The Tumkur Road facility of Kennametal is a model sustainable campus – it is self-sufficient with water, has reduced energy bills by 60% and is close to zero waste.
All card-carrying anti-industry environmentalists must pay at least one visit to Kennametal India Ltd’s Bangalore facility.
Sustainable living and environment friendliness is a way of life at this plant. From lowering its water consumption and cutting down on energy and paper use to recycling tungsten scrap, Kennametal has been doing every bit it can to ensure eco-friendly manufacturing practices.
Established in the year 1938, Kennametal is a leading global supplier of tooling, engineered components and advanced materials that are consumed in production processes.
For over 40 years, the wells and borewells in Kennametal’s campus on Tumkur Road ran dry, even as surface run off through rain was over 10 crore litres. Until 2004, when they implemented water conservation initiatives, the plant was using 25,000 litres/day.
Now, in addition to harvesting rain water, the facility does borewell recharge, has percolation pits with infiltration wells and soak pits to recharge groundwater in addition to artificial containments.
RWH Systems
In front of its administration block, Kennametal has set up 15 wells that are connected to each other and to a sump tank to collect rainwater falling on the roof and the roads.
To tackle the problem of water-logging during heavy rains, the company had soak pits dug up. The pits, each 13 feet deep, are filled with stones and boulders and covered with gravel and crushed jelly to help water enter the underground water table. 14 pits near the main road drain the water into the soak pits.
Yearly, the company harvests 80 million litres water!
Sewage Treatment
A sewage treatment plant is another big component of Kennametal’s water conservation programme. This plant treats the company’s sewage water, which is then used to hydrate the landscape at the Bangalore facility.
Campus Cooling
Among other steps that Kennametal took to lower its water consumption was substitution of conventional cooling towers with adiabatic cooling towers. Adiabatic cooling towers use less water, do not require chemical water treatment or chlorination, and do not contaminate the water circuit.
Also, Kennametal integrated the flow valves to cater to equipment water flow requirements and installed magnetic valves in its cooling water distribution system.
The initiatives have thus far yielded impressive results – the facility’s water consumption is down 15%, with 7 million litres of water being saved so far. In money terms, annual savings have been Rs 2.5 million.
An Energy Efficient Campus
Besides water sustainability, Kennametal has taken several initiatives to become an energy efficient campus.
Eco-friendly initiatives like CFL lamps on streets, motion sensors in the washrooms and toilets, energy efficient fans, pressurized ventilation systems with CELLDEK made honeycomb fills etc, have led to reduction of 48% in energy consumption and 46% in paper usage, annually saving Rs 64 million and Rs 1.7 million, respectively. Recycling of tungsten carbide scrap has yielded annual savings of Rs 25 million.
Kennametal’s Bangalore facility needs about 100 cubic metre water daily. With rainwater harvesting, the company no longer buys water from outside vendors. Non-availability of sufficient water from the in-house borewell and problems getting water from outside vendors are history now.
For the company, identifying an agency to plan rainwater harvesting and implementing this plan was the biggest challenge, says N.M. Jaibharath, the deputy general manager of facilities and administration at Kennametal’s Bangalore unit. Help came in the form of Ayappa Masagi, the founder of the non-government organisation Water Literacy Foundation.
Not one to rest on its laurels, Kennametal, in its 75th year now, continues to assess, measure and monitor its freshwater consumption and implement engineering control steps to cut it down further.
With these eco-friendly measures, the Bangalore facility has set up big water footsteps for the company’s international plants to walk in. More information on Kennametal.
Catch Every Drop is a campaign on sustainable water conservation by The Alternative, sponsored by Arghyam, with partners India Water Portal and Biome Environmental Solutions.