Badger Meter's Eco Story
What's your company's definition of sustainability, and why is it important to you?
Helping protect the world’s most precious resources, Badger Meter is a corporate leader in promoting and enabling sustainability. Through the company’s metering products, energy savings from sustainable manufacturing practices and the responsible management of corporate facilities, Badger Meter makes a large, measurable impact in this area and truly does help the world conserve its precious natural resources.
What are the most important sustainability issues your company deals with?
As a corporation, Badger Meter strives towards sustainability in two ways:
• Sustainable product solutions: What is not measured cannot be managed. Metering makes water consumption more visible to the user, raising the level of understanding of usage patterns and highlighting the need to conserve. The American Water Works Association estimates that installing a water meter will reduce a consumer’s usage by approximately 20 percent. Given that the average U.S. household uses 300 gallons of water per day (EPA), metering has an enormous impact on total water consumption. Further, because the typical water meter becomes less accurate over time, every 20-year-old meter replaced with a new water meter has the potential of capturing more than 1,000 gallons per year, which was previously going unmeasured and unbilled by the water utility. A roughly 30 percent market share of the North American water metering market means that Badger Meter has and will continue to have a big impact on water conservation.
• Sustainable practices: Badger Meter is committed to sustainable practices in our ongoing operations. These efficiency initiatives include the annual use of millions of scrap brass in the production of our bronze meters, reducing the need to mine virgin copper; facilities projects like our green roof, which reduces storm water run-off, and our corporate-wide LED lightning retrofit program; the adoption of new manufacturing and monitoring process which reduce our water consumption and initiatives aimed at reductions of landfill waste.
Sustainable thinking is no longer just a "nice to have", it's increasingly seen as a competitive advantage. Tell us how sustainable thinking is helping move your company forward?
Badger Meter customers around the world rely on our flow measurement and control products to maximize the efficiency of their operations, to enhance their understanding and control of their processes and to minimize waste of precious resources. At Badger Meter, we are committed not only to helping our customers, but also ensuring our own operations use resources as efficiently as possible.
Rock the Green, the Sustainability Festival, is all about going for zero waste. How has your company reduced waste across your operations? Has it paid off for you financially?
As a manufacturer of the flow measurement products and solutions that help our customers maximize process efficiency, minimize waste, and literally are used to help the world protect its most precious resources, it is important for us to “practice what we preach.” Our initiative to reduce landfill waste, while not specifically aimed at a financial benefit, is one example. This initiative has reduced our year over year landfill waste by hundreds of tons, and we are committed to drive for continuous reductions.
Surveys show that employees are happier and more productive when they're engaged with a company's sustainability strategies. How do you engage your staff to implement your sustainability plans?
Our employees make the difference. Led by our facilities management team, sustainability really is a corporate-wide team effort. Employees are encouraged to point out ways to improve and progress on our sustainability initiatives are reported annually to all employees. In addition, Rock the Green and other environmental-related initiatives provide perfect volunteer opportunities for Badger Meter associates.
In a nutshell, how will you be "rocking the green" in the coming 5 years?
Badger Meter has been a supporter of Rock the Green since its inception, because our missions are clearly and perfectly aligned. With our leadership position in flow measurement solutions which promote the most efficient use of water possible, the recent move of the Festival to Reed Street Yards and its partnership with The Water Council only serve to reinforce this deep connection.
