Nearly every company in the chemical processing industries (CPI) has a sustainability initiative, but the current economy has capital and operating budgets clamped tight. Jamie Bohan, senior segment manager with Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS; Booth 427; Phoenix, Ariz.), will be presenting a workshop called “Moving Beyond Funding Roadblocks for Sustainable Process Operations,” on Wednesday from 3 to 3:30 p.m. in Theater A, which will discuss effective ways to present and obtain funding for sustainability projects.
Whether projects cross the broad sustainability spectrum or are more focused around energy reduction, reducing environmental emissions or water conservation, they are often hard to get funded. “Because of the economy, the ROI period keeps getting smaller and smaller in order to get a project approved,” notes Bohan. “A lot of our customers say a project must have a one year ROI or it won’t receive funding. It’s really a Catch 22 in that the company wants to make these improvements to meet sustainability initiatives, but doesn’t want to fund the projects.”
As a result, HPS has been working with customers to help them move beyond such barriers and come up with “creative and compelling” ways to get funding for these types of projects. The workshop will highlight several of these tactics.
One strategy to be discussed is basing the project’s ROI on the lifecycle of the company or the plant versus just on the product. Often times when a project is up for approval, only the cost of the project and its impact on the cost of the product being made and sold are considered. “When you look at it this way, it’s difficult to get funding,” admits Bohan. “But if you look at sustainability projects over the lifecycle of the company, there is likely a greater ROI when you consider how the company will be viewed by the public or the cost of compliance with governmental regulations now and in the future.”
Another tactic to be presented is viewing the project as “insurance” against future high-cost or difficult-to-obtain resources, such as electricity and water. “For instance, in many regions there will be a time when water issues will become a problem and getting into a healthy position now will prevent the company from being in a situation where they can’t produce to capacity because they can’t get the necessary water,” explains Bohan. “In these cases the project becomes almost an insurance type of investment, making it easier to pitch and sell.”
For these and other strategies, the workshop will detail case histories, which will demonstrate how projects were justified and the savings that were achieved. Bohan says anyone who’s charged with achieving sustainability goals should attend the program.
Joy LePree