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John Deere as a whole is 185 years old and was founded in 1837 when John Deere created the steel plow. In the 1830s John Deere, his wife and five children left Vermont and moved west to Illinois. Deere quickly noticed that the farmers were struggling to adjust to the new, harder type of soil. He found an old broken steel saw blade and began to examine and reshape the tool creating what we know as the Steel Plow today. In 1849, John Deere was producing 2000 steel plows a year and he didn’t stop with just the plow, he continued to innovate and lead the agriculture industry. The John Deere World Headquarters is located in Moline, Illinois. It is a complex consisting of four buildings located on 1,400 acres of land. Excluding the massive headquarters, John Deere has another 2,426 locations around the US and reaches out across the world with more factories, offices, and more in over 30 countries. John Deere of Thibodaux has been operating for almost 60 years. The facility has about 600 employees in just that location and produces around $215.5 million annual revenue. Their ambition is to align across customers' production systems to optimize their complete operations. They are going to ensure that every hour, every drop, every seed, every pound, and every pass counts delivering better outcomes with fewer resources. Their 2022 goals are to increase the use of sustainable materials by growing remanufactured and rebuild sales by 30% and by increasing recyclable, renewable and recycled content. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% through 50% renewable electricity supply and excellence in energy efficiency. Goal 9 of the SDG (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) is where John Deere is striving for. They want to improve their industry, economy, and overall the company, to make a cleaner greener community.
Especially at the factory of Thibodaux, we have visited a portion of the industry where they are taking back 10 year old combine harvesters from the American market, and they make them all new again with new paint, and new parts in order for them to be able to operate again for 10 more years. This type of machinery is going to be sent to developing countries where they can’t afford brand-new machinery. John Deere company goal by 2026, is to ensure 100% of new equipment is connectivity-enabled for small Ag & Turf. They also have to offer an electric option in the Turf and Compact Utility Tractor product family to maximally eliminate the impact of carbon. This is also true for production, construction, and forestry. This is not the same scale of operation so it’s going to change by 2030 by adding a hybrid-engine in their machinery and improving efficiency. The Thibodaux factory received a 30 million dollar expansion to produce cotton harvesters that were previously made in China in Lafourche parish.
The Inspiration for keeping John Deere as big and well known as they are is that they strive for safety. The goal is for their employees to go home to their families every night. The plant has a system for the welders where on their back that will detect the poisonous gases, they also have a hose that sucks out the harmful gases from the welding machines, to try and eliminate the exposure to those chemicals. The Thibodaux plant was continually trying to expand and create new deals. "John Deere Thibodaux received a 30 million dollar expansion that will create 70 new jobs, 300 more employees across the south. The new expansion is including the production of the cotton harvester from China to Lafourche parish. The Thibodaux area will create more 180 more jobs with this expansion" (Fowler). John Deere has already started renovation and improving their plant for the production of the cotton harvester. And is expected to be at full capacity by 2025.
The 30 million dollar expansion at the Thibodaux factory will help the short and long term sustainability. The Thibodaux plant is constantly moving their old equipment and replacing them with the new updated equipment. The Deere Smart Industrial strategy and the sustainable outcomes that their integrated technology provide. This is more profitable for the consumer by being more productive, profitable, and sustainable. All of that is due to the transition from a full petrol industry into the introduction of electric power in 2026. John Deere is always trying improve their plant, they have old equipment moving out and new moving in. John Deere wants to constantly continue improving the way they help their workers and their community. “At Deere, we’ve always believed in conducting business conducive to life. Paving or planting, we shape the spaces that sustain us. We turn raw materials into machines that advance a chain of livelihoods – from supplier to dealer, from our customers to their consumers, from ourselves to our communities. We innovate on behalf of productivity, profitability, and the planet not with solutions in search of a problem, but with revolutions that elevate all lives in the one world we know.” (deere.com)
Because of the 30 million dollar expansion, it will raise new employees, new jobs, and new opportunities for the John Deere Thibodaux factory and just for Thibodaux itself. John Deere is constantly trying to hire new employees. The safety of their employees is their number one rule. They are continually improving their work spaces, salaries, and environment that their workers are working in. The strive to keep everyone going home to their families at night. The company market is directly related to environmental issues. They are producing agricultural machines, if they create a very polluting machine this wouldn’t be in adequacy with the goal of the company. So they have the plan for 2030 to still improve the way of using their machine while being more respectful to the environment, this is their prioritized long-term goal. There is confidence between John Deere and the customer to help them improve their work in the best way possible.
At John Deere they are trying to upgrade their industry and infrastructure for sustainability. John Deere plans on reducing their environment footprint by 2030. They plan on reducing their operational C02 emissions by 50%, 30% of their upstream and downstream C02 emissions, and 15% of their customer C02 emissions. They want a cleaner, better way of life for their family and the future of their company. With the new Cotton Harvesters being produced, it will reduce 489 metric tons of C02. Which is equivalent to 1.2 million miles driven by a passenger vehicle or 6.2 tanker trucks of gasoline. By increasing recycling, renewable, and already recycled content their will help improve the industry, innovation and infrastructure of their business.
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Joshua Fowler, Enviromental Engineer
