Vancouver-based Great Western Malting will be awarded the Association of Washington Business’ 2018 Manufacturing Excellence Award for Green Manufacturing, in recognition of a series of conservation efforts that collectively achieved a 98 percent reduction in the company’s water usage in the past year.
Association president Kristofer Johnson announced the award during a visit Friday to Great Western Malting’s headquarters at the Port of Vancouver. Vancouver was one of the final stops on the association’s Manufacturing Week bus tour of the state.
The Green Manufacturing award is one of four Manufacturing Excellence award categories, and Johnson said Great Western Malting was selected from a list of more than 50 businesses that were under consideration. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in November.
“We just wanted to reduce our consumption as well as our discharge,” said Great Western Malting President Michael O’Toole. “I’m pretty proud of what our people have accomplished in terms of challenging how we do things.”
Several technological upgrades the company implemented in the past year contributed to the water reduction, O’Toole said, including a new set of high-pressure misting nozzles, a new system for distributing water during the malting process, a more efficient barley cleaner and new fans for better airflow.
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