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Maintaining focus on continuous improvement is critical to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. This means taking time to develop smaller-scale improvements alongside larger projects. To further this effort, our Planet Goal Committees regularly meet with our teams across more than forty plants to communicate best practices and provide training opportunities.

Our operations teams enabled us to meet our 2025 GHG Emissions Reduction Planet Goal in 2022. Our teams led us to break our reliance on coal for operations and, in turn, lower emissions. Constructed in 1964, our Blacksburg, SC campus is one of our most significant sites for manufacturing workwear, additives, and flame-resistant fabrics. True to the roots of 1900s manufacturing, coal was a primary fuel source for steam generation. To transition to a coal-free operation, we invested $25 million into cogeneration, combining steam and power, which improves our energy efficiency. Our cogeneration investment went online in December 2021, reducing costs, emissions, and waste. In 2022, we achieved the full-year benefits of this investment, including eliminating coal as a primary fuel source and reducing our overall costs, emissions, and waste.

Completing such a pivotal investment required the engineering team, led by Kevin Hollifield, to demonstrate remarkable work. “Our engineering team is the heartbeat at our plants. I’m excited to move forward by saving costs and resources.”

Our cogeneration infographic highlights the process of moving to cogeneration to eliminate coal and the benefits to our 2025 Planet Goals.