Energy and Water Management for Industrial Users

The link between energy, water, wastewater, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become an important topic for industrial manufacturing operations. Productivity initiatives across the industrial manufacturing sector are creating demand for energy and water programs that reduce operating costs and provide environmental benefits. Stakeholders are able to elevate the need for energy, water, and wastewater programs through various business drivers. Defining leading and lagging metrics are an important component toward successfully implementing an energy and water management program. Energy and water optimization opportunities identified in facilities may be more successful when evaluated outside the structure of a traditional energy-water nexus approach. Organizations are now considering the interaction of water optimization through reduction and reuse, energy consumption reduction and demand management, downstream waste management practices, and GHG emissions as an integrated approach. This paper presents perspectives on energy and water management program development and assessment. This includes strategic planning with a bottom up and top down approach for water and energy consumption reduction schemes, management of downstream waste and wastewater, and associated GHG impacts.