Southern Tea, a contract tea manufacturing company in Atlanta, Georgia, needed to become more sustainable and reduce its carbon emissions. The company makes teas for many large, well-known beverage brands, many of which have sustainability requirements for their suppliers.
They were introduced to the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech through the Center for Sustainable Business. To help them achieve their goals GaMEP project manager, Kelly Grissom and a team of students, provided the company with a no-cost energy and sustainability assessment through the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program.
The team spent a full day on-site taking measurements and collecting information that would allow them to make recommendations to reduce the company’s energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, and decrease its carbon emissions.
The report included many recommendations, but the top three solutions proposed by the GaMEP team were to:
- Repair air leaks that were found in their compressed air system
- Reduce the compressed air set point pressure
- Install variable frequency drive (VFD) controllers on their vacuum pumps
These three recommendations have the potential to bring the company roughly halfway to its carbon reduction goal, while also saving the company approximately $30,000 each year.
If you are interested in applying for a no-cost energy and sustainability assessment, find out more by visiting the Georgia – North Florida Industrial Assessment Center Website or by emailing Kelly Grissom.
