The food processing industry is one of the Northwest's largest employers and providers of our nation's food supply. It is also the Northwest's second largest industrial consumer of energy.
Energy is a strategic resource for any business, but most food processor executives were not managing it that way. NEEA had a theory that changing executive behavior around energy management could significantly reduce energy intensity in food processing.
Three key barriers stood in the way of testing this theory. First, food processors needed a sound, real-world methodology for managing energy as a strategic resource. Second, an initial group of executives would need to apply this methodology. Third, the results would need to be independently measured and verified. This final barrier was a significant challenge for NEEA because energy savings from changes in behavior are not easy to measure.
In 2005, NEEA began developing Continuous Energy Improvement (CEI). CEI is a framework that embeds strategic energy management into business and manufacturing operations within energy-intensive industries like food processing, resulting in reduced costs and increased profitability.
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NEEA and Northwest Food Processors Association (NWFPA) members, in partnership with the U.S. DOE and Northwest utilities, used NEEA's CEI framework in 2008 to set an industry-wide energy reduction goal for NWFPA members. This precedent-setting goal calls for an industry-wide energy intensity reduction of 25 percent in 10 years and 50 percent in 20 years.
But the goal setting was only the beginning. NEEA then worked hand-in-hand with its utility partners and the NWFPA to enlist forward-thinking executives to adopt CEI. |
NEEA's work has started to shift the executive mindset in favor of strategic energy management. By the end of 2010, more than 15 percent of the Northwest’s large food processing companies implemented CEI, saving them money while helping make them more competitive.
After nearly four years of implementing CEI in food processing facilities, an independent evaluation confirmed that food processors practicing CEI achieved an average electric savings of three percent of their annual energy consumption—year over year. This finding was remarkable because it was one of the first times anybody had been able to measure behavior-based savings in a verifiable way. These savings, which are expected to reduce industrial energy intensity by 25 percent or more in 10 years, aligns with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now LEADER program.
With this data in-hand, NEEA is moving forward to engage other industry groups in similar industry-wide energy intensity reduction goals. Most recently, NEEA engaged with the Oregon Association of Nurseries, who in September of 2010, set an industry-wide energy reduction goal of 25 percent in 10 years.
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REGIONAL ADVANTAGE
Because NEEA represents the entire Northwest region, it is able to leverage market power to develop partnerships with regional professional and trade organizations, like the NWFPA. NEEA's regional advantage also allows it to partner with federal agencies such as the U.S. DOE to influence entire industries.
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ACCELERATING
MARKET ADOPTION
To help ensure adoption, NEEA is partnering with the U. S. DOE to support NWFPA's members in achieving their industry-wide energy intensity reduction goal of 25% in 10 years and 50% in 20 years.
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FILLING THE PIPELINE
CEI is an emerging practice that increases energy efficiency and embeds strategic energy management well beyond the food processing industry.
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