Promega supports limiting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions because we take the threat of climate change seriously. We actively work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all operations globally and track our efforts. We take into account direct and indirect emissions, looking at fuel combustion, purchased electricity, business travel, outgoing distribution, water and paper usage. Thanks to our efforts to conserve energy and efficiently ship products, we are currently on target to achieve our carbon emissions goal for 2020.
Minimizing Electricity Usage and Associated Emissions
In the last year, we saw gross energy usage decrease by 2.7% even
with increases in building footprint, headcount and revenue. Because
electricity makes up over half of our total emissions, reducing
electricity usage significantly decreased our carbon footprint. We
invest in energy efficiency, generate electricity from photovoltaic
panels and purchase electricity from renewable sources. In addition,
several additional projects energy efficiency have been identified and
implemented including:
- Saving over 400,000 kWh at our R&D facility in Madison, WI,
by connecting to a more efficient central chiller plant. Anticipated
ongoing savings are expected to exceed half a million kWh.
- Retrofitting the Biopharmaceutical Technology Center in
Wisconsin started in 2017 and included more cooling towers, LED lighting
and controls for efficient scheduling of air handling units.
- Programming changes in the air handling units at our daVinci facility in Madison, WI, decreased electricity usage by 21%.
- Renovating Promega France with energy conservation measures in
fall 2017 including a more efficient cooling system and LED lighting
will benefit our 2018 tracking.
Our use of renewable energy has increased 15-fold since 2008 with
global facilities that use 100% renewable energy sources including:
- Promega GmbH and Promega Euro Hub in Mannheim, Germany.
- Promega Brazil in Sao Paulo.
- Promega Italia in Milan.
- Promega Biotech Ibérica in Alcobendas, Spain.
- Promega Biotech AB in Stockholm, Sweden.
- The Madison Aviation Operations building in Wisconsin, our
largest renewable energy producer with over 250 solar panels and
geothermal wells for heating and cooling.
Conserving Natural Gas
Natural gas is our largest source of direct air emissions and third
in overall emissions for Promega. Used primarily at manufacturing sites
for heating and production-related processes, we have minimized heating
requirements and associated fossil fuel emissions by using geothermal
wells, solar water heaters and heat capture technology in many
facilities. In 2017, natural gas usage was reduced by 2% as indexed to
revenue due to the following conservation efforts:
- Programming changes in the air handling units reduced natural gas usage by 38% at our daVinci facility in Madison, WI.
- Renovating Promega France building in 2017 with a new and more
efficient heating system is anticipated to reduce natural gas needs.
