Louis Dreyfus Becoming Greener
Published: Friday, March 24, 2023
Louis Dreyfus Co. held a Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Day at the Claypool plant last Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. A safety keynote was given twice, from 8-9:30 a.m. and from 10:30 a.m. to noon, with an informational fair available for participants to attend in between. The company is working with farmers to incorporate more sustainable practices in farming procedures to increase environmentally safe products.
Speakers included plant manager Gilberto Sifuentes, process safety manager Justin Moree, environment, health and safety manager Andre Tenorio, commercial manager Jeremy Mullins and regional manager Carmen Fernandez-McEwen.
Fernandez-McEwan said there are three different scopes of decarbonization being enacted by Louis Dreyfus. The first deals with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which the company is directly responsible for, the second addresses indirect emissions of the company and the third considers emissions that do not result from Louis Dreyfus assets or controlled assets, but those for which they are indirectly responsible.
"There is some progress in the negotiations with farmers to see if they can find better forms of cropping," she said.
She also reported that the biggest source of carbon emissions in the Louis Dreyfus supply chain is land-use changes.
Since 2018, Louis Dreyfus has reduced global carbon emissions by 7%. Also since 2018, the company has increased sustainability in electricity by 6%; water, 13%; and waste, 74%, according to Tenorio.
"We're going to make the plant safer and we're going to make it cleaner," Moree said.
The speakers discussed personal, procedural and mental safety within the company in addition to environmental safety. In order to improve plant safety and sustainability, explosion-proof tablets, tankless water heaters, solar lighting, ethanol fire detectors (UVIR) and a flammable safety rack are being installed, among other things.
The safety fair featured a presentation about hexane safety, a fire extinguisher demonstration and a spill safety booth, among other things. Hexane is used to extract oil from soybeans, but the fumes are highly flammable. The hexane demonstration focused on safe handling of the product and accentuated the need to keep heat away from hexane.
Rick Hurley, chief of Claypool Fire Department, received a safety award, as did Russ Roesner and Jeremy Carter of Louis Dreyfus Co.
Return to Top of Page