Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 54

SUSTAINABILITY

Sigma Alimentos' 130,000 square-foot plant in Seminole, Okla. produces Mexican-style hams, cold cuts and hog dogs. (Photo courtesy of The Stellar Group)

ly where we're shifting the thermal load
out of peak hours, and so keeping the
plant operating more efﬁciently."
Gil Mayﬁeld, who works in Jacobs'
food and beverage division, points out
that water re-use in meat and poultry
plants is also becoming an increasing
trend. "Re-using gray water (any water
that's already been used) for landscaping,

packaging is extremely important; you
want to get the product to the shelf in
a better package." He also believes that
in the present economy and into the
future as long as the economy slumps,
there will probably be more focus on
renovation and retroﬁtting than large
amounts of new construction.
An example: "Fluorescent lights give
off half the number of foot candles as
halogen lights. If plants just renovate
without taking their lighting into account, for example, they might have
to add extra electrical capacity. But if
they burn less over time, then there is
more payback to the plant." For a plant
to think seriously about incorporating
sustainable measures, the management
wants a 25-percent payback, he says.
Developing new and better methods
of keeping raw-processing operations
separate from cooked operations is another longstanding and ongoing effort
when it comes to facility design.
"Here's an example," says Marcos
Braz, food and beverage market leader for Jacobs Carter Burgess, an engineering, architecture and planning ﬁrm
based in Fort Worth, Texas. "Wind interaction can be a major concern in a
plant. So we try to avoid facing dock
doors toward the wind, to prevent contamination in a plant. But when a plant
faces the wind correctly, the amount of
ventilation needed is less, saving the
company money. So we design our
plants with better air circulation. Water
resources also are very important for
plants these days, especially in areas
where there have been a lack of water. We'll design roofs to collect water,
so it can be used in the plant ﬁre tank.
We've been involved in a project recent54

MEAT&POULTRY

September 2008

"The number-one
trend that is
dominant right now
and growing in the
meat and poultry
industry is 'GREEN,'
SUSTAINABLE and
LEED design and
construction."
for example, is a major trend. It's especially important to plants located in areas
of the country where there have been
major droughts, resulting in aquifers going down and wells being drained," Mayﬁeld says. "When you drill wells to get
water and you don't get good water all
the time, you end up using more energy
to make more water available. Georgia
has had a big drought, so saving water
is a major sustainable action."
When planning new plant construction or renovations, the two Jacobs Carter Burgess executives believe "the best
door is a wall," because of inﬁltration
between rooms. "A lot more attention is
being paid to doors, not only in retroﬁtted plants, but also in new construction,"
I

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Braz notes. "Management can determine
when plant peak operating hours take
place, and then decide what kind of
doors can be installed to prevent sanitation or contamination problems, whether
air curtains, rollup or slide-up doors."
Devices like air curtains can be part of
cold storage or refrigerated rooms and
can save energy by reducing the energy
transfer between two spaces.

Project proﬁles
During this past month, employees have
been moving into Butterball LLC's newly-constructed corporate world headquarters in Garner, N.C., near Raleigh.
The nation's biggest turkey producer is
planning the grand opening for its $12
million, 46,000 square-foot facility next
month. The building houses 60 employees, with room for growth up to 85. The
headquarters features a high-tech "customer experience center" with a stainless-steel kitchen designed to facilitate
demonstrations and educate retailers
about the company's products.
The building's historical accents,
such as old Butterball logos dating back
to the brand's inception in 1954, offer
a sense of the tradition of this brand.
The new corporate site is a move from
Mt. Olive, N.C., but the company - a
$325 million acquisition of Butterball
by Smithﬁeld Food's Carolina Turkeys
- will maintain its strong presence in
Mt. Olive. There it operates the largest
turkey-processing plant in the world, a
650,000 square-foot facility employing
more than 2,600 people.
One large project just completed
two months ago, is an expansion of Indiana Packers Corp.'s pork processing
facility in Delphi, Ind. Indiana Packers

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Meat + Poultry - September 2008

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