Category Archives: Green Ideas for Industry

Construction: Going Green and Growing Green

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Breana Cronk

In 2005 the market for ‘green’ building comprised a meager 2% of the construction industry at large. With the ensuing economic recession one might expect that such a small sector may have all but vanished. In truth, green building is bouncing back better than before. Much better. Recent reports suggest that this environmentally conscientious sector is now commanding as much as 30% of all new construction. Renovations are also turning to green products and processes which may increase the price slightly, but often improve the value dramatically in the eyes of the consumer market. Though ‘going green’ was once treated as a hippy-dippy-tree-hugger trend, its current stronghold on an otherwise stagnant industry proves that sustainable building may just be the answer to sustaining that very industry. Continue reading →

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The Phrases and Phases of Recycling

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Breana Cronk

Climate change, environmental impact and carbon footprint. These are just a few of the phrases haphazardly thrown around nowadays to assert the need for recycling programs across the nation and around the globe. One phrase often overlooked, however, is economic recession. While many assign credit for the environmental movement to the men and women of the 1970s, the value of recycled goods was actually emphasized decades before that. It was the economic depression of the 1930s and 40s that brought conservation and recycling to the forefront of the American mind. The stock market crash made money scarce and the pair of World Wars that followed necessitated the rationing of goods. Rather than see this as a breaking point, Americans founded an industry, recycling. Continue reading →

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What Can Lean Manufacturing do for Your Company?

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Todd Halt

Lean manufacturing-if you’re in industry, I’m sure you’ve been hearing this concept a lot in recent years. It claims to be a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste while at the same time, improving the product and maximizing customer value. While it may be true that the recession and mainstream environmental concerns may have something to do with Lean’s new found popularity, it’s actually not a new concept, but rather the business model of many established and successful companies, including Ford, Johnson & Johnson and Lantech. Lean has been in development the last 5 to 6 decades, and the official term was coined in the early 90s. If switching to lean means a higher quality product and higher efficiency and significant savings, why isn’t every company doing it? Continue reading →

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It’s So Cool To Be Green

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Todd Halt

Air conditioners are probably the most necessary of all luxury and comfort items, especially if you inhabit a warm climate. I live in Michigan, which yes, in the winter months is unbelievably cold, but in July and August, 90 degrees and humid isn’t that uncommon. I’ve also never lived in a house with central air conditioning; so I know-a hot, sunny, humid day without AC is almost torture…until you get your energy bill, that is. Standard air conditioning systems have been the established method of cooling residential and commercial buildings since they first appeared in the 60 because are so effective. Put on full blast, walking into your house is like walking into the Arctic Circle. However, they suck up energy and are probably the most un-green system in your house. During peak summer months, AC is responsible for about 100 million tons of carbon emission each year. Continue reading →

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Environmental and Cost Benefits of Car Washes

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Todd Halt

A surprising 15% of American car owners never wash their cars; they just let the rain take care of it. Many wash their vehicles in their driveway with a hose and household cleaners. Some claim they don’t have time, others don’t want to pay for a professional cleaning. Today, there are 100,000 professional car washes in the United States. Whether you’re part of a small business or working for a large chain, owners of car wash equipment need to advertise the benefits of their company to the public. Virtually every type of car wash system used today-whether touchless, coin-operated, automated or hand-operated, has advantages that far outweigh the alternatives. Perhaps the most attractive advantage to the consumer, using professional car washes is a money-saving method of protecting an expensive investment. Washing a car twice a month can protect from environmental factors, including acid rain, salt on roads during the winter and bird droppings, all of which can cause serious damage over time. These unavoidable issues will harm the finish, age the car and significantly decrease its overall resale value-on average, about 20%. Continue reading →

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Reaching Tier 4: Forklift Trucks Meet Cleaner, Stricter Emission Standards

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Todd Halt

Within the past 5 years or so, the concept of reducing emissions has been the automotive industry’s most popular issue. It’s all over their commercials, boasting fuel economy and environmental friendliness. Though less advertised, non-road diesel engines, including forklift trucks, are no exception. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working since 1996 on a 4-tiered program to greatly reduce emission pollutants and sulfur content in fuel. Program From 1996 until last year, non-road diesel engines have complied with lenient emission standards and still accounted for 44 percent of diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions and 12 percent of total nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, an excessively large amount of total emissions from mobile sources. So in January of 2008, the EPA put the 4th tier into effect. The new standards involve models built in 2008 and later and aim to reduce 90% of NOx and PM emissions, in comparison to unregulated engines. They are also reducing sulfur in fuel to 15-ppm. Continue reading →

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New Starch-Based Polymers Make Blow Molded Bio-Plastic Possible

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Todd Halt

This last April, British environmentalist and adventurer David de Rothschild set sail in a catamaran he had constructed entirely from recycled PET bottles. As a statement to the growing global problem of ocean pollution and the need for higher recycling standards, de Rothschild planned to sail to what Planet Green Bottle calls ‘Plastic Soup’, a floating mass of plastic waste nearly the size of Texas suspended in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This British adventure-seeker may have found the most creative way yet to call attention to this pending environmental risk, but plastic engineers and manufacturers have been working towards a solution in more conventional ways for many years. Polyethylene terephthalate, or ‘PET’, is a petroleum-based resin and may be broken down and recycled almost indefinitely. The addition of dies, fiberglass and other composite materials reduce PET’s recyclability, but the majority of PET materials, such as the beverage bottles out of which Mr. de Rothschild constructed his boat, are recycled at a cost relative or lower than that of purchasing virgin materials. Still, many water bottles, soda bottles and other beverage containers never make it to the recycling bin, ending up in landfills, or worse: the Pacific’s Plastic Soup. Continue reading →

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Reducing Your Carbon Footprint: Pollution Control Heat Recovery = Environmental Responsibility²

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Todd Halt

Pollution Control can be very expensive!’ you may say. And you’d be right. It can be. With ever increasing pressure to reduce emissions of gaseous pollution (and a company’s carbon footprint), many are choosing to install fume abatement systems on process exhausts where pollutants are present. In fact, regulations require pollution control equipment for many industries. The popularity of the Thermal Oxidization process for pollution control is, for the time being, high enough that it is considered the norm. Some companies have to endure the cost of cleaning exhausts for the environment. That is the responsibility element companies have to get used to. But it doesn’t have to be all bad news. I would bring to your attention several possibilities of secondary Heat Recovery worthy of your consideration. Process exhaust Heat Recovery can offer exceptional payback. The right industrial-grade air to air heat exchanger, correctly designed, engineered and built for your application, can allow you to reduce negative impact on the environment and your operational energy costs – dramatically. For instance: If you have a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) abatement system you know the final outgoing RTO exhaust temperature is higher than the incoming process air temperature. If, for example, you have 200°F entering the RTO from your process, the RTO exhaust could be as high as 400°F – even higher if the bypass is open. When RTOs are sold with high thermal efficiency expectations, companies often overlook the energy recovery potential of the RTO application. Continue reading →

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Ohio Gratings: Sustainable Architecture for Both Kinds of Green

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Todd Halt

For the last several months, we’ve been slowly but steadily fostering a ‘Green Ideas for Industry’ category here on the IQS Newsroom. Not only do we want to keep track of some of the vital shifts the US manufacturing industry is making towards sustainable production, but we would also like to extend kudos to the companies listed on our directory who are making that shift possible. Many of our advertisers have been making strides in sustainable manufacturing, recycling and environmentally responsible construction despite economic difficulties and an overall resistance to change within the industry. Today we’re going to take a look at Ohio Gratings’ environmentally friendly grating products – and how you can earn LEED points by building with them. Continue reading →

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Recuperating Waste Heat with Heat Exchangers

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Todd Halt

With all the ‘green’ alternative energy, recycling and sustainable manufacturing facilities popping up across the U.S., it seems only fitting to talk about heat exchangers. Recycling re-usable materials like aluminum, steel, HDPE, rubber and pulp products is a topic of frequent discussion in both consumer and manufacturing industries, but what about energy recycling? Industrial facilities and process manufacturers in pharmaceutical, bio-diesel, pulp and food process industries have been using the heat exchanger – a rather basic design concept – for decades to transfer heating and cooling. In recent years engineers have been tweaking the design, replacing typical coolants with gases or liquids which need to be heated anyway, allowing facilities to recycle their own energy. Automotive radiators, heater cores and evaporators work this way, with tubes of liquid coolant absorbing excess energy from the engine, which is then blown by fans into the car interior as heating. Continue reading →

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The ‘Green’ Building Movement and LEED Application Guidelines

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Todd Halt

This White Paper presents the proven ecological benefits and LEED application guidelines of infra-red heaters. Data provided by industry research and a LEED Accredited Professional (AP). Introduction The green building movement is gaining tremendous momentum on a national front, and is exemplified by the rising costs of energy. But what exactly does building green mean? ‘Green’ is a general term that can describe a wide range of practices such as energy savings, water conservation, recycling, sustainable site development, and the list goes on. In fact, LEED, the benchmark rating system for green building, has six (6) different categories used to evaluate a green project. Although all of these categories are considered green, arguably one such item carries a greater impact on the environment than all others combined; energy conservation. This is evident through the credit distribution scheme for LEED-NC (New Construction). Continue reading →

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Green Manufacturing Takes Root in US Soil

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Todd Halt

Chinese company Suntech, a heavyweight in global solar manufacturing, announced its plans last week to build another solar cell manufacturing facility here in the States, although they won’t decide where for another six months. Clearly these companies see an economic advantage to solar manufacturing here in the United States. Along with new tax breaks and federal incentives for renewable energy manufacturing, companies like Schott and Suntech see the benefits of setting up manufacturing close to customers – which means they’re anticipating an imminent demand in the US for solar energy. In the wake of losing hundreds of domestic manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs to the recession, pumping up the US solar manufacturing industry looks like a pretty great idea. Continue reading →

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A Brief History of Air Pollution Control, & What We’re Doing to Clean up Our Act!

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Rebekah Fuller

Since even before the industrial era, humans have been concerned with air pollution control. As early as the beginning of the 1300s in London, smoke pollution was a problem that Edward I recognized by enacting a ban on burning soft coal. However, that policy did not stick, and once the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s, air pollutants increased rapidly because of the dramatic shift to machine-based processes. Steam power fuelled by coal was introduced in the First Industrial Revolution of the 18th century and used for factory machinery. Steam-powered transportation became prevalent during the Second Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation making their appearance at the end that century… Continue reading →

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Wind Turbines: Change is in the Air for Manufacturing

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Todd Halt

Included in President Barack Obama’s historical inauguration speech was a striking statement on his vision for the future of our energy industry. ‘We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.’ Perhaps this statement sounds a little over-the-top to you – a little too epic. But honestly, what could be more epic than shifting the world’s energy source from petroleum to wind energy, solar power and compressed air? So far it seems President Obama is making good on his word. According to an article published today in the Washington Bureau, the U.S. Interior Department has ‘cleared the way’ for domestic offshore wind farms by finalizing guidelines. Projects are being considered for constructing wind farms off the United States’ Atlantic coast, namely Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A project long delayed by the previous administration’s procrastination in laying out legislative guidelines for offshore windfarms (and by the Kennedy family’s distaste for having the view from Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod marred by wind turbines), it looks like a shift from offshore oil fields to offshore windfarms are soon to be underway. Continue reading →

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8 Companies that Find it Easy to be Green

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Todd Halt

In honor of this week’s ‘Green Week’ celebration, we’ve compiled a list of 8 companies listed on our sites who demonstrate a strong commitment to environmental sustainability, health and personal safety. These guys think it’s easy being green. Continue reading →

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Special Announcement – Green Week at IQS!

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Todd Halt

Follow us this week for our IQS Green Week, in celebration of Earth Day! We'll be posting articles on green products, industry trends, and experts in sustainable manufacturing each day this week, so subscribe to our RSS and stay tuned!

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