Department of Energy Announces 8 Winners of Individuals Taking Energy Action in Manufacturing Prize

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced 8 winners of the Individuals Taking Energy Action in Manufacturing (ITEAM) Prize in recognition of innovative ideas that have led to energy savings at manufacturing facilities. Prize winners receive $5,000 their ideas will be highlighted so that other manufacturing facilities can adopt the ideas and realize their own energy savings. The award was created in 2018 as part of the Sustainability in Manufacturing Partnership where DOE works to help U.S. manufacturers drive energy productivity and accelerate the adoption of energy efficient technologies.
 
The 8 individual winners are:
 

• George Anglin at Toyota Manufacturing, Texas, for careful tracking of energy, maintenance schedules, and production processes to identify the most energy efficient equipment, and for implementing best practices to achieve energy reductions while maintaining quality standards. By swapping in LEDs and installing higher-efficiency HVAC systems at the plant’s medical office building, Anglin helped the plant save nearly 1.3 megawatt-hours of energy and $89,000 annually.
• Jeff Feyen at Charter Steel for leading a culture shift to make continuous energy improvement a part of the everyday activities at his plant. With an eye to lighting upgrades, installation of variable-frequency drives, compressed air and heating usage, and more, Jeff helped his processing plant save more than 81,000 million British thermal units, or 6% of total energy use.
• Marcus Johnson at Eastman Chemical for examining boiler efficiency and finding opportunities for performance improvements. By demonstrating the value of efficiency and showing how the operation and maintenance of equipment can impact energy performance, Marcus achieved significantly lower fuel consumption and a 4% improvement in the efficiency of the facility’s two large boilers.
• Terry McMichael at 3M for taking a holistic approach to improving compressed air systems at the 3M Cynthiana manufacturing plant. By ensuring that the plant employed the correct mix of compressors to minimize total horsepower needed for production, implementing efficient compressor sequencing, and pinpointing and systematically fixing air leaks, Terry’s approach saved $40,000.
• Mike Rogers at 3M for leading the 3M Cottage Grove manufacturing site of more than 35 buildings to ISO 50001 certification. In the first year of energy management system implementation, the Cottage Grove site decreased its energy costs by 1.5%, saving $59,000.
• Rochelle Samuel at Saint-Gobain North America for deploying an innovative internal compressed air initiative that engaged 22 teams across 19 sites to identify and fix compressed air leaks, as well as enable a sustainable compressed air operating and management system. The participating sites identified 837 leaks and repaired 48% of them, representing the potential for 26 gigawatt-hours and $2.5 million in annual savings.
• Nick Sayles at Saint-Gobain North America for developing an onsite competition to reduce compressed air leaks. As a result, the team fixed 96 of the 100 air leaks identified over the course of the three-month competition, saving approximately $10,000 annually.
• David Turkes at Bentley Mills for completing an energy efficient LED lighting project. By retrofitting 3,455 fixtures, the facility saved approximately 1.6 million kilowatt-hours, or roughly 30% of its annual electricity consumption. 

The ITEAM prize was facilitated by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, which supports early-stage research to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing and promote American economic growth and energy security.

For more information, please reference the Department’s press release.