What makes Temperform sustainable?

The Lawton Standard family is proud of its continued efforts toward sustainability. Today we’re visiting our Temperform site located in Novi, Michigan, to see what makes them sustainable.

It takes a team to maintain a company’s sustainability. Gloria Webber is Temperform’s Operations Manager. Her role in the company’s sustainability is to hold everyone accountable for eliminating waste, reusing as many resources as possible, and keeping recyclable items out of the dumpster. By the end of 2022, Temperform hopes to obtain its ISO14000 environmental certification! Some other individuals involved with Temperform’s sustainability are Brandon Edelstein, Ken Garrett, and Bill Ruth.

Sustainability in Safety, Health, Environmental, and Quality

Brandon Edelstein is Temperform’s Compliance Coordinator and Purchasing Agent. Each morning he runs through the daily SHEQ report. The report communicates the location’s safety, health, environmental, and quality updates. Sustainability-wise, the report notates any metal items that are scrapped out and reminds employees how to recycle them properly. For the scrap metal to be recycled, it must be cleared of oils, mold wash, and chemicals.

Brandon is also a certified stormwater operator and a trained first responder for chemical spills. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy trained him to inspect the property for any chemical or material spills that might get into the storm drain.

Each quarter Brandon inspects Temperform’s waters. To be acceptable, he conducts the test after a qualifying rainfall event. The rainfall must be more than a soft drizzle after being dry for three days. In addition, the water sample must be collected within the first 30 minutes of rain. If you wait too long, the sample will be diluted. Thankfully each test has shown no contamination!

Aside from that, Brandon is also a member of The Green Team. Every couple of weeks, The Green Team will discuss ways to improve our emissions and recycling efforts. During that time, the group will calculate the cost savings they have accrued from the recent changes.

Novi is a partner in the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southern Oakland County (RRRASOC), and the city’s recycling center is just half a mile from Temperform. We bring our recyclables, and RRRASOC provides cost-effective, environmentally responsible, and convenient waste and recycling programs.

Ken has an arrangement with a local pallet yard that takes our broken pallets.

Some other sustainability efforts we partake in are recycling corrugated packaging, office supplies, and plastics.

Sustainability is Everyone’s Mission

Bill Ruth is Temperform’s Dojo Trainer and a sustainability advocate. He keeps an eye on the water, sand, and electrical usage. Bill noted that Temperform has a closed-loop system that doesn’t allow the water used in production to mix with our drinking water. We claim about 95% of our sand, and when we don’t reclaim it, we can sell it to the companies who do local road work. Our electrical usage has been reduced by having our lights timed during peak work hours only, and we’ve reduced our emissions.

Recycling at Every Step

Ken Garrett is Temperform’s Materials and Logistics Manager, and he assists with the location’s recycling. During the casting process, many materials are recyclable.

We frequently use our scrap metal or purchase it from others. We reuse the gates and risers that are cut off of the castings during the cleaning process. Risers are vertical channels that help the molten metal flow during the casting process. Throughout the process, risers are continuously recycled. Splash is also skimmed from the furnace.

When we accumulate enough alloys that won’t fit into our furnace, we ship them out to be melted using the AOD process. The metal is then sent back to Temperform in small usable ingots with optimal chemistry. Before using a remelter, these extra metals were sold for pennies! So it’s a considerable cost saving.

We reuse automotive import crates. Certain sized boxes are reusable for shipping Temperform castings. Why spend money on something when you already have the perfect item to send it in? We cover the current box information with our tape and ship it as is!

This is only a sampling of the sustainability efforts at Temperform. Ultimately, it’s everyone’s responsibility to do our part to eliminate waste and be good stewards of the earth.

We all need to do our part to eliminate waste and be good stewards of the earth.