O-I is leveraging a carbon-lowering heat recovery system at its Veauche, France, plant, to advance our sustainability and decarbonization strategy.
Heat recovered from the facility’s glass-making furnace will feed a new internal energy distribution network and will supply up to 94% of the plant’s heating needs.
“We are leveraging product and process innovations to transform our operations toward lower-carbon outcomes,” said Randy Burns, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer for O-I Glass. “Heat recovery is one of the many levers we are using to advance the sustainability of our operations through energy efficiency.”
Through its sustainability roadmap, O-I has set challenging yet attainable goals for energy efficiency technology advancement, along with the sourcing of renewable energy and emissions reduction. As part of our corporate sustainability goals, O-I is targeting 40% renewable energy use by 2030 and to reduce total energy consumption by nine percent globally.
In addition to the installation of heat recovery technology at the Veauche facility, O-I also has similar systems in place in Reims and in Vayres, France. The heat recovered from the Reims plant is used to heat homes and residents’ water in the local community.
Transformational funds through the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) support the installation of the heat recovery system. Technical support for the system is provided through a partnership with ENGIE Solutions. The partnership builds upon a broader agreement with ENGIE, a leading French multinational utility company, to supply O-I facilities across Europe with green electricity generated from solar, wind and hydro sources over a 10-year period.
“This project makes a very tangible contribution to decarbonizing the Veauche site, improves its competitiveness and is in line with the company’s overall strategy towards sustainable development,” said Walter Ferrer, Managing Director of O-I Glass for South-West Europe. “With the contribution of ENGIE Solutions’ skills in energy performance and the support of ADEME and the French government, it also illustrates our ability to forge strategic partnerships with private and public players. This operation is especially important for us because it can serve as a blueprint for other plants”.
To learn more about the ways O-I is advancing sustainability and energy efficiency in its global operations, read our sustainability report.
