SAVANNAH, GA — JCB North America in Savannah, Georgia, has been presented the 2015 Savannah Chamber of Commerce Environmental Awareness Award. Annually, the Savannah Chamber of Commerce recognizes businesses that excel in various areas including: environmental awareness, community involvement, safety and international business. The awards ceremony was June 11, 2015 in historic downtown Savannah.
The Environmental Awareness award honors a corporation that has demonstrated outstanding performance in its efforts to continuously improve environmental quality. JCB North America was nominated by several business partners due to the recent sustainability projects focusing on waste stream reduction and energy conservation.
Partnering with Nexeo Solutions, a global leader in environmental services, JCB has been able to reduce its waste stream by 92 percent since the program’s implementation. In order to reach this achievement, several areas of waste were addressed including wood that at one time amassed 2 million pounds annually and was sent directly to a local landfill. Since the program’s introduction, scrap wood from pallets, crates or loose lumber is ground into mulch then sold across a variety of markets.
JCB’s most recent environmental improvement project included replacing a 240-ton air cooled chiller that served the office’s HVAC needs. JCB worked with Johnson Controls to develop a new system which utilizes the natural cooling source of JCB’s man-made/well-fed lake. The new chiller uses the fountains from the lake as a means of natural evaporative cooling along with the natural geo-exchange of the lake for chiller heat transfer, resulting in an energy consumption reduction of approximately 2,900,000 kWh, reducing peak consumption by more than 60 percent.
“Finding new ways to positively impact the environment is one of the most exciting things in my role here at JCB,” said Roger Myerly, JCB North America facilities manager. “I’m proud to be able to lead the company in these efforts as well as share our successful methods with other companies in our area.”
