Identifying efficiencies – ABB North American Headquarters

It's an axiom widely embraced that environmental stewardship makes good business sense. The reasons are not complicated. At its core, protecting the environment is about eliminating waste, and eliminating waste is good not only for the environment but for every company’s bottom line.

Today, that reality is manifested in myriad ways. ABB Inc., an infrastructure technology company based in Switzerland, provides one important example. ABB makes a wide range of variable frequency drives and controls, which reduce energy consumption in buildings and industrial applications in the U.S. market.

ABB maintains operations at two Wisconsin locations in New Berlin and Wauwatosa. Later this year, ABB will consolidate operations at those locations into a $100 million facility of more than 200,000 square feet the company is building in New Berlin. ABB will employ 720 workers at the site, which will be connected to its 315,000-square-foot distribution center.

Brookfield’s Briohn Building Corp. was the general contractor for the project.

The consolidation of all its operations in the area into one campus will add efficiencies, including a reduction in the time it takes to deliver its products, company officials said. It also will improve ABB’s current arrangement, which has its existing plant 17 miles from its warehouse.

“While we make products that help our customers improve their energy efficiency, we are pleased to incorporate features into our campus that will help us reduce our own carbon footprint,” Kelly Kling, site leader and vice president of finance for ABB’s U.S. drives and motion services businesses, said in a news release. The improvements will enable ABB to reduce its energy usage by more than 45%, Kling said.

ABB officials have said incorporating design features such as solar power, modern HVAC systems, a geothermal heat pump and advanced building controls will help the business meet its 2030 sustainability goals.

ABB has also announced plans to add 100 new jobs at the New Berlin location over the next three years. The company currently employs more than 20,000 people across more than 40 sites in the U.S. and has invested a combined total of more than $14 billion in those facilities since 2010.

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