SERVICE & PROJECT SPOTLIGHTS continued

Agricultural Engineering

The Sustainable Environmental Consultants agricultural engineering team provides full scope conservation assistance, environmental compliance and watershed services. The team provides survey, planning and conservation engineering technical assistance to farmers and ranchers. This work includes over 10 edge-of-field practice designs to reduce surface water nitrate-nitrogen content. Sustainable Environmental Consultants provides engineering and environmental compliance assistance to over 50 livestock facilities in Kansas and Nebraska and provides engineering, inspection and compliance assistance to four watershed districts and over 50 dams in Kansas.

FreshPure® Waters

Project Summary

EDGE-OF-FIELD PRACTICES WERE DESIGNED IN 2022

FreshPure® Waters is a water filtration company that installs and maintains selfserve water filtration and dispensing systems in grocery stores and co-ops to provide customers with purified drinking water. They are focused on providing a high quality and sustainable source of drinking water that reduces single-use plastic consumption by promoting the use of reusable water containers. FreshPure partnered with Sustainable Environmental Consultants to conduct a life cycle assessment of its current infrastructure and operations with the goal of estimating the current efficiency of FreshPure’s operation at converting resources, such as energy and water, into purified drinking water, and to provide a baseline for reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water use. FreshPure was looking to enhance their understanding of their environmental footprint to provide to their clients and better share their story of their bulk water service offering in comparison to single use drinking water options on the market.

The Sustainable Environmental Consultants life cycle assessment report focused on two areas of concentration:

1. Baseline Carbon Footprint This report provided a baseline assessment for reducing FreshPure’s GHG footprint and water use to provide an inventory of direct and indirect GHG emissions and water use corresponding with current operations, while also highlighting potential areas where GHG emissions and water use may be reduced using alternative practices, improved technology and increased efficiency.

2. Water Bottle Comparison This report provided an environmental assessment of the FreshPure supply chain and operations compared to conventional single-use water bottles. Emissions included electricity, fuel, shipping, travel and water filter components.

After Sustainable Environmental Consultants provided the results of their data, FreshPure used the information to guide their communications and long-term sustainability strategy.