Barely a year after DENSO announced its Environmental Action Plan for North America, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged DENSO’s initiative with another award. This marks the fifth time the EPA has honored DENSO.

The latest award, the Performance Track Environmental Performance Award, went to DENSO Manufacturing Michigan (DMMI) for exemplary environmental performance.

The Battle Creek facility was singled out for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste and water consumption, and for eliminating the use of hexavalent chromium in production.

Minimizing the environmental impact of manufacturing facilities – what DENSO calls Eco-Factory – is one of the four key areas in DENSO’s North American Plan.

DMMI President Junichi Soh accepted the EPA award at a May ceremony in New Orleans, LA.

“This would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of all DMMI associates who are committed to achieving our environmental goals through our philosophy of continuous improvement,” Soh said.

DMMI’s environmental performance in the “large facility” category drew attention among the more than 300 U.S. facilities that are members of the EPA’s Performance Track program.

The program recognizes and drives environmental excellence by encouraging facilities with strong environmental records to go above and beyond their legal requirements. Members typically set four public, measurable goals to improve air, water and land quality.

The EPA’s award criteria includes progress toward performance goals, and the scope and challenge–level of goals.

Using 2003 as its baseline, DMMI targeted four areas for environmental improvement over a two-year period. Here are the results:

• The company generated 1,780 fewer tons of solid waste, reducing landfill waste by 33 percent. To do this, it minimized aluminum scraps and increased the use of returnable containers.
• DMMI virtually eliminated (reduced by 99.98 percent) hexavalent chrominumfrom production.
• DMMI reduced by 6 percent CO2 emissions, which contribute to the greenhouse effect. To achieve this, the facility reduced natural gas consumption through a heat reclamation system that reuses heat from manufacturing and furnace exhausts.
• The facility reduced water use by 14.5 million gallons, a 28 percent reduction.

In addition to the annual report card of Performance Track members, the EPA considers community outreach efforts.

The EPA made particular note of DMMI’s continued support of Battle Creek’s Wellhead Protection Program, a state-funded initiative that helps communities safeguard public water supplies and protect groundwater from contamination.