Baking & Snack - May 2015 - 26

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

include Canada, India, China, Brazil and, increasingly,
developed nations in Europe. "As a US-based company,
if you're going to expand internationally, you have to understand the environmental conditions that apply there,"
Ms. Young explained. "LEED is now more than ever a
global standard"

More buzz, more projects
Among baking and snack companies, sustainable building projects have become more popular. "We have a current project targeting LEED as part of the expansion of an
existing building," Mr. Carr noted. "In addition, everyone
we speak with is interested in sustainability." There are extra costs to that decision, but as Mr. Carr observed, some
costs can be recouped directly, "and some must be offset

Saves almost 3 million kWh in 2014
Mile Hi Bakery received the 2014 Energy
Design Assistance Achievement Award
from its utility vendor for saving energy
and cutting carbon dioxide.
The award comes from Xcel Energy, the
Minneapolis-based electric and natural
gas company that serves Denver. The bakery accepted this honor during Xcel's 2015
Energy Efficiency Expo at Denver's Sports
Authority Field on April 14.
Now in full operation for more than a
year, the new bakery saved 2,827,044 kilowatt hours (kWh) on its energy use and
accomplished a carbon dioxide reduction
of 1,607 tons during 2014.
When Mile Hi owners Tony Taddonio,
CEO, and Kristy Taddonio Mullins, president, decided to create a new bakery to
handle the company's growing foodservice business, they chose a brownfield
site, a former beer distributor's warehouse adjacent to Mile Hi's existing campus. Making the new bakery as environmentally sustainable as possible, they put
LEED Gold Certification at the top of their
priority list.
Energy usage played a key role in
accomplishing this goal. Mile Hi's new
plant team, led by bakery directors Bryan
Sanchez and Paul Chan, worked with Xcel
on several energy usage projects. One of
these was implementation of an interruptible service option credit program. Another
involved an energy consultation that rated
the new facility.

26 Baking & Snack May 2015 / www.bakingandsnack.com

by a willingness to spend more to be - and to be seen as
- a company with sustainable goals."
LEED certification represents the Mount Everest of sustainable design, yet many improvement projects seek less
lofty heights but ones that still boast a green reward. Mr.
Jernigan explained, "Almost all of our projects in the past
few years have incorporated some sustainability features
whether it be energy-efficient lighting, daylight harvesting,
water usage reduction or high-efficiency motors. Very few
seek LEED certification, probably 5%, but all are incorporating sustainable features."
Charlie Creswell, senior project manager, Webber/Smith
Associates, Inc., Lititz, PA, confirmed that nearly all the
company's client projects involve sustainable design in one
way or another, although very few food industry projects
strive for certification. "However, almost all owners are interested in sustainability and want to include appropriate
elements in their projects," he said.
These projects vary widely, and so do their goals.
Reviewing eight of the company's recent baking and
snack projects, Mr. Carr identified elements of sustainable design to involve insulation systems, wastewater discharge, sanitation water recycling and minimization, oven heat recovery systems, LED lighting,
advanced lighting controls, roof skylights, waterless
urinals, rain gardens, wetland restoration, HVAC
management, recycled wood, white roofs, ammonia
refrigeration and energy-efficient electric motors.
Sometimes local requirements push bakers into
sustainability projects, and that then brings up related
items. "For small projects that may not come under
energy code requirements, we always note the new requirements and suggest that owners consider including appropriate sustainable design elements, both for
cost savings where available and to be better prepared
for the future," Mr. Creswell said.
Specific to the baking and snack food industries,
green building options exist for capturing waste heat
from ovens and fryers to provide steam and hot water
to the processes. "These systems can substantially reduce and, in some cases, may eliminate the need for
boiler capacity," Mr. Creswell said.
Ingredient handling - flour especially - represents another opportunity. "Railcars provide a significant sustainability advantage [versus trucks],"
Mr. Creswell said. "Many non-food industries do not
have similar inbound or outbound goods that can be
mined for energy reductions."
Better definition of return on investment (ROI) for
green projects, previously difficult to quantify, also
explains the willingness of food companies to travel
in this direction. "All clients are seeking sustainable features that make economic sense from an ROI

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