Plumrose USA's new facility in Council Bluffs has been appointed sustainable plant of the year. A prestigious prize which everybody involved in the project can be proud of.

"We have tried to take consumption of water and energy, recycling and global footprint into every decision made in planning the facility. Of course this means big changes saving millions of gallons water a year, but also smaller projects such as dual flush toilets and water free urinals have reduced the use of water from daily employee bathroom breaks," explained CEO, Dave Schanzer.

However, far the biggest reduction in water consumption comes from reusing water in the company’s cooking/chilling process. By sterilizing water in UV filters it can be reused, which lowers the water consumption by 80 per cent, saving natural gas in the process as the water does not have to be reheated.

This means that consumption of natural gas has been lowered by 20,000 MBtu a year, which is a very significant improvement.

"The numbers looked really impressive on paper, but even more so, as productions has begun and we can see that we are able to reduce energy in actual production. This means a huge reduction in our carbon footprint and a significant reduction in our cost of water and natural gas," said Dave Schanzer.

Robots do the heavy lifting

But it is not only the environment which benefits from Plumrose´s state-of-the-art new factory.

At Council Bluffs robots do the heavy lifting in order to spare employees from such tasks.

"Again this is a case where everybody really benefits from a well thought system where we uses the strengths of robots in an area were heavy lifting and repetitive tasks was formerly part of the job. These robots have been designed to expend nominal energy while doing repetitive tasks which could be potentially harmful to employees," said Mr Schanzer.

As the products leave the factory in trucks, which has also been modified in order to reduce the use of fuel, Mr Schanzer can take pride in knowing that products coming from Council Bluffs have been made in the most environmental friendly way possible.

"It looked good on paper, but it looks even better in real life, and I am very proud of our team and our supply partners that helped with the design, building, and start-up of this facility. This is the work of many competent and skilled workers both within Plumrose and some key outside partners- this could not have been achieved without them. I really want to thank everybody involved in building this facility. The prize as sustainable facility of the year is theirs as much as it is ours, and I hope that they take pride in this as well," said Mr Schanzer.

And it is not just concerning sustainability that the team at Plumrose have reasons to be proud. The plant is very effective as well, and besides being appointed the most sustainable plant in the US, the facility at Council Bluffs was runner up in the competition plant of the year, where all factors are taken in to consideration.