Pictured, from left, are Weber Knapp president Rhonda Johnson; Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier executive director Todd Tranum; Cummins plant manager Anna Dibble; and County Executive PJ Wendel. P-J Photo by Timothy Frudd

As part of Retool Western New York, Cummins Inc. held a “Sustainability Strategy” presentation and plant tour last week.

“We’re pleased today to be able to say that this grand tour and the sustainability information is part of that,” Ellen Ditonto, BPU business development coordinator, said.

Retool Western New York provides businesses with the information needed to transition into clean energy, clean manufacturing and clean technology.

“The mission of the Retool Western New York initiative is to transform all of us,” Ditonto said. “We need to be ready to get into the clean tech businesses.”

Ditonto said the initiative has several events planned for manufacturers.

“The big item for me is that we have a climate technology conference coming up in October,” she said. “We expect 350 people from all over Western New York and the Southern Tier.”

After Ditonto presented the goals of Retool Western New York, Anna Dibble, Dave Burlee, Loren Chase and Mich Carutis gave a presentation regarding Cummins’ success and commitment to improving the environment.

“Overall, our company has now been in business a little over a hundred years,” Dibble, Cummins’ plant manager, said. “Since that time, the company has evolved dramatically.”

Despite growing into a multi-billion dollar manufacturing company, Dibble said the company has remained committed to its mission statement.

“We’ve defined ourselves by our unwavering values and our promise of innovation and dependability,” she said. “That really holds true as we think about how are we going to meet the challenges of today and the future when it comes to environmental sustainability.”

Cummins, which operates in more than 190 countries and territories, employs almost 60,000 workers.

Cummins bought its Chautauqua County facility in 1974 and renovated it from a metal furniture plant into an engine manufacturing plant. Over 1400 employees now work at the local plant.

“It is a busy place,” Dibble said. “We bring in about 75 to 85 trucks every day, delivering material or picking up products.”

While the company significantly increased revenue in 2021, Dibble said the goal is to increase revenue even more this year.

“Last year our revenue was $2.3 billion,” Dibble said. “Hopefully, if we can get through some supply challenges … we’ll be even busier.”

As the company expands its production, Dibble said it is investing roughly $100 million into the local facility.

“It’s really good news for progress going forward,” she said.

Cummins is also investing resources to reduce waste and eliminate emissions that are harmful to the environment.

“There’s two different strategies we have,” Dibble said. “One is really around how do we develop products that meet the emissions challenges going forward and actually have zero emissions.”

Cummins has developed a plan called “Destination Zero” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years and develop decarbonized power. Dibble said reducing emissions is a process that will take time.

“Not everybody needs a full electric vehicle,” she said. “We don’t have the grid. We don’t have the power available.”

While some customers are ready to make the transition to fully electric vehicles, Dibble said not everyone can make that switch immediately.

“We want to provide solutions across the spectrum,” Dibble said.

The second strategy Cummins has for improving the environment is Planet 2050, which focuses on how the company runs its manufacturing facility.

“By 2050, we want to have a net positive impact on our communities,” Burlee, Cummins machine operating director, said. “Basically, it’s zero environmental footprint.”

Burlee said the company wants to have zero emissions and pollution and find ways to have zero waste.

Currently, in the United States, 43% of the electricity used in its facilities is powered by solar and wind.

The Jamestown plant is also one of 35 Cummins plants with zero disposal.

“That essentially means that nothing is sent to the landfill,” Burlee said. “We recycle everything or we burn it for energy recovery.”

Some of the facility improvement projects that contribute to the plant’s environmental goals include the transition to LED lighting, a new coolant system that is more efficient and reduces emissions and a water filtration system that recycles and conserves the plant’s water.

“Jamestown is already well ahead of the curve,” Burlee said.”We’ve already got a great start in this process, but there’s still a long way to go.