Two Ogden-area plants receive ENERGY STAR recognition

OGDEN — Energy savings can come from small steps, even for some of the Ogden area’s largest manufacturing plants.

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded ENERGY STAR certifications to two Ogden-area industrial plants. It marked the ConAgra Foods’ Ogden Plant’s first ENERGY STAR award. The facility makes waffles and cookies, including Lofthouse brand sugar cookies. The EPA also recognized concrete manufacturer Holcim USA’s Devils Slide Plant with its seventh certificate.

Whether baking cookies on a massive scale or grinding gravel, manufacturing plants tend to burn a lot of energy. But representatives for both companies said sustainability practices came from changing behaviors. Much of the changes at ConAgra and Holcim USA were simple, like making sure lights are switched off, leaks are sealed and fans run efficiently.

“If you leave your office, the lights go off,” said Eric Gilles, engineering and maintenance manager at the ConAgra Foods Ogden Plant. “Those changes add up over time, so you get a little bit of savings over time and you (also) change a mindset that affects the big hitters.”

According to EPA information, the ConAgra and Holcim USA plants are Utah’s only ENERGY STAR-certified plants.

ConAgra’s bigger ENERGY STAR efforts included retuning their boiler so it’s around 40 percent more efficient. They also partnered with their facility’s building owner to replace and upgrade their roof, and with Rocky Mountain Power to get rebates on upgrading windows.

The ConAgra plant also worked to curb emissions coming from their 121,000 square-foot cold storage area to both reduce their electric bill and improve air quality. They figure they’ve reduced those refrigeration units emissions by 70 percent.

“There’s still more work to do, but it’s continuous improvement and trying to get better each and every day,” Gilles said.

The Holcim USA Devils Slide Plant has worked on upping its efficiency day by day for the past seven years. Those efforts have paid off. The plant has managed to drop its electric energy consumption from a high in 2009 of 136.4 kilowatt hours per ton of cement to a low of 118.6 kilowatt hours per ton in 2014, all without a reduction in output.

“That’s almost a 13 percent reduction,” said Jamison Oksness, senior process engineer for the plant. “That’s strictly just energy efficiency projects; we didn’t change our product.”

Shaun McGrath, Region 8 administrator for the EPA, presented the certifications to the two plants Tuesday.

“ENERGY STAR is something that was created to do exactly what’s happening here, to tell a story of how we can save energy, be more efficient with our resources and, in turn, making the manufacturing process a better process,” he said.

For 2014, EPA certified 70 companies. Combined, the ConAgra Ogden Plant and Holcim USA Devils Slide Plant saved enough energy to run more than 3,000 households for a year. They prevented more than 37,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved the businesses more than $3 million in energy costs.

“That’s a lot of avoided pollution and a lot of savings to the bottom line,” McGrath said.

The national recognition of ENERGY STAR brings an added incentive for companies to enact greener policies.

“It helps us with ... socially responsible investors, socially responsible consumers and customers, and it reinforces that we’re on the right path to making a difference,” said Gail Tavill, vice president of sustainable development at ConAgra’s corporate headquarters. She said ConAgra now has 10 plants and three corporate office buildings with ENERGY STAR certification.

“The times of everything about being about the dollar are past,” she said. “You have to be a good corporate citizen, too.”

Samantha Smith contributed to this report. Contact reporter Leia Larsen at 801-625-4289 or at llarsen@standard.net. Follow her at Facebook.com/leiaoutside or on Twitter @LeiaLarsen.