The US Department of Energy’s Better Plants program has saved more than $10.6 billion in energy costs and more participants have achieved their energy intensity reduction goals or completed specific targets to do so, according to a 2022 update on the initiative.
Better Plants participants have reduced more than 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and saved 2.2 quadrillion British thermal units of energy, according to the DOE. There are more than 270 organizations that participate, covering more than 3,600 facilities, and covering 14% of the country’s manufacturing footprint.
Four Better Plants participants achieved their energy intensity reduction goals over the past year. The organizations are Legrand North & Central America, Deschutes Brewery, Nestlé Health Science, and Intertape Polymer Group.
Additionally, through the DOE’s Low Carbon Pilot, 30 of the Better Plants participants helped demonstrate ways to achieve low-carbon manufacturing, while sharing those solutions with industry peers. More than 17 action plans and 13 industrial decarbonization peer exchanges were completed over the past year as a result, the DOE says.
More than 60 industrial organizations joined the Better Climate Challenge. That project is a national public-private partnership calling on organizations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half in 10 years, while also sharing their results throughout their sectors.
The DOE also started virtual in-plant training to improve energy efficiency operations through remote processes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The seven virtual training sessions resulted in the identification of more than $400 million in energy cost savings, the DOE says.
According to the EPA, the industrial sector produces nearly a quarter of the US’s greenhouse gas emissions. Much of that is from using fossil fuels for energy, as well as chemical reactions to produce raw materials.
The Better Plants program is part of the DOE’s Better Buildings initiative. It works with US manufacturers and wastewater treatment groups to set strong energy, water, waste, and carbon reduction goals. The program also is committed to reducing energy intensity by 25% over the next decade across all manufacturing operations in the US. To date, the DOE says the program has achieved 75 energy or water goals.
The Better Buildings program, a public-private partnership with more than 900 businesses, state and local governments, utilities, housing authorities, and other organizations across the US, has saved more than $15.3 billion in energy costs. The DOE has also started distributing state and local governments $225 million in funds through the infrastructure law to improve energy efficiency and recently added geothermal energy as a priority to increase the use of clean power sources.
Eleven organizations from the industrial sector joined the Better Plants program over the last year, and seven joined the Better Plants Challenge.
