Steelcase Inc.: Energy performance

Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline. In 2020, Steelcase achieved a 26% improvement in energy intensity within its 5-site portfolio since its baseline year of 2020, a year earlier than planned. Their energy management program emphasizes capital upgrades focused on energy efficiency, process improvement, and Total Productive Maintenance. Steelcase has shared its energy efficiency practices with its global industrial partners and through DOE's Better Plants Challenge Program.

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy. All but one of Steelcase's plants have experienced energy intensity reductions since 2010. Four facilities have improved energy performance by >10% since 2010. Steelcase's energy efficiency efforts include upgrading LED lighting, advanced metering, and monitoring and optimizing compressed air, lighting, and HVAC systems.

As a result of the many different products Steelcase produces, energy consumption is modeled and evaluated at several levels. From individual cost centers to entire plants, source energy use, production output, and weather conditions are tracked monthly and annually for each facility. Steelcase normalizes its energy use to account for the impacts of production volume and several weather-related variables. Interactions among these variables are also considered. Total corporate improvement in energy use is calculated by taking a weighted average of the improvements in energy intensity for each facility.