2018 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award, Third Place Project Category: McCormick & Company

The spice maker’s Dallas plant replaced an obsolete compressed air system with an energy-efficient compressed air system with waste heat recovery. The new system has one fixed speed and one variable speed compressor so that air output modulates to match demand. The heat exchanger and storage tank capture waste heat from the compressor cooling loop to provide free hot water. McCormick’s Jeff Blankman states that natural gas consumption is reduced by 50 percent and hot water outages are eliminated, thereby increasing production cycles.