Energy harvesting and battery-free tech helping companies meet their CSR goals

With Climate Change becoming a more and more urgent issue, it is necessary for companies to aid their fellow companies to achieve their goals--the quiet things the public may not think about, but this impacts them, the earth and will certainly be part of many B to C items in the future.  This is truly cutting-edge stuff and will have an effect on all of us as we move forward--in the workplace and soon in the home.

Studies have shown that between 64% and 84% of consumers prefer environmentally friendly brands.  This increased consumer awareness has led to businesses embracing CSR practices–consumers purchase from companies that: An estimated 90 percent of companies on the S&P 500 index published a CSR report in 2019, compared to just 20 percent in 2011.  Fortune 500 firms are spending around $20 billion a year on CSR activities (Meier and Cassar 2018), and more than 90% of the 250 largest companies in the world are now producing an annual CSR report (KPMG 2017).

As corporations, companies and industries strive to attain CSR goals, it’s key to note that it often ‘takes a village.’  Most companies cannot reach these goals on their own, especially if they don’t have a taste for ‘greenwashing.’  There is no ‘one silver bullet’ to carbon neutrality.  Companies must utilize multiple tools to reach their goals.

Everactive has been at the forefront of that toolkit with its environmentally-responsible high-tech batteryless solutions, ushering in the 4th Industrial Revolution in the greenest way possible. This technology can mean a more sustainable world for businesses and consumers in the near future.

Big Picture Impact

In the industrial sector, the use of IoT technology can have a huge impact due to the sheer size and scope of industrial operations.  Utilizing such technology in applications with an environmental benefit–for example, energy or emissions reductions–can result in significant progress towards CSR goals.  A single consumer IoT device typically impacts one person or one household.  A single B2B IoT device can have significantly more impact, and such devices working together in a single application can have thousands of times more impact. For example, real-world impact:

• With tools like Everactive’s real-time Steam Trap Monitoring, a single sensor's impact = avoiding $1,000 in energy costs, 10+ tons in annual excess CO2 emissions, and 1,800+ therms of energy.  That's the equivalent of removing 2 passenger cars from the road for a single year or making 5 US homes energy net-zero for a full year.  When you consider that an average manufacturing facility has hundreds to thousands of traps and there are tens of millions of these throughout industry, the impact multiplies rapidly.

• With real-time Machine Health Monitoring, B2B customers are able run machinery much more efficiently and avoid extremely costly downtime events.

• In general, there are hundreds of B2B IoT applications where wireless IoT devices can be put to work in the service of far more impactful uses -- to curb energy usage, reduce waste, lower emissions, improve air quality, and do it using renewable energy.

  • You don’t have to worry about operational expenses of new batteries and allows you to easily scale up the sensor network.

Examples of Everactive’s Customers/Technology Impact on CSR

• Anheuser Busch

  • Anheuser-Busch reduced its CO 2 emissions by an estimated 7,561

tons of CO 2 per year using the Everactive always-on solution, which is equivalent to taking 1,644 passenger vehicles off the road each year.

• Hershey

  • Since implementing the STM (Steam Trap Monitoring), the Hershey’s plant has already saved several thousand dollars in steam system savings. The maintenance team is now piloting Everactive’s new solution for Machine Health Monitoring (MHM).

• Colgate-Palmolive

  • During the first several months of using 230 Everactive steam trap sensors in Colgate-Palmolive’s Ohio and Indiana manufacturing facilities, on-site managers received email alerts about four critical steam trap failures. Teams were able to quickly replace the malfunctioning traps. Everactive says that Colgate-Palmolive recouped its subscription-based fees for service (including installation of the sensors and use of Everactive’s web data platform) in just three months. Everactive also estimates that as a result of the sensor-based monitoring, Colgate-Palmolive is saving 20,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions yearly.

• Merck

  • For this customer, the advantages have been manifold. Everactive delivers steam trap insights second-by-second, rather than once every six months, and does so conveniently, with intelligent notifications and easy to navigate mobile and desktop interfaces.

  • “I was able to get on my phone real quick and read what the condensate temperature was, so we could determine if there was live steam going into [the trap],” notes the plant’s Facilities Engineer. “[That was] pretty neat.”

Technology Impact

In 2021, assuming a full-year deployment among its growing customer base, Everactive’s industrial IoT applications had the impact of reducing CO2 emissions by 78,518 tons—the equivalent of removing 15,390 cars from the road each year. Customers also saved 1.3 million MMBTUs of energy throughout a single year—the equivalent of 38,046 U.S. homes being at ”net-zero energy” for one year. In addition, These IoT industrial applications also produced a net annual savings of more than $7.4 million for customers in 2021 alone.  By the end of 2021, Everactive had transmitted in excess of 1.5 billion data points using less energy than it takes to brew 3 pots of coffee.