MISKA TRAILERS
GREEN INITIATIVES
Over the years, Miska Trailers has developed more green initiatives, technologies and practices to help with costs and to reduce the impact of manufacturing on the environment. This includes many areas including material utilization, design advancement, energy costs, lighting, process or equipment improvements, recyclables, etc.
HYDRO
Miska Trailers has implemented enormous hydro changes within our manufacturing plant and offices. These changes have not only improved our expenses, but will also produce positive results for the environment for years to come. Here are a few examples:
- We have upgraded to energy efficient lighting within the manufacturing plant, switching from 400 Watt Metal Halide light fixtures to T5 High Bay Fluorescent Lighting, as well as installing Hi-Efficiency LED lighting in our outside yards.
- Miska Trailers has also replaced our standard motors to High Efficient Motors on all our brake presses, shears and pumps.
- Welding Machines have been upgraded to High Efficient Inverter Welding machines, which are about 60% more efficient.
- All our compressor motors have been changed to variable frequency drives motors, to reduce electricity while on low demand.
- Our HVAC units on our offices have also been switched to High Efficient Units.
- Even replacing staff refrigerators to new ones and looking for the ENERGY STAR symbol, which means it is at least 15 per cent more energy-efficient than the minimum federal standard and uses half as much electricity as our 10-year-old fridge did.
All these changes have cost us capital money upfront, but we believe these changes in technology will save us 50% in energy costs, which helps our environment.
HEATING
Heating our 65,000 square feet manufacturing plant is expensive and because our old forced air heaters must first heat almost all of the air in our building before a level of comfort is achieved, and because heated air rises, large amounts of costly electrical energy are expended to drive the warm air down to floor level.
Miska Trailer has recently replaced our forced air heaters with infrared radiant heat. The infrared radiant heat energy warms people, floor slabs, machines and other objects at floor level. The principle of radiant infrared heat is very similar to the sun's heat energy warming the surface of the earth, but not the upper atmosphere.
Again this practice saves about 60% energy and will help our environment for years to come.
MANUFACTURING
Miska Trailers has also changed the way we sandblast our trailers. In the past we would purchase sandblasting sand by the truck load to blast our trailers. Then we would scoop it all up and send it out to landfill.
Recently we build a sandblasting building and installed a state of the art recycling sandblast machine and dust collector. Now all but 1% of our sand is reused. This has reduced our labor costs and has more importantly improved our green commitment to our environment.
Recycling programs have also been implemented throughout the manufacturing process with cardboard, plastic, reduction of paper, used toner cartridges, skids, wood and steel being sent out for recycling purposes. Reusable skid material and cardboard is used throughout production storage as well as for shipping purposes.
SUMMARY
Like everyone else, Miska Trailers must make more happen with less. Green Initiatives has benefitted our bottom line in the short term and will bring about environmental benefits to be proud of in the near future.
If you haven't already begun to incorporate sustainability principles into your world, why not start today.
Thank you,
Miska Trailer Management