Fitzpatrick Mfg. Co. believes the sustainability / green programs of our business produce many benefits including:
- Improvement of our organization and internal business systems based on lean principles
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Reduced energy consumption and costs
- Reduced carbon footprint based on the reduction of energy and natural resources
- Complements and advances our internal health, safety, and environmental programs
Minimizing our energy consumption and thus our carbon footprint is not just an environmental concern; it is also an exercise in reducing ongoing business costs. Through lean principles, waste is constantly eliminated from our manufacturing process. These programs help reduce our ongoing costs, such as electricity, natural gas, and disposal charges, which takes lean principles to the next level. In an effort to become more efficient and reduce our carbon footprint, Fitzpatrick Mfg. Co. has gone “green” and continues to become greener. Our program, while simple, is also very effective and is evolving. This program also meets the requirements from many of our customers with their green initiatives.
Fitzpatrick has researched and successfully implemented the following programs to help in our quest to become a “greener” company:
- Installed over 360 T5HO light fixtures, which cut lighting electrical consumption by 48%, with a payback period just over 16 months.
- Installed motion sensors in the lighting system in areas that are not used on a continuous basis.
- Installed fourteen induction lamp wall packs on the perimeter of the building and eliminated nine wall packs that were redundant or lit unnecessary areas (i.e. long areas of landscaped lawn). These old wall packs were based on incandescent lamp technology.
- Replaced two flood lamps with induction style lamps as compared to the previous incandescent lighting system. Between the wall packs changeover and flood lamps, we cut outdoor lighting costs by roughly 42%, with a payback period of roughly 14 months.
- Instituted a cardboard, plastic, and paper recycling program. We went from 3 garbage dumpsters being dumped every week to 1 garbage dumpster and 2 recycling dumpsters. At this point, the garbage dumpster is not being completely filled in a week thanks to the recycling.
- All files are shredded and recycled instead of disposed of in landfills.
- Installed a high efficiency infrared heating system, eliminating eight gas forced air units, which saves on natural gas consumption and electricity as compared with the forced air system. The payback period for this system is roughly three years.
- Installed a new HVAC system for the office, eliminating two older legacy systems with zone control.
- Installed a central coolant distribution system with pharmaceutical grade mixing pumps to ensure the ratio of coolant is proper and consistent throughout our shop.
- New equipment utilizes a misting coolant system, reducing our coolant consumption.
- Successful use of dry machining without using coolant in many cases.
In addition to the above programs, we are also investigating:
- Speed style bay doors in our shipping / crane bay to eliminate temperature controlled air loss when the door opens.
- LED lighting as an alternative to our T5HO lighting system in the coming months, which will cut our lighting electricity usage even more.