Electrolux: Energy performance

Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline. The Electrolux portfolio includes four facilities as of 2021. The new Anderson, SC refrigeration factory is built with state-of-the-art energy-efficient equipment and is expected to significantly reduce the company’s energy use in the coming years. The Electrolux energy management program includes cross-functional energy teams working toward continuous improvement through project implementation, best practices sharing, employee engagement, and more. This approach has been highly effective and instrumental in being recognized as an industry leader in the Household Durables category in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. With an energy intensity improvement of 6.3 percent since its baseline year of 2015 and with many energy efficiency projects in the pipeline, Electrolux is on track to meet its 25 percent reduction in energy intensity target by 2026.

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy. All Electrolux facilities participating in the challenge have improved energy performance over the last year. Several actions taken by Electrolux have contributed to their overall energy efficiency improvement. This includes lighting automation and LED upgrades, variable speed air compressors, and upgrading Injection molding.

Electrolux produces different products and, as a result, uses different metrics to calculate plant-level energy intensity. Depending on the plant, Electrolux calculates energy intensity in terms of source energy consumed (in MMBtus) divided by the number of freezers, wall ovens, slide-in ovens, and specialty products. The percent change in energy intensity is tracked for each facility on both a monthly and annual basis. Electrolux normalizes its plant-level numbers to account for changes in production volume, product mix, and heating and cooling degree days. These metrics are rolled up to the corporate level, with a corporate-wide percent improvement in energy intensity calculated by taking a weighted average of the percent change in energy intensity at the individual facilities.

Better Plants Water Savings partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide water use intensity (WUI) compared to a set baseline year. The Electrolux water portfolio includes four facilities as of 2019.  With numerous water efficiency projects in the pipeline, Electrolux is on track to meet its 20 percent reduction in water intensity target by 2027. To support this, Electrolux not only routinely conducts water audits to better understand water use and identify improvement opportunities but we also recycle and reuse our water.