Across the company, employees are working to be better stewards of this increasingly important resource.

CUMMINS 2030 WATER REDUCTION GOAL

One of Cummins’ 2030 goals in the company’s PLANET 2050 environmental sustainability strategy is to reduce water consumption in facilities and operations by 30%. The 2030 goal calls for an “absolute” reduction of 30%. That means it remains at 30% no matter how much the company grows between now and 2030. Leaders say it will likely require some extremely creative solutions to reach a 30% reduction under those conditions, including implementing alternatives to water use.

CUMMINS WATER WORKS

In 2021, the company announced a new global community program called Cummins Water Works to address the global water crisis by partnering with leading water experts and investing and engaging in sustainable, large-scale, high-impact water projects around the world. The program is supported initially by more than $10 million in Cummins grants focusing on five of the most water-stressed countries: Mexico, Brazil, India, South Africa and the United States. By 2030, Cummins Water Works’ goal is to bring more than 1 billion gallons of fresh water to more than 2 million people who would not otherwise have access to it, while producing net water benefits that exceed Cummins’ annual water use.

WASTE WATER REUSE AT KEY LOCATIONS

Cummins is conserving millions of gallons of water through three relatively new on-site treatment systems at the Kothrud Engine Plant in Pune, India; the Jamestown Engine Plant in Jamestown, New York; and the Rocky Mount Engine Plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina – three of the company’s largest plants. The multi-faceted systems are designed to treat the water used at those locations and return a significant amount to the plants for non-potable re-use. Rocky Mount’s system includes a greenhouse where hydroponic plants provide supplemental aeration and catalyze an ecology of grazing micro-organisms to reduce sludge and increase treatment efficiency. The water returned to the plants is used to cool machinery such as air compressors, and significantly reduces the amount of water purchased from local utilities.

WATER-FRIENDLY LANDSCAPING

Cummins is moving away from water-intensive landscaping, using native plants, grasses and other techniques in its landscaping as well designs that keep water on site rather than simply channeling it off-site. The company’s campus in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, started the movement several years ago by using native plants requiring much less water in its landscaping. More recently, meadow plantings have been used at the company’s Corporate Office Building and the Cummins Machine Integration Center in Columbus, Indiana, as well as the Cummins Distribution Headquarters in nearby Indianapolis. The landscaping in the plaza area at the Distribution Headquarters collects water runoff when it rains. As water accumulates it is redirected to an underground storage tank for later use watering plants and trees on site. 

WATER-SAVVY FIRE SPRINKLERS

A surprisingly large amount of water can be used during the testing of sprinkler systems designed to put out a fire in a plant or facility. Cummins is moving away from single-use systems, where water used for the testing process is discharged straight off-site. In some locations, water is pumped into the sprinkler system using diesel engines that then require still more water for cooling. A growing number of Cummins facilities are investing in systems that recirculate and recycle water within the system, or looking at ways to collect, store and use the water for alternative non-potable use.

The company worked on 20 solar projects in 2021, ranging from a relatively modest 36-kilowatt peak (kWp) array that was phase 2 of a project at the Cummins Generator Technologies facility in Ahmednagar, India, to a 1,472 kWp installation atop the new U.K. Logistics Center in Daventry, United Kingdom, to a 3,600 kWp array at the Rocky Mount Engine Plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. 

When completed this year, the Rocky Mount solar array will be the second largest at Cummins, behind only the combined power of the 3,600 and 3,300 kWp installations atop two buildings that make up the Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Company plant in Beijing, China.

Cummins currently has plans for another 18 solar projects in 2022, with a special emphasis on China and the United States as the company’s efforts move forward.

“Solar is going to play a major role in meeting our PLANET 2050 environmental goals,” said Mark Dhennin, Director of Energy and Environment for Cummins’ Facilities and Operations. “There have been significant technical improvements and price reductions that make it increasingly attractive as a low-carbon energy source.”

PLANET 2050 is the company’s sustainability strategy for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges. It has nine goals timed to 2030, including reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from facilities and operations by 50%. The strategy also includes the aspiration to exclusively power customer success using net-zero emission technologies by 2050.

CUMMINS’ STRATEGY FOR RENEWABLES

Solar alone won’t get the company to its 50% reduction goal, but solar can play an important role in a multi-faceted approach that includes other forms of renewables, energy conservation, process modifications and an expected greening of the grid. Dhennin says the company’s initial target is for on-site solar to provide about 10% of the company’s global electricity needs.

On-site solar is especially good for buildings like warehouses, with relatively modest power needs compared to manufacturing plants and large roofs or adjacent spaces like parking lots where panels can be placed. It also helps to be in a location receiving a lot of sun, although Liam Roe, Facilities Project Manager for Cummins covering the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, points out that the technology has improved tremendously in recent years. 

He says Britain is far from the sunniest place on earth, but the array atop the U.K. Logistics Center (UKLC) is expected to provide most of the facility’s electricity for long stretches of the year, working with a near zero emission natural gas generator. The array is projected to pay for itself in five to six years and is one reason UKLC received an Outstanding rating under BREEAM UK’s Code for a Sustainable Built Environment for non-domestic buildings.

Cummins has also worked to expand the availability of renewable power by supporting the expansion of a wind farm in a particularly windy corner of the company’s home state of Indiana through a virtual power purchase agreement. While none of the power generated by the expansion of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm in 2019 goes directly to Cummins, the company’s share of the expansion roughly offsets all of the electricity the company uses from the grid across the state.

SOLAR’S OTHER BENEFITS

The company does have a number of sites that receive significant amounts of sun annually. India, for example, has been a point of emphasis for Cummins’ solar efforts with 20 installations since 2018 that together have a maximum potential output of 11 MWp. The largest project in the country was a 1,250 kWp array during phase 2 of a solar initiative at the Kothrud Engine Plant in Pune, India. The total solar capacity at the plant is now 2,800 kWp, the largest installation in India.

Solar power is an important source of low-carbon energy in the country, especially in light of estimates that up to 70% of the electricity from the grid in India comes from coal-fired power plants. It’s also, however, an increasingly important source of power as demands on the grid mount, said Pravin Ghodke, Energy Project Manager for Facilities and Operations in India.

Ghodke says he believes Cummins’ experience with all the benefits of solar in India as well as the South Pacific and Africa will help as the company expands its investment in China, the United States and elsewhere.

A BRIGHT FUTURE AWAITS

Laura Jones, Cummins’ Energy and Environment Manager in the U.S., can see the future as she watches work enter its final stages on the 3,600 kWp solar array at the engine plant in Rocky Mount. 

Located on 7 acres on the south side of the facility, the field of solar panels will be the first Cummins has employed using technology that enables panels to follow the sun for maximum power generation. While Rocky Mount receives plenty of sun, the rotating panels and other advances could make solar a low-carbon option for other regions of the country not so blessed.

“There’s no question the technology is changing very quickly while becoming increasingly affordable,” she said. “We’re looking at it as an option in a number of areas.”

“My view is we’re out of time to protect our climate and we’re out of time to make sure that American companies are the ones that lead the world in these technologies,” Linebarger told President Biden. “When we invest, we can win, and we can create jobs for our workers here in the United States.”

Corporate executives including General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Microsoft President Brad Smith also championed climate action at the meeting, held ostensibly to talk about the stalled Build Back Better Act. The legislation includes a wide range of provisions, from climate action to childcare initiatives.

Linebarger called climate change the “existential crisis of our time,” adding he would not want to be sitting in his living room with his family one day and not be able to say he made every effort to build support for climate action.

Cummins wants to be a leader in addressing climate change. The company has brought to market new low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells while working to reduce the carbon footprint of its more traditional products such as internal combustion engines.

During his discussions with the president and other business leaders, Linebarger voiced his support for advancing the Build Back Better Act because of its provisions that address climate change, provide tax credits for hydrogen production, and other initiatives to reduce carbon and drive job creation while enhancing American competitiveness.

“When we invest, we can win and we can create jobs for our workers here in the United States,” Linebarger told Biden. ”That’s what we intend to do at Cummins, and that’s what I think all of us can do if we invest in climate change technologies now.”

“But we can’t do it alone,” Linebarger added. “The truth is we need investment. Tax credits in the Build Back Better Act for hydrogen and clean trucks will play a big role in getting all of us to invest in infrastructure and other things we need to get this going.”

To date, the U.S. House has passed Build Back Better Act, but it has stalled in the U.S. Senate. Linebarger says that comes with significant consequences.

“If we wait, not only do we harm the climate, but we make sure we are not the winners in global competitiveness,” Linebarger told the president.
 

“Climate change is the existential crisis of our time, and we must work together to solve it,” Tom Linebarger, Cummins Inc. Chairman and CEO and Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer wrote in a recent note they co-authored for the company’s employees. “Our ability to deliver on our mission of making people’s lives better by powering a more prosperous world is threatened by the world’s climate challenges.”  

They further explained that the industry contributes to climate change, and Cummins has an opportunity to be part of the solution by pursuing reductions from both internal combustion engines and new technologies. 

The note from Rumsey and Linebarger introduced Destination Zero. This is the name for the company’s strategy to go further, faster to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality impacts of its products and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in a way that serves all stakeholders in a sustainable way for Cummins’ business. This commitment requires changes to Cummins’ products and the energy sources that power them. This work requires collaboration and leadership from governments, utilities, and other industries. 

To reach a world with net-zero emissions, it is necessary to improve the resiliency of the grid and decarbonize it with renewable energy. Developing and growing the hydrogen economy also is essential. Hydrogen can be used as a fuel source to decarbonize transportation as it becomes more available and less expensive. (Cummins’ electrolyzers are helping customers produce green hydrogen.)  

Because these changes will take time, as part of its Destination Zero strategy, Cummins is also focused on improving GHG emissions that come from the internal combustion engines that dominate most industrial applications today. In fact, it’s these reductions, which are projected to provide more cumulative carbon reduction than an alternate scenario of waiting until the grid is green and deploying technology that relies on electric charging. 

Cummins’ Destination Zero strategy lowers carbon and other emissions today, and reduces well-to-wheels emissions by matching technology readiness with infrastructure readiness. (Well-to-wheels emissions include energy use and emissions from the primary energy source through consumption during vehicle or equipment operation.) It drives wide-scale adoption by focusing on affordability, and it achieves zero emissions by 2050. Simply put, it provides the most cumulative emissions reduction for the least cost on society. 

The pace will look different in different applications and regions of the world. Driving factors of the pace of the transition include infrastructure investment, regulatory advancements, and customer requirements. Because so many partners will influence these changes, Cummins employees around the world are working in their communities to partner on these efforts. 

This work builds on the framework of the company’s PLANET 2050 environmental sustainability strategy, which also includes a focus on improving its communities and using natural resources in the most sustainable way. PLANET 2050 includes quantifiable goals for 2030 and visionary, longer-term aspirations for 2050.