A Greener South Carolina by Kristine Hartvigsen
With a 156-unit solar panel array atop its 60,000-square-foot Rock Hill facility, Carolina Ingredients, a national food ingredients company, is harnessing the sun's power to generate 44,000 kilowatts of electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 25 tons per year.
But the company didn't stop there. While embarking on a renovation of the nearly two-decade-old company's building in 2009, Founder & CEO Emeritus Doug Meyer-Cuno decided to pursue the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by replacing all plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems with products designed especially to conserve water. In addition, more than 90 percent of the building's offices use natural lighting.
The measures netted the $5 million renovation a LEED Silver certification, making Carolina Ingredients the first industrial food manufacturer in the country to occupy a LEED-certified building and the first seasoning manufacturer to use solar energy in production.
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