In its ongoing commitment to sustainability, Miller Fabrication Solutions has commissioned a carbon footprint study by a leading environmental consulting firm. The experts at Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., (CEC) are in the midst of analyzing operating data from Miller to determine our company’s true environmental impact and how efficiently we operate.

We engaged CEC because we want a better understanding of how well we’re doing when it comes to being good stewards of our environment, one of the company’s core values. It’s important to us to take care of the communities where we operate and the people who call them home.

Our goals for the study are to achieve a sustainability assessment and a greenhouse gas emissions baseline. To determine that baseline, CEC is evaluating Miller’s:

• Energy consumption
• Natural gas usage
• Diesel and gasoline fuel usage for on-site fleet vehicles
• Propane usage
• Acetylene usage
• Carbon dioxide usage
• Waste oil burned
• Electricity kilowatts consumed by each of our production facilities

After CEC reviews the 2023 data in these areas, they’ll estimate our carbon output – or carbon footprint, as it’s commonly called. Ultimately, we plan to share this analysis with our customers and our community to communicate the steps we take to follow sound environmental practices.

When the CEC report is finished late this year, it also will establish a benchmark that allows us to more effectively measure our progress going forward. In other words, it will not only tell us where we stand on sustainability right now, but also will help us determine where we need to continue to improve. We consider those learnings well worth the effort and investment.

Studies like the one CEC is conducting on our behalf are not required by our customers or our industry. Rather, we commissioned the study voluntarily to be ahead of the curve when it comes to protecting the environment in our region.

We’ll use the calculations we get back from CEC as a jumping-off point for improvements. Once we know what our carbon footprint is, we’ll devise and implement reduction plans as needed with specific strategies to lower our greenhouse gas emissions. 

After the new year, we’ll update you here about how we are using the information gleaned from CEC to become an even more environmentally friendly company than we already are. In the meantime, we remain committed to these ongoing internal sustainability efforts:

• Using powder coatings to lower carbon emissions
• Harnessing energy from renewable sources
• Maintaining clean water outflows by consistently meeting or exceeding the water quality standards outlined in our permits
• Reducing consumption of non-biodegradable materials through ongoing recycling programs
• Using environmentally friendly paints and chemicals in our manufacturing processes

As a strategic partner to some of the world’s largest OEMs, we are dedicated to operating in the best interests of our customers, our employees, our communities and the environment. This initiative to obtain an accurate reflection of how sustainably we operate will help us continue to meet those obligations and improve every day.