Utilizing Humid Climate to Save Water

TE’s plant in Empalme, Mexico, which is comprised of teams from the Automotive, Medical, and Industrial & Commercial Transportation (ICT) business units, experiences high humidity due to the Mexican desert climate and its proximity to the Gulf of California. During the hot summer months, humidity levels range between 60 and 70 percent. The ICT Operations team found a simple but smart solution to utilize the regional, humid climate to support our company’s sustainability target of reducing water by 15 percent between fiscal years 2021 and 2025 for targeted sites in water-stressed regions. 

The team installed condensation water collection devices in four 20-ton air conditioning units. The collected water is lead through water softeners and into a one-cubic-meter collection tank, then the water goes into the main water container. From there, the water is distributed to the chiller and molding machines in the plant.

Completed at the end of fiscal year 2023, the project generates weekly savings of around 1,400 liters, equivalent to 14% reduced water consumption. The total estimated recovery of water per year is a significant 72,800 liters.

“At our Empalme site, we defined specific sustainability goals to support our global targets,” explained Salvador Cabrera Hernandez, Manager of  environmental, Health & Safety (EH&S) in the ICT business unit. “The challenge of consciously reducing our environmental impact made us discuss improvements with our facilities colleagues, and we finally came up with the idea to use condensation water collected from our air conditioning systems, which is a result of our humid climate. I would like to thank our highly engaged team for supporting this sustainability project, and I am looking forward to more opportunities to reduce our environmental impact in Empalme.”