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Gold standard factory
Kettle Foods lives up to company maxim with Beloit plant
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An all-natural snack food company should have an environmentally friendly production center.
That was the reason Kettle Foods was committed to nationally recognized energy and environmental building standards while planning its 74,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and office building in Beloit.
Along the way, the company paid some higher construction costs in exchange
for long-range savings and green bragging rights as the first Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design
gold standard plant in Wisconsin and only the second in the nation.
Kettle Foods teamed up with construction manager Affiliated Construction Services Inc., Madison, for the 11-month project.
Jim Corkey, ACS principal in charge of the Kettle Foods project, said the layout of the plant is “ahead of the game,” particularly in Wisconsin, and will likely be looked at and followed by other companies.
“Sustainability aspects of buildings are more and more in everyone’s minds,” Corkey said.
Kettle Foods needed a new plant to boost potato processing by 50 percent to about 50 million pounds of spuds per year.
The production facility was expected to use large amounts of electricity and water, particularly because of a high volume of chip fryers.
To counteract the potential footprint the plant would leave on the environment, ACS; Flad Architects, Madison; and engineering firm AEI, Madison, developed several energy- and water-saving processes within the plant.
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Project Essentials Project
name: Kettle Foods Potato Chip Manufacturing Facility
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Corkey said water used on the factory floor to clean potatoes, for example, is collected and then reused to flush the toilets.
Also, wind turbines were stationed on the building to return natural power to the grid, and the company used soybean-based paint on its walls.
The building also is wrapped in windows, Corkey said, so that nearly every area in the plant takes in sunlight, which cuts down on the amount of power needed for lighting.
Work crews also recycled three-fourths of the on-site waste during construction, an effort that continued since the specialty-snack business opened plant doors in April.
Other positive ecological aspects of the project that are harder to quantify include dedicating 6 acres outside of the plant as prairie conservancy.
“Wherever they are working,” Corkey said of Kettle Foods employees, “they can see outside, they can see daylight.”
— Justin Kern