Associated Materials – Karunakaren Muthumani Hariharan – 2014

Goals

Associated Materials LLC (AMI) enlisted Karunakaren Muthumani Hariharan as an EDF Climate Corps fellow to analyze energy efficiency projects and create corporate energy strategy. AMI is a vertically integrated company in the exterior building products industry with 11 manufacturing locations and over 120 distribution centers catering to the North American market.

Solutions

Hariharan worked on AMI’s manufacturing locations to conduct energy audits and identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency. Hariharan audited two manufacturing locations, and he scheduled additional comprehensive energy audits free of cost through Department of Energy sponsored Industrial Assessment centers for two plants in West Salem, OH and Woodbridge, NJ. During the energy audits, he identified a variety of energy efficiency projects such as efficient lighting upgrades, process equipment upgrades and manufacturing process modifications that could contribute to the company reducing its energy consumption. 

Hariharan also suggested a novel framework to fund the energy efficiency projects through the creation of a separate Green Energy and Sustainability Fund. This self-sustaining fund would use the present savings realized from implemented energy efficiency projects to ease the capital requirements of future projects. He also helped develop the company’s energy reduction goals to reduce energy use by 25 percent over the next ten years as part of the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s program of Better Buildings, Better Plants partnership program.

Potential Impact

The suggested improvement projects, when implemented, have a potential Net Present Value of savings in excess of $1.4 million with an upfront investment of around $250,000. The environmental impact associated with these recommendations would be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 2,700 tons per year.