Medical Supply Company Cuts Water Use by One Billion Gallons per Year

The global health care giant Abbott has reduced its annual water use by one billion gallons - or 37% - bringing the company remarkably close to meeting its water conservation goal of 40% nearly two years ahead of schedule.

From Michael Kanellos at Greentech.com:

At the end of September, we wrote about how medical supply giant Abbott cut oil and gas consumption by 35 percent compared to a 2006 baseline though, in part, waste heat technologies.

Now, the company says it is saving one billion gallons of water a year, a key milestone considering that some of its facilities are in water-starved Singapore. The company set out to get to 40 percent below its water consumption of 2004 by 2011 but it's already there. Water consumed in manufacturing processes is down 37 percent.

How did the company accomplish it? Through a variety of technologies like installing more water-efficient scrubbers for controlling dust in a Michigan facility or by installing tighter-fitting pipes in other facilities. An Arizona plant implemented leak tags to ensure that leaks are detected and fixed at a more rapid rate.