EnerSys® helps Big-Box Home Improvement retailer boost sustainability

Posted on Apr 7, 2022 in Products

NexSys® PURE Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) batteries are helping the company cut carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and water consumption

EnerSys®, the global provider of stored energy solutions for industrial applications, is helping a big-box home improvement retailer reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and water consumption by switching its lift truck fleet power from flooded lead-acid batteries to NexSys® PURE Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) battery technology. This change-over is part of the retailer’s ambitious climate change goals – including a 40 percent reduction in its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2030. Scope 1 emissions come directly from the retailer’s own facilities and vehicles, including its logistics network and Distribution Centers (DCs).

Assisting EnerSys® in the facilitation of this switch is Industrial Battery & Charger, Inc. (IBCI), a Charlotte, NC-based battery dealer-distributor helping the retailer outfit its lift trucks with 2,886 NexSys® PURE TPPL batteries. Over their lifetime, those 2,886 NexSys® PURE batteries will help the big-box home improvement retailer keep approximately 6,300 metric tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere – about the equivalent of taking 1,400 cars off the road. The solution can also help the retailer save nearly 2 million gallons of distilled water annually, a volume that would fill 3 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“Meeting ambitious climate change commitments means implementing the technologies that can make it happen,” notes Rodney Broome, IBCI’s Vice President, National Accounts. “Proprietary TPPL technology from EnerSys is helping this retailer reduce energy and water use while cutting operating costs and CO₂ emissions at the same time.”

Unlike flooded lead-acid batteries, NexSys® PURE batteries never require watering or long equalize charges. In fact, they recharge so efficiently that they can be opportunity-charged during breaks or in-between shifts, eliminating the need to swap batteries in and out of the vehicle.

In terms of water savings, each NexSys® PURE battery eliminates the use of 13 gallons of distilled water every week. This eliminates the energy otherwise needed for water distillation and distribution. Even more, savings are realized because each NexSys® PURE battery is 24% more energy efficient per charge than flooded lead-acid batteries.

The move to NexSys® PURE batteries is also helping this big-box home improvement retailer cut its capital and operating expenditures across its 15 Regional Distribution Centers (RDCs). Thanks to their opportunity-charging capabilities and high energy throughput, NexSys® PURE batteries are helping the retailer shrink its battery inventory at each RDC from roughly 600 flooded batteries to 300 NexSys® PURE batteries.

That inventory reduction will ultimately enable an estimated savings of $2.3 million in battery purchase costs, but the savings in maintenance costs may prove far more substantial. One of the retailer’s RDC reports that eliminating battery watering, washing and changing has saved the facility $435,000 in yearly labor costs. Multiplied by the 15 RDCs, the potential savings is upwards of six million dollars per year.

“At EnerSys, we are dedicated to developing motive power solutions that drive sustainable business practices to help build a better future for everyone, everywhere,” said Harold Vanasse, Senior Director of Marketing, Motive Power Global at EnerSys®. “NexSys® PURE batteries are part of our premier, virtually maintenance-free NexSys® battery line and are designed to reach new heights of product affordability, safety, convenience, and performance through the delivery of superior, eco-friendly power.”

At the time of this writing, EnerSys® and IBCI have helped this big-box home improvement retailer switch from flooded batteries to TPPL batteries at 11 of its 15 RDCs. Plans are in the works to adopt the TPPL technology at nine additional coastal holding facilities now under construction. Eventually, the company hopes to use NexSys® PURE batteries to power lift trucks in all its retail locations.