Home Magazine Good Faith Efforts

Corporations are making it a point these days to emphasize the strides they are making to be sustainable. With the ever-increasing focus on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, organizations are finding it more important not only to operate more sustainability in all facets of their businesses but also to report about what they are doing via websites, publications, videos and press events dedicated to outlining the corporate measures taken toward this cause.

As such, sustainability has become a broad, catch-all term that encompasses any number of practices and policies, ranging from manufacturing to social responsibility to logistics to sourcing to community enrichment.

Environmental sustainability is usually one of these categories, and it too can be manifested any number of ways. Chief among these have been energy efficiency, waste management and the dedication to investing in and using renewable energy sources. Three companies among the many that stand out in this pursuit, have included specific renewable-energy-from-waste initiatives among the measures they are taking to operate more sustainably now and in the years ahead.

Paper Chains
In September 2013, the global diversified packaging company Sonoco was listed on the 2013/2014 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) for the fifth consecutive year. The world index, one of several Dow Jones Sustainability indices, is designed to serve as a benchmark for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their investment strategies.

Among Sonoco’s numerous sustainability measures has been its 2011 decision to invest in a renewable energy system to power its Hartsville, S.C., paper complex with woody biomass instead of with coal. At press time, the company was preparing to begin operations on the new $75 million biomass cogeneration system.

In recent years, the company has made a major push away from coal and toward the use of natural gas and biomass to power its Hartsville complex. The move is expected to significantly reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs).

The new cogeneration system will be fed with wood wastes from regional logging activity and is designed to provide low-cost energy and steam for the company’s paperboard mills in Hartsville, replacing inefficient coal boilers, says Sonoco President and CEO Jack Sanders in the company’s “2012-2013 Corporate Responsibility Report,” released in July.

The biomass cogeneration system, which produces both steam and power, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2013, says Brian Risinger, manager of corporate communications and investor relations for Sonoco Products Co., based in Hartsville. The energy and steam will be used to support on-site operations, including seven paper machines, a pulp mill, chemical recovery and various other related operations, Risinger says.

“Sonoco will use the low-pressure steam as an energy source to manufacture recycled paperboard and other converted products,” Risinger says. “Energy produced at the plant will come from woody biomass, primarily through logging residue such as limbs and tree tops that are left to disintegrate after forests are harvested or thinned.”

The boiler unit, designed and installed by McBurney Corp., based in Atlanta, is rated at 490 million British thermal units (Btu) per hour of heat input, or 300,000 pounds of steam per hour. At maximum capacity, Risinger says, it is anticipated that 60 tons per hour of woody biomass will be needed to feed the system.

According to the company’s report, the system is capable of producing 16 megawatts of low-cost electricity and steam that will be used at the Hartsville complex. The system also is expected to provide approximately $14 million in savings, the company reports.

Additionally, Risinger says, the new system is expected to allow Sonoco to meet environmental requirements sooner than regulatory deadlines demand and to allow for the shuttering of two coal-fired units: Around 125,000 tons of coal will be displaced by shutting the coal-fired boilers. Assuming that this coal is replaced with wood, Risinger says, that equates to a 98 percent reduction in GHG emissions from 2010, (using the accepted practice of carbon neutrality for biomass fuels).

Another of Sonoco’s renewable energy initiatives has been upgrading a flex-fuel boiler operation also in Hartsville so it can use more mill scrap as fuel and also divert those wastes from landfill. The multifuel, fluidized bed boiler, originally installed in 1997, is now permitted to burn coal, gas, wood and certain allowable manufacturing residuals, such as ash, paper, product rejects (such as tubes and cores) and plastics, Risinger explains.

Super-Sized Green Power
Mike Duke, president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (the legal trade name of the corporation known as Walmart), reports in the company’s “2013 Global Responsibility Report” that renewable energy provides 21 percent of the company’s energy globally. Duke adds that in 2013, “we became the largest on-site green power generator in the United States.”

In recent months Walmart has promoted its goal to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy. Two major corporate sustainability communications platforms, in addition to the corporate report, released in April, include the company’s Green Room website, www.walmartgreenroom.com, as well as its series of Global Sustainability Milestone Meetings.

According to the company’s “2013 Global Responsibility Report,” Walmart had more than 280 renewable energy projects in operation or in development globally at the end of 2012. These projects were providing more than 1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually—enough to power about 95,000 homes, the company says. Most of those are solar and wind power installations, but the company also reports some biogas and fuel cell projects are in place as well.

A spokesman for the company says Walmart has piloted various waste-to-energy programs, but it was unclear whether any of those projects have been brought to scale.

Together with renewable energy the company was supplied by the grid, about 21 percent of the company’s global electricity needs were supplied by renewable sources in 2012, the report says. The company also reports that renewable energy provided 17 percent of its buildings’ total energy needs, with about 14 percent from the grid and 3 percent from Walmart’s own renewable energy projects.

The company also hopes to increase those numbers. At an April 2013 Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting, Duke announced that Walmart planned to produce or procure 7 billion kWh of renewable energy globally by the end of 2020—an increase of more than 600 percent from 2010. Along with that, Duke said the company was committed to reducing the energy intensity required to power its buildings by 20 percent compared with 2010 levels.

“More than ever, we know that our goal to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy is the right goal and that marrying up renewables with energy efficiency is especially powerful,” Duke said. “The math adds up pretty quickly—when we use less energy, that’s less energy we have to buy, and that means less waste and more savings,” he added.

Duke said that by 2020, renewable energy is projected to supply nearly 30 percent of the total energy used in the corporation’s buildings. He said all of Walmart’s operations would be responsible for contributing to this goal.

“Once this program is fully implemented, we could save over $1 billion per year globally in energy costs,” Duke said at the Milestones meeting.

As part of its sustainability plan, the company has set up “Sustainable Value Networks” charged with helping Walmart integrate sustainable practices into all parts of the business. Two of these networks include Renewable Energy and Operations Waste and Recycling, both incorporating some conversion technologies.

For instance, Walmart’s Zero Waste program calls for the creation of animal food, energy or compost from expired food and other organic products. Toward this end, in 2011, Walmart Mexico worked with suppliers to turn 1.2 million pounds of cooking oil recovered from its stores into biodiesel, soap and a supplement for cattle feed.

And, according to the Green Room website, many Sam’s Club locations are recycling the yellow chicken grease from rotisserie chickens into useable products like animal feed and biodiesel fuel. The company says that in 2011, more than 268,000 gallons of yellow grease from rotisserie chickens were diverted. Of that total, more than 100,000 gallons were recycled into biodiesel, and another 163,000 gallons were converted into animal feed products.

According to the report, Walmart is testing the use of biodiesel fuels that contains waste grease from its stores’ in fleet vehicles. To do this, the company has worked with the specialty fuels company Dynamic Fuels, Geismar, La.

The joint venture between Tyson Foods Inc. and Syntroleum Corp. produces a renewable, synthetic fuel from animal fat, grease and vegetable oil. Initial testing for fuel economy led to an expanded pilot at a distribution center in Louisiana, according to the report.

The company also reports that some U.S. fuel cell installations are capable of converting biogas to power and delivering 65 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Walmart reports that it has sized its systems to provide 40 to 70 percent of the stores’ annual electric requirements where the fuel cell systems are installed.

Fueled by Food
In May, the Kroger Co., based in Los Angeles, unveiled its clean energy production system designed to convert food that can’t be sold or donated into clean energy to help power its Ralphs/Food 4 Less Compton, Calif., distribution center.

The anaerobic conversion system can process 55,000 tons of organic food waste into renewable energy annually and provides power for the 650,000-square-foot distribution center. The system can divert 150 tons of food waste per day and is significantly reducing area truck trips by more than 500,000 miles each year, Kroger says.

Previously, food from area stores that could not be sold or donated was transported to the distribution center, aggregated and then trucked to a Bakersfield, Calif., composting facility six times per day, the company reports.

The Kroger Recovery System converts the carbon in organic material into a renewable source of methane. Feed Resource Recovery Inc., a clean technology company based in Boston, designed and operates the system.

The process, called R2S for the food industry, is designed to leverage customers’ existing transportation and distribution systems to generate clean, sustainable power for on-site operations. The system utilizes anaerobic digestion (AD) technology to transform unsold organics and on-site food-processing effluent into renewable biogas. This biogas is then turned into power for on-site operations. The process is carried out in an enclosed, oxygen-free environment, which means it takes up less space and generates no odors.

According to Kroger, the R2S system for the food industry can provide enough renewable biogas to offset more than 20 percent of the energy demand of the Ralphs/Food 4 Less distribution center.

“The Resource Recovery project enables us to reduce our costs while providing clean energy that helps us run our facilities right here on site,” says Kendra Doyel, group vice president of public relations and government affairs for Ralphs. “The partnership for this project is providing an 18.5 percent return on investment, making it a win not only for our company but for our customers and the environment as well.”

Combining the use of renewable energy with more than 150 zero-emission fuel cell forklifts, the Ralphs/Food 4 Less distribution center is described by Kroger as one of the greenest and most efficient such facilities in Compton.

“We are committed to finding solutions for food waste and clean energy, and we believe this is a meaningful step forward,” says Rodney McMullen, president and COO of Kroger. “Investing in this project is a good business decision for Kroger and, most importantly, an extraordinary opportunity to benefit the environment,” he adds.

Kroger, along with Walmart and Sonoco, are three organizations among many that are making strides when it comes to implementing innovative, economically sound ways to produce and use renewable energy from various sources of waste. These companies also are illustrating that there is no shortage of approaches when it comes to accomplishing this feat.

The author is a managing editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be reached at [email protected].