Working on sunshine! Croda manufacturing site installs solar panels

Two years after installing solar panels at its Edison HQ in New Jersey as part of its sustainability focus, Croda will do similar at its manufacturing facility in New Castle, Delaware.

The ingredients supplier announced that its $2.3 million solar energy project at the Atlas Point site is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

“This project demonstrates our continued commitment to renewable energy and sustainability as a whole,” comments Kevin Gallagher, president Croda Inc.

“Croda has a global goal to obtain 25 percent of our energy needs from non-fossil sources by 2015, and we are excited that this project will help us achieve that goal.”

Project

The project will be located on a 2.5 acre open area on the property, as a ground mounted system approximately 775kW in size and will generate approximately five per cent of the site’s electricity.

Combined with the landfill gas project completed on the site in 2012, Croda estimates the site will achieve at least 60 percent of its total energy from non-fossil, renewable fuel. The project will also reduce its annual CO2 emission by more than 1.2 million lbs.

“Our objective is to make sustainability a point of difference for our business, and we are confident that this strategy will generate even greater benefits for the environment in which we operate, the people that we work with and the communities we are part of,” continued Gallagher.

Efforts

Croda’s focused efforts in the area of sustainability have not gone unnoticed either, as Canadian media organization, Corporate Knights, ranked the firm number 25 in the 2013 ‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations’ report.

In 2011, Croda installed solar panels at its Edison headquarters in New Jersey which supply about half of the electricity needs for the center; essentially halving the carbon footprint of the facility.

Kevin Gallagher, president Croda North America, told CosmeticsDesign.com USA that it is this kind of innovation that is enabling Croda to reach its global goal of obtaining 25 percent of its energy from non-fossil sources by the end of 2015.