By: Bryan Young, Southern Regional Sales Manager
Over the last couple of years we have heard numerous debates in Washington, DC and in our local areas using catch phrases such as “cap and trade” and “carbon footprint”. While there seems to be no shortage of debate on both sides of these issues the most important one to mulch producers should be, how to reduce their operating cost in relation to these catch phrases?
Over the last few years, Amerimulch® has made two significant changes in our system that directly reduce your “carbon footprint” and ultimately your operating cost.
One of these changes relates to our acquisition of Solution Dispersions in 2007. This acquisition enabled us to use multiple manufacturing locations and shipment origination points instead of shipping all of our Heartland® Enriched Colorants from a single location. Let’s assume you are a mulch producer in Houston, Texas. In the past we would have manufactured that colorant and shipped from our Ohio facility. That colorant would have traveled 1,376 miles before arriving in Houston. By utilizing our production facility in Atlanta, Texas, we have reduced those miles traveled to 270. That 1,100-plus mile reduction ultimately leads to less fuel used and lower cost for both Amerimulch and its customers. Other colorant producers may have shipped that colorant from Iowa or Massachusetts to Houston. That colorant would travel 988 miles from Des Moines, Iowa and 1,849 miles from Boston, Massachusetts. Imagine the “carbon footprint” reduction and ultimately the cost savings that the producer in Houston, Texas realized from our strategic manufacturing locations. Use your favorite mapping website or software to determine your own “carbon footprint” reduction and cost savings by plugging in your production facility location and our nearest manufacturing facility or your present colorant supplier’s location. Our multiple manufacturing and distribution points are Twinsburg, OH; Cynthiana, KY; Atlanta, TX; Kingman, AZ and Moundhouse, NV.
The other significant change in our system, as it relates to “carbon footprint” reduction and your production cost savings, was our introduction of the ColorTrom series of mulch coloring equipment. The ColorTrom 250, which produces color-enriched mulch in the 250 to 320 cubic yards per hour range, uses only 33.5 horsepower to run the entire system. The only other coloring system, used in our industry at those production rates, uses 121.5 horsepower to run the system. Over an eight-hour production shift you will consume 18.07 kilowatts (kw) of electricity in the ColorTrom system and 63.66 kw with the other system. That relates to a 45 kw reduction over every eight hour shift. By using a $.13 per kilowatt hour (kwh) cost, the electricity cost to operate the ColorTrom system would be $18.79. The other popular system, over the same eight-hour shift, would have an electricity cost of $66.20. That is a savings of over $45.00 for every eight-hour shift. Based on 160 eight-hour production runs yearly, your kwh used yearly would be reduced by 7,200 kwh. (45kw x 160, 8 hour shifts = 7,200 kwh). Your yearly electricity cost savings, using the same production scenario, would be $7,585.60. ($66.20 – $18.79 x 160, 8 hour shifts = $7,585.60)
Keep in mind both of these coloring systems will make the same color-enriched mulch using the same amount of water per yard but one of them will use much less electricity.
You can call it reducing your “carbon footprint.” I call it reducing your overall production and colorant cost. This is just another example of how we are focused on delivering Real Tangible Value© to our vibrant marketplace.