Almond Processing Facilities
Blue Diamond employs a continuous improvement process in its operations, seeking to reduce inputs and waste while improving quality, throughput, and yields. Each of our facilities has a sustainability team comprised of employees who explore, develop, and implement sustainability initiatives with the support of the entire facility.
“We are measuring our waste, water, and energy flows as well as greenhouse gas emissions to create a baseline with which we will gauge our improvements over the coming years.”
Our buildings have green building aspects that help with energy efficiency and resource impact. Some examples include LED lighting equipped with motion sensors, a controlled environment with rapid opening/closing doors, air compressors and boilers for on-demand point of use, and automated controls, all of which help to minimize our energy use. Our manufacturing processes utilize state-of-the-art technology such as variable frequency drives, energy efficient motors, and a battery powered forklift fleet.
In addition, all of our processing facilities use water efficiently, mainly for sanitation and quality control; in addition, our sterile blanching water is recycled and reused.
Continued new product innovation and recycling efforts reduces our by-product streams and ensures landfill is minimized. As we continue to evaluate and reduce our waste streams, we’ll continue to strive towards zero waste.
Examples of current sustainability initiatives:
- Partnering with the Department of Water Resources to reuse our super sacks as sandbags during floods, dam breaks, and levee overflows which diverted 13.58 tons of super sacks from landfill in FY19.
- Installing trash compactors to maximize haul offs and reduce C02 emissions.
- Replacing disposable shoe coverings with reusable coverings, reducing our landfill and resource use.
- Using Motor Control Center metering to identify unusual spikes in power signatures that can indicate problems with equipment allowing for a faster repair response rate for further efficiency.