Volvo Trucks Leads the Charge for Industrial Energy Savings

Volvo Trucks Leads the Charge for Industrial Energy Savings
Volvo Trucks' New River Valley (NRV) manufacturing plant in Dublin, Va. reduced its energy intensity by nearly 30 percent in just one year, making it the first company to meet a 10-year challenge set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Save Energy Now LEADER Program in Oct. 2009 as a challenge to the U.S. industrial sector.  Volvo Trucks in North America and 31 other major companies pledged to reduce their intensity of energy per unit of production by 25 percent over a decade.

"Volvo met the Save Energy Now target in one year instead of ten," said Chief Operating Officer Patrick Collignon, who served as vice president and general manager of the NRV plant during the time in which the target was met.  "This accomplishment exemplifies our commitment to our core value of environmental care.  Thanks to the engagement of employees across the organization, we're lowering energy use while at the same time operating more efficiently."

The plant reduced its MMbtu per truck (the DOE metric for energy intensity) from 79.64 in 2009 to 60.42 in 2010 – a reduction of 29.6 percent.

"Just as important as the DOE metric is our significant reduction in total energy use at the plant," Collignon added.  "We reduced our total electricity consumption by 28 percent and natural gas consumption by 35 percent since the energy team was started."

Every Volvo truck sold in North America is assembled at the NRV plant. 

"Volvo is delivering the cleanest trucks in the world, we're making them in the U.S., and we're doing it in a way that shrinks our carbon footprint," said Ron Huibers, senior vice president – sales and marketing.

To reach the aggressive energy reduction goals, Volvo Trucks established a dedicated energy team at the NRV plant.  Team members agreed to pursue many small energy-saving tactics and also to attack the biggest energy-consuming process: the paint operation.

"To use a financial analogy, it's not always easy to come up with an idea that saves $1,000, but it is usually possible to come up with 1,000 ideas that save one dollar each," said Collignon.  "In our case, we did both." 

Company-wide efforts include the use of a building automation system to control building temperatures and turn off lighting, a passive solar wall and photovoltaic solar panels.  Skylights, new light fixtures (including LED), infrared heaters and solar water heaters were installed.  As cost savings were found, those funds were re-invested in other energy reduction strategies.

"Energy reduction is becoming a permanent part of our culture and operations," said Collignon.  "All of us at Volvo Trucks commend the Department of Energy for creating the Save Energy Now LEADERS Program. It's provided us with additional tools, a new group of colleagues across industries, and the extra boost we needed to tackle this issue head-on."

Volvo Trucks North America's operations and products are guided by the company's three core values: Quality, Safety and Environmental Care. Volvo engines for North America are assembled in Hagerstown, Maryland. Both the Hagerstown and NRV plants are certified to ISO14001 environmental and ISO9001 quality standards.