DES MOINES – Ten Iowa businesses have teamed with DNR’s Pollution Prevention (P2) Intern Program this summer to increase the efficiency of their operations and reduce associated costs.
Upper-level engineering students work on-site at their assigned company to conduct in-depth assessments, analyze data, research pollution prevention strategies, and provide calculated recommendations. Companies utilize the data to make informed decisions and implement process improvements that will help position them to meet environmental performance goals.
“P2 is the process of going back up the pipe to identify the root cause of an inefficiency and applying source-reduction strategies to reduce or eliminate waste in a process or system,” says Jeff Fiagle, Team Lead for the P2 Services team. Technical Advisers with the P2 Intern Program provide training and oversight to the interns who seek to provide long-term solutions for the host companies.
Since 2001, more than 200 Iowa companies, hospitals, universities and government agencies have participated in this innovative program, accumulating more than $116.6 million in savings as a result of using resources more efficiently and improving environmental performance.
Environmental benefits achieved include the reduction of:
- 6.06 billion gallons of water;
- 274,855 tons of solid waste;
- 10,242 tons of hazardous waste;
- 513 million kilowatt hours of electricity;
- 23.7 million therms of energy.
Companies participating in the 2024 P2 Intern Program include (listed alphabetically by town):
Des Moines: Anderson Erickson Dairy – 2 projects
Des Moines: Kemin Industries
Eddyville: Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. – 28 week project
Marshalltown: JBS USA, LLC
Nevada: Burke Marketing Corporation – Hormel Foods
Ottumwa: JBS Swift Pork
Sergeant Bluff: CF Industries
Sergeant Bluff: Gelita USA
Woodward: Woodward Resource Center
Funding for the P2 Intern Program includes federal grants, portions of solid waste tonnage fees and cost share contributed by the host companies.
Pollution Prevention Services also provides confidential, non-regulatory, environmental technical assistance in the form of assessments, development assistance for Environmental Management Systems, workshops, an equipment loan program, and access to an electronic library of technical resources. These services are offered at no-cost to help companies reduce expenses through source-reduction strategies to improve process efficiency and reduce or eliminate waste.
For more information on the Pollution Prevention Intern Program and a list of 2024 projects, visit: www.iowap2interns.com. Case summaries of the 2024 projects will be posted to this website in the fall.