Challenge
In alignment with B. Braun’s commitment to sustainable manufacturing processes, management at the B. Braun Marcon facility in Allentown, PA, identified a need for two complementary projects, (1) a baseline energy assessment in order to identify opportunities for significant energy savings through improved energy efficiency, and (2) a carbon footprint analysis of the Marcon manufacturing facility and the 12th Avenue corporate office to provide an understanding of the sources of carbon emissions and the most likely opportunities for carbon emissions reduction.
The project objectives were:
- (1) for energy reduction, to identify opportunities to reduce energy use by at least 10%.
- (2) for carbon footprint, to create the framework and methodology for carbon emission calculations at the Marcon and 12th Avenue facilities in order to deliver B. Braun’s first carbon footprint.
Project Description
The project team investigated numerous energy-intensive areas throughout the facility and developed recommendations in the areas of compressed air, HVAC, and lighting. Additionally, a review of motors at the facility yielded further recommendations that were not quantified due to the fact that replacement of motors would be considered on an as-needed basis.
The project team used as its core document in developing the carbon footprint The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, Revised Edition, written by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute in 2004.
Organizational boundaries were determined by the amount of control exercised by the measuring body over the facilities and activities being measured. Operational boundaries were determined by choosing the scope of the carbon footprint. For B. Braun the operational boundaries included only CO2 emissions found in Scope 1, Direct Emissions, and Scope 2, Indirect Emissions. Appropriate measurements and calculations were then completed for each of the subject areas and a carbon footprint for the facility was calculated.
Results
The energy reduction portion of the project developed four recommendations in the areas of compressed air, HVAC and lighting that would result in a reduction in energy consumption of 5.7%. Factoring in the value of avoided CO2 emissions, the savings would equal 6.9%. A general review and recommendations were made for improvements in motors that would result in additional currently-unquantified savings. This project did not achieve 10% energy reduction savings primarily because of the exceptional work that had been completed by the B. Braun facilities engineers and staff prior to the start of the project. B. Braun personnel had already reduced energy consumption by 4% over the previous five-year period. The combined savings for the previous period plus the new recommendations totaled 9.7%.
The carbon footprint portion of the project defined the boundaries and scope of the carbon footprint. The project year carbon footprint for those boundaries was calculated to be 25,831 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions.
A separate, stand-alone Guide to Carbon Footprint Calculations was prepared, outlining the methodology used in the creation of the carbon footprint. This Guide and the templates and resources provided by the project team are available to BBraun personnel for future carbon footprint calculations.