As consumers and government agencies demand that brand owners demonstrate greater environmental awareness, manufacturers will pursue every avenue to enhance their sustainability. Depending on where a manufacturer currently stands in its sustainability measures, utility savings could offer some low-hanging fruit. Cutting the usage of compressed air, water, electricity and even gas can really reduce a company’s carbon footprint over time—and reduce related expenses, according to Tom Egan, vice president, industry services, PMMI.
“By air savings, we are referring to pneumatic savings,” says Egan. “Compressed air is a critical component of many material handling solutions, such as pick and place machinery that utilizes suction created by pneumatic pumps to separate individually wrapped baked goods. The pumps consume energy to generate the suction that holds the product in place or the blast of air that disengages it. By reducing the amount of air used by the pneumatic pumps, manufacturers can incrementally reduce energy usage on the line.”