Koch wins highest EPA recognition for third consecutive year, fourth overall; maintains status in Sustained Excellence category
WICHITA, Kan. — Koch Industries, Inc. (“Koch”) has earned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for 2023. This is the third consecutive year Koch has earned this award and the fourth overall, maintaining its status in ENERGY STAR’s Sustained Excellence category. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services and strategies; it is the highest honor bestowed by the EPA.
Employees across Koch companies work to use fewer resources as they create the life-sustaining essentials and everyday products that help people improve their lives. Koch has maintained a high performance level since joining the ENERGY STAR program in 2015, earning the agency’s ENERGY STAR certification at four facilities in the pulp and paper, refining and fertilizer industries in 2022, a designation reserved for manufacturing facilities in the top 25% of energy efficiency in their sector.
“Being recognized again by the EPA for superior energy performance is an important milestone for Koch,” said Sheryl Corrigan, director of environmental, health and safety at Koch Industries. “Our employees drive, design and implement energy improvement initiatives and projects at our sites, together with our customers, suppliers and community partners. We all win by using fewer resources. Receiving this award is a testament to our employees’ innovations that drive process enhancements, as well as our ongoing investments in new technology.”
Each day at Koch, employees apply Koch’s Stewardship Framework to help them continually improve their performance as they responsibly make the products and provide the services that people value over their alternatives.
Koch is one of the largest U.S. manufacturers and ENERGY STAR partners, and its facilities have successfully reduced energy consumption and associated emissions, compared to both domestic peers and facilities that less efficiently manufacture imported products.
From 2014 to 2021, production-related waste at Koch’s U.S. facilities is down by 250 million pounds (approximately 40%), across its numerous industries, according to the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory report. Of the waste produced and reported to the EPA at Koch facilities in 2021, 90% was recycled, recovered for energy or treated—a total of 369 million pounds.
Koch has invested more than $1.8 billion in energy efficiency projects across its more than 300 U.S.-based facilities throughout the last decade.
This work includes DEPCOM Power, a Koch Engineered Solutions (KES) company, partnering with fellow Koch company Flint Hills Resources to construct a 45-megawatt supplemental solar power plant with more than 100,000 panels for Flint Hills’ Pine Bend refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota. The under-construction facility is believed to be one of the largest of its kind in the United States, increasing the refinery’s efficiency by generating enough energy to power 6,500 homes annually. Together with the facility’s recently completed Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, 70% of the facility’s power needs will come from highly efficient on-site energy generation.
Integrating stewardship innovation into daily operations across hundreds of manufacturing facilities, employees at Koch company Georgia-Pacific’s (GP) Collaboration and Support Center (CSC) are combining data, artificial intelligence, process control and cloud technology in managing the company’s manufacturing assets and process health. The CSC partners with GP facilities across the country to optimize operations and improve energy management. Its partnership with GP’s cellulose plant in Brunswick, Georgia, uses AI with sensors to monitor energy and operations data to help predict and prevent potential issues before they happen.
To learn more about Koch’s stewardship approach, visit: KOCHind.com/Stewardship. To see more ways Koch employees are practicing environmental stewardship, visit news.KOCHind.com/Collections/Environmental-Stewardship.
About Koch Industries, Inc.
Based in Wichita, Kansas, Koch Industries, Inc. is one of the largest private companies in America, with annual revenues that exceed $125 billion. It owns a diverse group of companies involved in manufacturing, agriculture, pulp and paper, packaging, consumer products, building materials, glass, automotive components, refining, renewable energy, chemicals and polymers, electronics, enterprise software, data analytics, medical products, engineered technology, project services, recycling, supply chain and logistics, global commodities trading, and investments. Since 2003, Koch companies have invested more than $150 billion in growth and improvements. With a presence in about 60 countries, Koch companies employ more than 120,000 people worldwide, with about half of those in the United States. For more news and information, visit www.KOCHind.com.
