Dometic North America has announced its sustainability initiatives for 2021 and beyond.
As a part of an expanding emphasis on sustainability and the initiatives of the leadership team onsite, Dometic RV’s facility in Greenbrier, Tenn., is working hard to reduce its environmental footprint in Middle Tennessee.
Through a suite of cooperative sustainability programs offered through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) known as Green Switch and Green Flex, Dometic has been able to completely offset all electrical use through renewable sources of energy such as hydro-electric, wind, solar and biomass power. Since transitioning to Green-e certified energy sources in March, the facility has reduced about 250 metric tons of CO2e, according to Dometic.
Based on monthly averages, the annual savings in Scope 2 GHG emissions is projected to be around 1,500 metric tons of CO2e for Greenbrier in years to come.
The programs work in conjunction with existing on-site support services to complete audits that reduce air line leaks, identify lighting and equipment upgrades and promote changes to HVAC equipment with recommendations that help further support energy reduction efforts. The team at Greenbrier and TVA began these onsite support services in March and will continue to work through their energy improvement program onsite.
“As an outdoor company, we are committed to reducing the climate impact of our operations,” said Mark Nelson, operations manager in Greenbrier. “Sustainable practices are imperative not only for our business, but every business. We are excited to kick off these new initiatives and to have such strong support within our organization.”
In addition to the TVA program, Dometic Greenbrier has also been focused on CO2e reduction in other Scope 3 areas, specifically truck utilization and capacity efforts. The team saw that historical utilization created opportunities for improvement that would not only improve transportation costs, but also drastically reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions from truck traffic.
Other green initiatives launched on Earth Day 2021 included plant-wide single-stream recycling efforts, as well as absorbent, shop towel and PPE laundering. Dometic said these, and other recycling efforts, are aimed at getting Greenbrier to “Zero Landfill” by 2023 in a market where recycling can be very difficult.
Lastly, Greenbrier recently received approval to construct a new water heater wash line that will use recirculating waterjet technology and aims at reducing water use by 4.5 million gallons, wastewater by 232,000 gallons and chemical use by 6,500 gallons annually, a fraction of the original footprint.
