Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 53

Newly expanded Indiana Packers Corporation
pork processing facility in Delphi, Ind. (Photo
courtesy of The Stellar Group)

"Energy and water conservation is a very
important part of this," he says. The number of LEED-certiﬁed companies and
plants in industry is growing, although
it's still small, compared to other types
of businesses. "With few exceptions, any
greenﬁeld undertaking is seeking LEEDsustainable certiﬁcation," he notes.

Taking the LEED
One of the most important ways to bring
sustainability to operations in meat and
poultry plants when new construction,
renovations and retroﬁtting is being designed is to provide only what is needed
for plants to operate and not waste resources. Brian Kappele, vice president
of The Stellar Group's Food and Beverage division in Jacksonville, Fla., points

the plant money in addition to improving the environment." He notes that
the amount of energy needed is also
reduced, as well as the amount of heat
and controls needed to run a plant. For
example, in an area like South Dakota, where it is dry, that is accomplished
easier than in Florida, where it's humid.
In pork plants, this control process can
pay off in three to ﬁve years.
The rising cost of energy has contributed to the need to build more sustainable
systems to run meat and poultry plants.
"When energy is cheap, plants tend to
run systems wide-open. But when you
cut back on energy use, it obviously cuts
back on your costs," he says.
Kappele notes that this year and last
year, more projects have focused on
value-added products, with slaughter
playing a smaller role. "Sustainability in

out that while much of the industry is
run on ammonia or steam, systems can
be designed and installed that produce
steam only when needed. That's why
meat and poultry plants, along with
other industries, are striving to become
LEED-certiﬁed.
"Waste to energy is the future, there's
no doubt about that," Kappele says. "You
take the heat and the methane gas from
garbage or compost and use it to run a
facility." In the meat and poultry industry, sanitation of the plant is a high priority in sustainability efforts. He points
to efforts to minimize the amount of
water required to run a facility, and to
minimize the amount of afﬂuent. "Facilities are charged for water and afﬂuent, when you minimize that, it saves

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Meat + Poultry - September 2008

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