The first large-scale implementation of an air-conditioning system was at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company in Brooklyn in 1902, which used the then-new invention to limit the amount of moisture absorbed by paper. Today, most factories are climate controlled. But not all factory owners optimize their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for energy efficiency.  

Forooza Samadi, assistant director of the Alabama Industrial Training and Assessment Center and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, recently studied ways factories could cut costs and carbon emissions. She was coauthor on the paper, “Strategic Evaluation of Sustainable Practices for HVAC Systems in Small- and Medium-Sized U.S. Manufacturers,” published in the ASME Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities in August 2024. Here, she described some of her findings.