the efficiency of the
liquid nitrogen system, and reduce the heat load on other cooling
systems.
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Continuous Improvement Award
International Truck & Engine Corp.
in Melrose Park produces diesel engines for midsize trucks and
school buses. The company's crankshaft machining line's tapping
operation used chlorinated paraffin-based lubricant for the harsh
roll-tapping operation. International installed a new flow-through
tapping operation that eliminated the toxic lubricant and replaced
it with synthetic coolant. Additionally, the company developed a
wooden pallet recycling process that eliminated the extra handling
and costly labor. The company also was successful in improving the
paint booth transfer efficiency by reprogramming the paint robots.
This reduced the paint usage, waste paint sludge, air emissions and
energy by 21 percent. A reduction of 2,700 gallons of paint and
3,500 pounds of air emissions resulted from this change. The cycle
time was improved along with the quality. These efforts resulted in
a savings of $330,000 for 2003.
Commonwealth Edison (ComEd)
and the city of Chicago have teamed
up with governmental, labor and community partners to form the
Chicago Solar Partnership, a unique private-public partnership. This
partnership has facilitated the installation of $12 million in solar
electric systems in schools and public buildings across the city.
The combined capacity of all the solar installations is one
megawatt. The solar electric systems not only provide pollution-free
energy, but also help offset a portion of the energy bills of the
facilities that house them. The partnership hopes that these
installations raise awareness and understanding of solar energy and
the benefits it can provide. To help Chicago Public Schools bring
the lessons of solar energy into the classroom, real-time energy
output data from all of the solar systems and a solar-based
curriculum are available on the Web at
www.chicagosolarpartnership.org.
Nalco Company
in Bedford Park is a specialty chemical company that manufactures a
variety of products used for casting of metal parts and ceramic
forms. This past year, the plant made process improvements that
reduced the amount of wastewater treatment chemicals used by 64
percent and reduced the amount of solids in the wastewater by 46
percent. Nalco also initiated some inventory and recycling projects
that reduced waste from the plant by 4.1 percent. The overall
savings from these projects totaled $764,000. Nalco also became home
to a number of creative, beneficial reuse projects of idled
buildings, providing resources to various governmental agencies.
Sherwin Williams-Minwax,
based in Flora, is the only site in the country to manufacture
Minwax wood stains, topcoats and waxes of both the oil and
water-base variety. Recycling and waste reduction come from the
production operation, where wash byproducts are generated. Minwax
instituted an in-house recycling program that used 250-gallon steel
totes to help capture the wash byproducts in 2003. Minwax has
increased its efforts this year, raising the number of lines using
this system from two to seven and the number of totes collecting the
different family products from eight to 17. The amount of wash
reused on-site from the tote program is 1.6 million pounds at a cost
savings of $336,000.
Caterpillar's Technology and
Solutions Division in Peoria
was challenged to create a world-class "virtual engine" simulation
tool that would have the accuracy required to bring better
combustion technologies to market sooner by reducing the time and
expense to evaluate concepts and diagnose problems. A diesel
combustion simulation tool was developed and used to predict engine
performance and emissions for both near-term and long-term enabling
technologies. Through the use of the "virtual engine" model, the
team reduced traditional engine test cell time from five months to
seven days. This saved approximately 3,000 hours of test cell time.
Through the use of the "virtual engine" model, the consumption of
nearly 44,000 gallons of diesel fuel was avoided, resulting in a
reduction of over seven tons of emissions.
Abbott Laboratories
is located in Abbott Park. Project work undertaken by Abbott last
year included the following: A pollution prevention process review
tool was created to identify and evaluate pollution prevention
projects in bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing. The use of this tool
on one process resulted in a 39 percent reduction of hazardous
materials, an associated reduction in hazardous air emission and a
42 percent reduction in hazardous waste generated. Disposable
apparel was replaced with reusable clothing, resulting in 67,000
cubic feet of non-hazardous waste being diverted from a landfill
each year for a net savings of over $460,000. Hybrid electric-gas
vehicles were introduced into the commercial sales and service
fleet. The increased fuel efficiency of the vehicle is estimated to
provide a savings of over 7,600 gallons of fuel per year for all 16
vehicles in the study, for an estimated cost savings of over $13,500
per year.
Caterpillar Cast Metals Organization
in Mapleton confirmed its commitment to pollution prevention by
replacing a 30-year-old proven process with a new technology that
reduced air emissions, lowered costs and improved the health and
safety of the workplace. CMO is a gray-iron foundry primarily
casting engine blocks, engine heads and cylinder liners. Metal
castings are made by pouring molten iron into sand molds, allowing
the iron to solidify and cool, and removing the castings from the
sand. In the engine block core-making process, the outside of the
metal casting is formed by the sand mold itself, and sand and resins
are combined to make a resin system called Isocure 308/608. This
past year, a project was launched to replace this resin system with
a better performing and more environmentally safe resin called
Isocure 408/808. Through this system, emissions of volatile organic
matter will be reduced by 12.3 tons annually. The expected annual
savings is $810,000, which represents a 20 percent reduction in sand
and resin costs.
Maytag Herrin Laundry Products
in Herrin is a manufacturer
of household washers and dryers. Pollution prevention efforts have
focused on source reduction of paint and cleaning solvents, water
conservation and reuse, energy conservation, preventive maintenance,
and solid material recycling. Total energy savings for the project
is 2,616,045 kilowatt-hours per year. Air emissions reductions
experienced from this project are experienced at the power plants
that supply electricity. The annual emission reductions are
estimated to be more than 830 tons.
GE Healthcare Bio-sciences
in Arlington Heights is a
manufacturer of radiopharmaceuticals that are used by physicians in
the diagnosis of disease, using various imaging techniques. The
facility recently has invested over $667,000 to upgrade an exhaust
system and house vacuum system. The new exhaust system has replaced
five independent air effluent extraction systems. The exhaust system
and house vacuum system have a more efficient filtration and
absorber system. The two electrical motors used on the new exhaust
have a rated efficiency of 94.5 percent as opposed to a rated 84
percent efficiency for the electrical motors that were replaced. The
investment has resulted in an 80 percent reduction in air emissions
associated with radiopharmaceutical production. GE Healthcare
Bio-sciences was previously known as Amersham Health.
[News release from the
governor's office] |
