FiberMark

Headquartered in Brattleboro, VT, FiberMark is a leading producer of specialty fiber-based materials for office products, publishing, luxury packaging, and technical specialty applications.  As a longtime advocate for environmental stewardship, FiberMark believes that it should execute manufacturing, operations, and business practices that result in real reductions of its environmental impact. 

In partnership with Efficiency Vermont, FiberMark looked at its facility-wide energy consumption with an eye on improving efficiency and production while decreasing its electricity usage and dependence on fossil fuels.  Over the past several years, the company has implemented energy saving measures that include:

A complete lighting retrofit in its 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility -

Installation of efficient electric motors and variable speed drives

Upgrades to the facility’s compressed air systems

FiberMark’s manufacturing facility processes more than 1 million gallons of water per day for its operations.  Distributed Control Systems efficiently use steam to heat incoming water, and heat exchangers later recover residual heat from that same water, discharged after the manufacturing process. 

FiberMark recently converted its boiler operations to run on up to 100% vegetable oil, and is now one of the first companies in the U.S. paper industry to generate its process energy from waste biofuel.  The “green steam” produced by the vegetable oil powers the company’s paper machine turbine, dries the paper, and provides heat for the entire plant. 

FiberMark serves as a model of sustainability for the paper industry.  The company is certified by both the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative .  In addition to manufacturing products from sustainably and responsibly harvested sources, FiberMark makes use of renewable sources and recycled fibers in its products.