Environmental Progress - Winter 2000

Environmental Management:
A New Perspective

SWD Electric, Inc.

Addison

SWD, Inc. in Addison is one of the Midwest’s premier metal finishing and fastener sorting companies specializing in black oxidizing, passivating (removing iron from stainless steel to prevent rust) and phosphating. They started in 1980 when Dick Delawder, a former teacher, decided to start a metal finishing business with three employees and some used equipment. They now have 90 employees, a state-of-the-art facility, and a very strong commitment to the environment.

When SWD takes on a project, they go at it fully. In 1996, instead of working only toward ISO 14000 certification, a serious undertaking itself, they decided to build it into their goals to achieve ISO 9000 (the international quality standard) and QS 9000 (the automotive quality standard) certification - all at the same time. The process took a lot of financial commitment and staff time, but resulted in SWD being the first metal finisher in the U.S. to become ISO 14000 certified and the first American company to be certified to 9000 and 14000 simultaneously.

SWD made a corporate decision in 1982 to “stay in constant compliance or get out of the industry.” They joined U.S. EPA’s voluntary 33/50 Toxics Reduction program in 1991, reduced their use of 1,1,1 trichloroethane by 98 percent by 1992 and eliminated it in 1993, far surpassing U.S. EPA’s program goals. In 1997, they became a charter member of U.S. EPA’s Common Sense Initiative for the metal finishing sector and helped to set its stringent goals.

In 1992, when SWD needed to find a new home for their growing business, they designed a new building that took the environment into consideration. Although expensive and not required by regulations, the design included many innovative ideas, such as:

• special flooring that was sloped to ensure containment of process materials and coated with PVC under the plating lines;
• the most efficient lighting and compressed air systems on the market, both chosen for energy efficiency and reducing their electric bill by 20 percent ($8,4000) per year;
• a waste treatment system built 16 feet below grade to allow for gravity feed and eliminate the use of energy consuming pumps.

Tim Delawder, vice president of operations, looks down from a 5,000 gallon tank that stores recycled water for reuse.

The road to ISO 14000 was challenging for SWD because the final standard hadn’t yet been adopted when they started and there was very little reference material available. They carefully reviewed their processes and auxiliary operations to identify all the aspects that could potentially impact the environment and ended up with a list of 40 activities. Those had to be ranked by frequency and severity to determine where to focus first.

SWD has since benefited from the ISO 14000 certification process by putting their management commitment to environmental improvements in writing and making all employees more aware of it. Equally important is that employees now understand their own potential impacts on the environment. SWD reviews their entire system yearly and re-evaluates the significance of their environmental aspects. Twenty improvement projects have been completed in the last two years.

A goal of continuous improvement and the ideas of employees have helped SWD to find many ways to prevent pollution and save money. They installed a 5,000 gallon water tank to store recycled water for non-critical rinses, saving 40 percent (or $32,200 per year) on their water bill. They eliminated the use of chemicals that caused their waste to be hazardous, saving $100,000 per year for disposal. They reduced sludge generation by 80 percent by switching to a heavy zinc phosphate in their process. The list goes on and on.

SWD’s commitment to going beyond compliance is obvious in all the work they do.