Simplot cuts energy use

J.R. Simplot Co. has embraced energy efficiency as a core business value. The Idaho food, fertilizer and chemical company has dramatically reduced its use of electricity and natural gas, saving millions of dollars annually.

Simplot, which has 10,000 employees worldwide and sales of about $4.5 billion annually, is one of the largest private companies in the nation. It created an energy road map to identify, implement and monitor changes in energy use. It hired personnel specifically to work on energy efficiency.

The company adjusted boilers in plants to run in idle mode when not in use. It installed motion switches in employees’ offices to control lighting. It controlled water use in its Don fertilizer plant in Pocatello, installed energy-efficient light fixtures, and took dozens of other actions.

The company says energy-efficiency improvements since 2009 have yielded natural gas savings of 1.3 trillion British thermal units and 390,821,028 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The electricity reduction is equivalent to taking 35,400 homes off the grid. The reduction also saved 95,056 tons of greenhouse-gas emissions, like taking 29,929 cars of the road.

“J.R. Simplot put it best himself, a long time ago: ‘Do well by doing good.’ At the company that bears his name, those words still drive decision making,” the Simplot family says.