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ON THE WEB » www.waupacafoundry.com plus degrees in order to melt it and remold it. Then, at some point, the iron cools and you have all this waste heat. "In the old days, the foundry would just blow that heat out the roof," continues Esch. "Then we developed a way to use that heat to heat our buildings in the winter." The company installed a closedloop heat recovery system at Foundry Plant 1 in Waupaca, for example, that uses the waste heat to increase the temperature of a water/glycol system that pre-heats air for the plant. It provides nearly all the building heat for winter months, as well as year-round hot water. It has also resulted in an annual reduction of 4,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Within two years, it had paid for itself in energy savings. With a closed-loop cooling system installed at the Marinette facility, machines are cooled by recycled non-contact cooling water. That has resulted in a 30 percent to 95 percent reduction in cooling water use, depending on the season. Lighting upgrades also provide a great return on investment. As assistant maintenance superintendent at Marinette, Todd Tobison oversaw last year's upgrade of more than 100 traditional fixtures, which drew 1,000 watts each, to LED fixtures, each of which draws 172 watts. "It may sound like a simple change, but it's giving us the biggest bang for our buck. I can put in five LED fixtures for the energy cost of one old fixture," says Tobison. Other efforts have focused on optimizing compressed air, improving HVAC controls by using computers and in-plant sensors, installing low-velocity, high-volume fans to redistribute hot air from the ceiling throughout the workplace, and installing premiumefficiency electric motors. So far, these efforts have already logged a 16.5 percent improvement against Waupaca Foundry's 2009 baseline year – putting the company well on the way toward the Better Buildings program's target of a 25 percent reduction by 2019. "This whole thing is a big team effort," Esch says. "Our brain trust gets together and determines what we can do." But he also knows that the secret is simply continuous improvement. "A lot of this isn't rocket science," says Esch. "It's working with the tools that you have and developing your program. We're happy with what we've done, but we're looking forward to building our program, and seeing what kinds of things open up for us." professionals ...where emerge as leaders. One Master of Business Administration Degree. Two Paths. Professional & Executive. Thinking about getting your MBA? Choose the path that fits your level of experience, career goals and time commitment. Discover how our Professional MBA could be right for you or find out about our new Executive MBA in Appleton starting in Fall 2013. For more information, call 920-424-3199 or toll-free 800-633-1430 or visit uwosh.edu/go/mba. Holly Brenner, BBA '98, MBA '09 Director of Marketing & Business Development Agnesian HealthCare, Fond du Lac w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m M a y 2 013 • Insight | 43