The company, which has global sales of $5bn and serves the food and beverage processing and food service sectors, made the commitment as part of its support for the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Climate Leaders programme.
"Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions through the Climate Leaders programme demonstrates our corporate-wide commitment to improving the environment and increasing the efficiency of our operations," said Douglas Baker, Ecolab’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.
To deliver its promise the company is focusing on its two largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - sales-and-service vehicles and facilities.
Ecolab’s facilities include manufacturing plants, its corporate headquarters and its research and development organization for which it has developed an energy and GHG reduction programme.
Its transport sector will use more fuel-efficient vehicles and vehicle service routes and, when possible, less GHG-intensive fuels.
Rigorous reduction targets
The Climate Leaders initiative is an EPA industry-government partnership that works with companies to develop comprehensive climate change strategies. Partner companies promise to cut their impact on the environment by undertaking a corporate-wide inventory of GHG emissions, setting rigorous reduction targets and reporting progress to EPA each year.
Ecolab's US GHG emissions from direct and indirect energy uses total about 200,000t/year. The company claims nearly one million customers around the world and has pledged to help them reduce their environmental impact by providing solutions and services that conserve resources, improve safety and reduce waste.
GHC emissions
Meanwhile, food and beverage manufacturers can do much to curb GHG emissions through operating machinery more precisely, according to the International Food Information Service (IFIS).
Professor Jeremy Selman, managing director of IFIS, has identified seven ways to curb emissions:
- Use of heat exchangers in processing.
- Monitor the stack temperatures of boilers.
- Minimise the volume and amount of refrigeration.
- Regularly servicing electric motors.
- Control air and light usage in processing plants and preventing compressed air leakage.
- Using energy efficient lighting and timers to avoid lighting areas unnecessarily.
- Avoid overheating or overcooling of products.
But there is no one-size-fits-all for energy reduction, warned Selman. Food and drink manufacturers and individual companies will need to audit their energy and water use and monitor the latest best practice in order to maximise savings, he said.