Roanoke mill moves first in ISO 50001 Energy management standard

Sources: Roanoke Cement Co., Virginia; CP staff

Roanoke Cement’s Troutville, Va., plant is the first U.S. operation of its kind to attain certification under ISO 50001 Energy management, a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization, Geneva. A voluntary program of best practices in continuous energy improvement, ISO 50001 mirrors standards more prevalent in cement and concrete production: 9001 Quality management systems and 14001 Environmental management systems. ISO 50001 provides plant operators a framework of requirements to:

  • Develop a policy for more efficient energy use;
  • Fix targets and objectives to meet the policy;
  • Use data to better understand and make decisions about energy use;
  • Measure results;
  • Review how well the policy works; and,
  • Continually improve energy management.

“ISO 50001 is a signature achievement for a manufacturing plant,” says Troutville Plant Manager Brian Allder. “RCC’s energy management system owes its long-term success to the continued commitment of our leadership—who embraced it from the get go—empowering energy management at every level.”

Requirements of the standard perfectly dovetail with Titan America and RCC targets, notes Corporate Energy Manager Chris Bayne, adding, “Many companies balk at ISO 50001’s insistence to commitment, data analysis and value-decision making on energy. At Titan America, this approach is part of our corporate DNA.”

Titan Senior Manager of Alternative Fuels and Alternative Raw Materials Lance Clark announced the Troutville ISO 50001 certification at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference in St. Louis. The certification follows the plant’s decade-plus Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star program participation.