ATHENS, Tenn. — Denso Manufacturing Athens facilities have gone from being “green” to having “Ecovision” that saves the environment, and money, a company official said Thursday.

And the savings realized as Denso reuses items or cuts consumption will be divided among employees as a monetary bonus, said Jeannette Widman, Denso’s environment department supervisor.

“We began with the easy things,” she told a group of reporters during a tour designed to emphasize efforts to reduce pollution and waste products.

More difficult items were tackled as the savings ideas developed, Ms. Widman said.

The result: Waste products have been reduced dramatically at Denso plants in Athens and Maryville. She said water consumption was cut more than 50 percent, landfill waste nearly 75 percent and carbon dioxide emissions are down nearly 18 percent.

Denso has a program that pays employees a percentage of savings, and they have helped with energy-saving ideas that have resulted in more than $90,000 in monetary rewards being distributed to the workers, Ms. Widman said.

Improvements made include processes designed for recycling waste products, reducing air leaks at machines and improving heating and air conditioning cycles. There was even replacement of alcohol cleaning solvents with a household detergent to clean pallets, for a savings of $2,800 a year and elimination of 1,500 pounds of hazardous waste.

She said the firm has reusable containers to ship the products to its customers, and a freight line is hired to return the containers to the plants.

She said the Ecovision program has taken Denso a step past being a “green” company that is environmentally friendly. It now is saving money and conserving with changes to management, products, factory and manufacturing processes and in work with the community.

Denso spokesman Hugh Cantrell said the Athens plants manufacture spark plugs, fuel injectors, oxygen sensors and other items related to vehicle engines. Last year the Athens facilities produced 12 million fuel injectors and 18 million spark plugs, he said, supplying companies like Honda, Toyota, Nissan and General Motors.

ON THE WEB

Denso Manufacturing Tennessee: http://www.densocorp-na-dmtn.com/

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