Hyster-Yale Materials Handling has been recognized by the State of North Carolina as an Environmental Steward, following a rigorous evaluation by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and the advisory board of the Environmental Stewardship Initiative (ESI). This prestigious designation honors a wide range of sustainability initiatives at Hyster-Yale’s Greenville, NC manufacturing plant aimed at minimizing environmental impact. Prior to this “Steward” recognition, the Greenville plant had been a “Rising Steward” for 20 consecutive years.
Hyster-Yale and its facilities take sustainability seriously. Over the last decade, the company has committed to reducing VOCs, carbon emissions and hazardous waste by 30%, lowering water consumption by 20%, achieving zero waste to landfill and striving for a worker injury rate of zero. To meet these results and earn the Environmental Steward designation, the company has implemented several impactful initiatives, including:
- Sustainable water treatment: Replacing chemical treatments in the facility’s cooling tower with a moss-based solution, significantly reducing water usage and wastewater production.
- Energy-efficient lighting: Transitioning from fluorescent to LED lighting, enhancing facility brightness while significantly cutting energy consumption.
- Employee-driven air leak detection: Launching an engagement initiative to identify leaks in the plant’s compressed air system — nearly 100 leaks were found in 2024, and 150 more were found and fixed in 2025, each typically saving approximately $1,000 in wasted energy costs per year.
- Real-time safety/environmental reporting: Empowering employees to report risks, hazards, ideas or suggestions via QR code, enabling swift resolution by facility management.
To further encourage local sustainability efforts, Hyster-Yale has partnered with the East Carolina University (ECU) Center for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering to host events, present sustainability projects and establish internships, which support the educational aspect of being an Environmental Steward. As part of this intern program, interns have played a key role in identifying opportunities for the Greenville plant to advance sustainability initiatives, leading directly to several of the projects recognized by the state.
“This recognition is a tremendous accomplishment for our entire team and underscores our unwavering commitment to responsible corporate citizenship and positive community impact,” says Danny Owens, Plant Manager, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling. “In a state with more than 275,000 business eligible for this honor, to be just the 33rd to achieve this designation further demonstrates the strength of our environmental leadership.”
The Greenville plant was previously honored with the Carolina Star designation by the North Carolina Department of Labor – the highest safety recognition in the state, which recognizes employers and employees for effective safety and health management systems, as well as injury and illness rates. This recognition was recertified in 2024, following awards from the NC Department of Labor for 4 million hours without a lost-time injury and five consecutive years of incident rates below 50% of the industry average. This latest honor makes Hyster-Yale now one of only six business in North Carolina to hold both the Environmental Steward and Carolina Star titles simultaneously.
“At Hyster-Yale, we evaluate ourselves on a holistic scorecard that places environmental stewardship and safety alongside more traditional business metrics like manufacturing efficiency and cost,” said Stephen Kelly, Senior Environmental Health and Safety Manager, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling. “This recognition reflects our deep commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen, and we’re ready to keep improving.”
Looking ahead, leadership plans to expand the LED lighting conversion project, optimize HVAC systems and share best practices across sister sites to help further reduce environmental impact company-wide.
