Boehringer Ingelheim U.S. Animal Health announced that its poultry vaccine site in Gainesville, Ga., has received carbon neutral certification, the first of its U.S. sites to earn this designation. The site, which produces nearly 60 billion poultry vaccines every year, is Boehringer Ingelheim’s first major manufacturing facility site in the U.S. and its third site globally to become carbon neutral.
The Gainesville site has been working toward more sustainable operations since 2017. To reach carbon neutral status the site team:
• Installed solar panels over the parking lot to harness the power of the sun,
• Replaced fluorescent lightbulbs with energy-efficient LED bulbs,
• Installed dimmer switches and occupancy sensors that turn off the lights when rooms are not in use,
• Purchased an electric vehicle for use around the site and installed a charging station,
• Installed smart meters to measure electrical consumption, and
• Replaced insulation on equipment to reduce heat and energy loss.
To offset the few remaining carbon emissions, the company purchased environmental project carbon credits from Climate Seed. Employees at the site chose to invest in the Noles South Avoided Conversion Forest project in North Carolina and a reforestation project in Kasigau Corridor in Kenya.
Germany-based TÜV, an independent third-party certification services company, reviewed and certified the site for carbon neutrality. The company received the carbon neutral certification on April 11 for 2021. The certification must be reviewed annually and is based on the previous year’s emissions.
