Northrop Grumman Saves $2M in Energy at One CA Facility

August 6, 2009

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Northrop Grumman is using its Redondo Beach, Calif., facility and its more than $2 million in electricity savings as a model for future energy upgrades.

In advance of federal emissions tracking requirements, the firm is establishing a data collection process and software system to monitor emissions beginning in 2009. As for 2008, the company did not divulge its amount of hazardous waste generated, or its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemical releases (see above chart).

To improve upon its CSR reporting, the company has created three teams related to environmental performance and sustainability:

Earth Environmental Integration Group
Green Opportunities Group
A cross-department internal team including environmental, health & safety, communications, corporate responsibility, procurement and real estate/facilities, among others.

To conserve water, the firm’s St. Louis site has incorporated a closed-loop chilled water system to re-circulate water through labs to cool laser systems. The system should conserve about 500,000 gallons of water annually.

Many locations are adding automatic restroom faucets and waterless urinals. The Space Park facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., replaced 11 percent of urinals with waterless equipment, saving 400,000 gallons of water in 2008. That same facility added low-water use landscaping foliage to save another 200,000 gallons of water.

With regards to electricity savings, the Redondo Beach facility now has reflective roofs on six buildings, which has saved 1.8 million kilowatt hours and $250,000. The addition of fluorescent bulbs in two buildings there saved 580,000 kWh and $80,000. Even more notable, by replacing 30-year-old centrifugal chillers with newer high-efficiency units, the facility saved 2.9 million kWh and $400,000. After these improvements were made, the facility adjusted temperature and humidity levels in all buildings, resulting in 10.2 million kWh saved and $1.4 million.

The company says it recycled about 30 percent of its total solid waste last year.

Within it distribution system, Northrop Grumman, which is certified as a “SmartWay” shipper, aims to reduce its freight usage by 1 million miles this year, and 500,000 more in 2010.

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