How can a training program bring together a business around sustainability goals?
The Challenge
Polaris, a global powersports manufacturer, has set ambitious sustainability targets to meet in the next 15 years. Meeting these goals will require a coordinated effort spanning from senior leadership to plant managers and staff.
The Solution
VEIC partnered with Polaris to help seven of their plants achieve 50001 Ready recognition. The 50001 Ready program provides facilities and plant managers tools to establish an energy management system and set a path for continuous energy improvement. Services: Energy Efficiency , Building Decarbonization
The Impact
In 2022, Polaris achieved its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5%. The year-long training initiative fostered collaboration and alignment between plants that will improve efficiency for years to come.
Bridging the gap between climate change mitigation goals and real carbon reduction for businesses
Polaris, like many large businesses, has ambitious sustainability goals. They are working towards 75% renewable electricity and a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. These clean energy goals are in response to global consumer pressure on businesses to show a commitment to reducing emissions. 88% of consumers now say that the sustainability of a product is a factor in some of their purchases. As an outdoor sports company, Polaris’s customers care about environmental stewardship and having a long-term positive impact on the outdoor spaces they love.
Polaris needed a company-wide initiative to meet these aggressive energy efficiency goals. They needed a program that would unify disparate plants and motivate all employees to look for effective energy solutions and opportunities to save energy and reduce carbon.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) 50001 Ready program gives businesses the tools to implement an energy management system that meets the ISO 50001 standards. The DOE recognizes businesses that self-attest to completing a 25-step checklist. This process sets businesses on a path for continual energy improvement and carbon reduction.
VEIC brings together Polaris facilities to learn and achieve energy savings
VEIC began partnering with the DOE in 2020 to train business cohorts to complete the 25-step 50001 Ready program. Since 2020, we have run cohorts with manufacturing plants, commercial buildings, multi-family buildings, and state and federal government facilities. Cohorts include between 5-20 individual plants or facilities that share common practices or technology.
Polaris’s Huntsville, Alabama plant completed the program in 2018. In 2021, VEIC approached Polaris’s leadership to suggest a cohort of Polaris plants, working together to achieve recognition and build on Huntsville’s success. The sites participated in monthly trainings with VEIC, along with individual consultation sessions for issues unique to each plant.
VEIC’s style of training fostered company-wide collaboration that had formerly been lacking. Plant managers had previously had few opportunities to compare notes between plants. Through the training sessions, they were able to share what was working and pass innovations across the organization.
“For years, we’d been doing the right things, without cohesive goals. We tracked projects that were saving us energy, but we didn’t have a standardized way of talking about them or a target we were working towards. The 50001 Ready methodology gave us standard language to use across the organization when we’re identifying projects, talking about goals, and talking about individual site performance.”
Deeper savings beyond the 50001 Ready program
The result was 50001 Ready recognition for seven Polaris plants, including recognition for the Huntsville, AL plant for the third year. Polaris met its 2022 sustainability goals, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5% that year. Polaris knows that meeting the goals it has set for its consumers and its investors means pulling together as a company. VEIC’s 50001 Ready training experience allowed Polaris to develop a common framework. It helped connect the production team to the energy team so that every employee could start to think about their work from an energy savings lens.
Who We Are
VEIC provides services under a broad clean energy umbrella that includes energy efficiency, building decarbonization, transportation electrification, and clean and flexible grid solutions. We work with utilities, state energy offices, transit agencies, non-profits, businesses, and more to advance electrification and decarbonization efforts across the country. From decarbonization program planning and implementation to federal funding services, we help clients achieve their goals and make an impact.
Reach out today so the VEIC team can learn more about your building electrification and energy efficiency ideas.