One Better Buildings, Better Plants partner, Volvo Group North America, has achieved 16% savings across all of its U.S. plants, moving rapidly toward its longer-term goal of 25% improved energy efficiency within ten years. Volvo Group has improved the energy intensity (e.g., energy required per truck) at one plant — the New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia — by 26% over a three year period.
DUBLIN, Va. – Building on President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative and the Administration’s broader efforts to double energy productivity by 2030, the Department of Energy today recognized Volvo Group North America for its leadership in energy efficiency at the New River Valley assembly plant near Roanoke, Va. As a Better Buildings, Better Plants partner, the Volvo Group has already achieved 16 percent savings across its U.S. plants and continues working toward its goal of becoming 25 percent more energy efficient within ten years.
“Partners in the Better Buildings, Better Plants program, such as Volvo, are committing to real change – breaking through barriers to achieve greater energy efficiency and improving their bottom lines,” said Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency. “The investments made by partners through the Better Plants program are helping to cut energy waste, to increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers and protect the environment.”
The 1.6-million-square-foot New River plant, which is Volvo Group’s largest truck manufacturing plant in the world and produces Class 8 trucks weighing more than 33,000 pounds. Some of their energy efficiency projects include improving the ventilation systems in their spray booths, adding more daylighting, moving to high efficiency fans and LED lighting in the assembly area, and installing a passive solar wall to supplement heating.
Volvo Group demonstrates leadership in energy efficiency using strategies such as:
Setting savings goals and measuring progress;
Requiring energy team members to review and approve purchases made by the plant;
Empowering employees to use their front-line knowledge to suggest energy efficiency projects;
Reinvesting savings from energy efficiency projects – about $1.2 million to date – into future efficiency efforts, in turn generating more savings.
