Diversified construction and construction materials company Granite announced it made a commitment of $28 million to improve energy efficiency at its materials facilities.
Highlights of the energy efficiency projects in 2024 included bringing a new, fully automated plant online in Tucson, Arizona, that runs up to four times the production rate of the previous plant while reducing overall electricity consumption by 25%.
Another project involved the installation of a new counterflow drum to replace a parallel flow drum at a facility, increasing energy efficiency and reducing air quality impacts.
The company also installed line power at a facility, eliminating the use of a diesel generator and reducing fuel use and cost, and completed a major upgrade and modification of a facility that improved energy efficiency and reduced use of a haul truck.
Granite also completed an automation project at a facility that improved energy efficiency and installed a fixed solar array at another facility. The 1.47-megawatt installation will offset energy costs and put power back into the California energy grid.
In 2024, Granite continued to refine its energy efficiency dashboard for construction materials production, which supports data-driven sustainability initiatives through the visualization of various energy, cost and production metrics. Through a visual and interactive data dashboard, the tool facilitates the comparison of various metrics between asphalt and aggregate plants, normalizes values for fair regional comparisons, promotes more accessible data analysis for reporting, and identifies data outliers for further review.
“Our mission as a business is to provide infrastructure solutions that support more prosperous and resilient communities,” said Granite CEO Kyle Larkin in a statement. “Sustainability is central to this mission. Our teams embrace sustainability as a core value and recognize that our leadership in sustainability supports the successful execution of our business strategies and drives value creation.”