Sierra Pine Slashes Its Energy Costs By 12 Percent

STRATEGIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT HELPS THE FIBERBOARD MANUFACTURER SAVE AN ESTIMATED $588,700 ANNUALLY 

SierraPine Composite Solutions, a leading manufacturer of innovative and environmentally superior medium-density berboard and particleboard, knows about reducing waste. The Medford company’s product line revolves around combining recycled wood content with low-formaldehyde adhesives to produce sustainable building products. As stated by Wayne Ralph, SierraPine’s electrical supervisor, “We’re good at using raw materials wisely so there’s very little waste.”

Although SierraPine had participated in capital energy-saving projects, company personnel were skeptical about nding much energy waste in the operations and maintenance of plant equipment. That was before SierraPine participated in Energy Trust of Oregon’s Strategic Energy Management initiative, which shows companies how behavioral changes and operations and maintenance improvements can deliver signi cant and persistent savings. “Strategic Energy Management helped us set aside time to give energy e ciency more attention,” said Ralph. “Doing that paid o by reducing our annual energy costs by $588,700.”