Texan by Nature is excited to recognize Acme Brick Company as a 2024 TxN 20 honoree for their leadership in conservation and sustainability. Acme Brick Company‘s commitment to conservation, their projects, programs, best practices, and lessons learned are an example and inspiration for us all.

Honoree Name: Acme Brick Company

Honoree Industry and Size: Manufacturing, Mid-size

Company Overview: From its founding in 1891, near Millsap, Acme Brick Company has provided Texans with high-quality, permanent building materials. Today, Acme operates seven brick plants across Texas, as well as three concrete block plants through its Featherlite subsidiary. All Acme Brick are hard-fired to withstand extreme Texas weather and exceed the standards prescribed by all building codes. Proof of Acme quality comes in two forms: the number of prominent Acme Brick structures that have remained strong after 100 years and the industry’s first 100-year limited guarantee for homeowners. The company places a priority on environmental stewardship, investing in reducing fuel and water consumption through production efficiencies and diverting waste from landfills through recycling and repurposing. Acme Brick Company’s headquarters are in Fort Worth.

Acme Brick Company plant in Elgin, TX. 

What is Acme Brick Company’s conservation and sustainability mission and why is it important to your culture?
Our Environmental/Sustainability Statement was first issued in 2014. It was a supplement to the company’s overall Mission Statement and remains one of the company’s guiding principles. In fact, several of the key performance indicators that we use to measure our business are directly referenced in this statement, which commits the company to “conducting business in an environmentally responsible manner.” It states:

By proactively developing policies and procedures that exceed minimum standards, utilizing our environmental management system, and through employee awareness, we will strive for compliance with all applicable environmental rules and regulations.

Acme will maintain our sustainable practices through business planning and continuous improvement of manufactured products, services, and operations.

Acme Brick Company will establish goals and objectives, in a responsible manner, to employ building management, mining, manufacturing, and delivery techniques that will:

• Minimize the impact on our natural resources,
• Optimize consumption of energy and raw material supplies, and
• Eliminate and recycle waste,

while, at the same time, providing long life-cycle products of enduring quality and value for our customers.

What steps is Acme Brick Company taking to address global natural resource challenges, and how are these efforts integrated into your overall business strategy?
Although brick is used around the world, the manufacture of brick is essentially a local business. Most of the basic raw materials for brickmaking are obtained either on-site or a short distance away. Essentially the only “global” component of our operation is energy: natural gas used to fire our brick kilns, motor fuel for transportation, and electricity to power offices and sales facilities. Energy conservation is fully integrated into our overall business strategy.

Who in Acme Brick Company is leading your conservation and sustainability efforts and what are some examples of employee engagement in conservation and sustainability at Acme Brick Company?
At its release, the Environmental/Sustainability Statement mentioned above was unanimously endorsed by Acme Brick Company’s executive leadership team. One team member, Ed Watson, was then Senior Vice President of Production. Today, he is Acme’s President and CEO – and, in effect, our chief sustainability officer. Other significant leaders who drive our sustainability initiatives include Mike Shipley, Vice President of Production, and Jason Winner, Director of Environmental Health and Safety. At the facility level, every Acme and Featherlite manufacturing facility has an Environmental Health & Safety Coordinator whose responsibilities include conservation and sustainability.

An example of employee engagement is our corporate headquarters, which is situated on the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. Acme associates participate in the annual Trinity River Trash Bash, a citywide volunteer initiative to remove trash from the city’s waterways. We also host the annual Trinity River Fly Fest, a fly-fishing competition that highlights the recreational value and environmental health of the river.

Acme promotes a program called “Empowering Bright Ideas” that encourages associates to submit suggestions for improvement. One of those bright ideas, initiated by an associate at our Wichita sales location, is Acme’s partnership with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, which is mentioned below.

What conservation and sustainability programs and projects does Acme Brick Company lead and participate in?
Brick kilns at our Denton Plant are equipped with “scrubbers,” whose byproducts include spent lime. Ordinarily, a waste product that would be sent to the landfill, spent lime is now being shipped to the bagged-goods manufacturing operation of our concrete-block plant in El Paso — for a potential savings in the six figures. Additionally, some brick plants are incorporating spent lime into new brick.

In 2023, an Acme Brick plant in Sealy, Texas, began reclaiming water from unused slurry, a byproduct of brick production that was previously pumped into a series of settling ponds. Now, unused slurry and other wastewater are diverted to a mixing tank for reclamation processing. The reclaimed water can be used for dust control or production. The remaining solids are set aside to dry and then recycled back into brick production. This project not only diverts waste from landfills but also reduces the plant’s demand for purchased municipal water.

In 2006, Acme developed a “constructed wetlands” project to lower the acidity of stormwater accumulating in a clay mining area near Malvern, AR.  Remediation is achieved not with chemicals but with specialized aquatic plants. No electrical or generator-powered equipment is required to operate the system; therefore, no emissions from electrical utilities or power generators are created. In addition to achieving its primary goal, the project has provided a welcome wetlands refuge for many forms of animal life.

Canada Geese in a constructed wetland. 

“We are honored to be included in the TxN20. Since our first brick emerged from the kiln more than 133 years ago, sustainability has been a fundamental value of Acme Brick Company – not just in the products we manufacture, but also how we manufacture and distribute them. Similarly, conservation is an integral element of our commitment to be good neighbors in the 38 Texas communities in which we do business.”

– Britt Stokes, Director of Marketing, Acme Brick Company

What strategies does Acme Brick Company use to educate and raise awareness among employees, customers, and stakeholders about the importance of conservation and sustainability?
Since 2020, we have published a Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which details our sustainability programs and the progress they represent. We publish the most current report on our website as a PDF document available for download.

Facility-specific key performance indicators that relate to stability are shared regularly with facility managers and companywide indicators are shared with all associates through email as well as articles in the quarterly company newsletter, “The Brick Press.” Also, the Environmental/Sustainability Statement is posted prominently in Acme production and sales facilities. Associates know what is asked of them, and they respond effectively.

Associates and facilities making notable contributions toward conservation and sustainability goals are recognized with awards, articles, and where appropriate social media posts.

Actions as simple as placing recycle bins in workplaces serve as subtle, day-to-day reminders; these nudges have made a large impact on the amount of office waste diverted from landfills.

Can you share specific examples of successful partnerships or innovative collaborations Acme Brick Company has formed with other organizations to enhance sustainability and conservation outcomes?
An Acme Brick sales location in Wichita, Kansas, provided three containers of brick fragments (brickbats) to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks in 2020 to support a healthy aquatic environment in shallow freshwater reservoirs. A letter from David Breth, Sportfishing Education Coordinator for KDWP’s Fisheries Division, describes the partnership:

“I work within the Fisheries Division of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP).  Part of my duties include managing public fishing waters in Sedgwick County. A goal of fisheries managers is to improve fish populations through habitat management. Since most of my waters are urban, they lack natural structures such as flooded trees and vegetation. In addition, we are limited on what we can place in the water to not impact the aesthetics or fishing access.

At a high-use youth education pond, we recently removed old cedar tree structures that end up serving more as hook collectors than fish habitat. This left only a mud bottom and nothing else to hold sunfish near the shoreline for kids to catch. The broken clay bricks from Acme Brick gave me an opportunity to create “rock piles” near the shore. Periphyton will grow on the brick, which provides food for invertebrates and sunfish. The small hooks we use are much less likely to snag on these piles, helping us keep lines in the water longer and reducing frustration from anglers of all ages. We have already seen a positive impact in catches near the first few piles created!

I look forward to continuing this partnership with Acme Brick and utilizing clay bricks as fish habitat and to improve shoreline fishing at waters I manage.”

This partnership achieves two goals. Not only does it divert material from a landfill, it strengthens an urban ecosystem and enhances Kansans’ quality of life.

Brick bat fragments being used to create rock piles in a pond. 

How does Acme Brick Company quantify investment and return on conservation and sustainability?
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of a larger company (Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.), we do not release public-facing financial information. We can, however, share many results of our program for the calendar year 2023.

We closely track water and energy consumption, as well as waste diverted from landfills through reuse and recycling. All are key performance indicators applied to individual operations and to the company as a whole.

Water Conservation: In 2023, Acme purchased 29.4 million gallons of water from municipalities and used another 6.5 million gallons of surface and groundwater. This is an overall decrease of 8% in water usage from 2022. By making more intensive use of surface water runoff, we decreased our municipal water purchases by 16%.

Energy Conservation:  Our biggest impacts were in diesel (16% reduction, or the equivalent of 164,000 gallons, compared with 2019) and gasoline (15% reduction, or the equivalent of 42,700 gallons, compared with 2019. Acme’s Energy Management Program closely tracks energy consumption by plant, presenting an award to each year’s top performer. This year’s winner, a brick plant in Elgin, Texas, reduced energy consumption by 24.5% between 2021 and 2023. The previous winner, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, reduced its energy consumption by 24% between 2017 and 2021.

Diversion of Waste From Landfills: In 2023, Acme met its overall goal of diverting 10% of waste from landfills. All Acme locations participated in commercial recycling where available, up from two locations just four years ago. Reusing and repurposing materials contributed significantly to Acme’s diversion efforts, as did replacing disposable items with sustainable alternatives. To date, these efforts have saved the equivalent of more than 13,000 trees. By reducing disposal expenses and increasing efficiency (over one million kilowatt-hours of electricity saved), recycling also contributes to the company’s bottom-line results.

How do you see the future of conservation and sustainability evolving, and what role will Acme Brick Company play in that progress?
We see a “virtuous cycle” developing as the business case for conservation and sustainability becomes stronger. Companies have always sought efficiency as a means of increasing profit. Historically, this goal has been achieved through capital investment, often significant, to improve processes. Today’s conservation and sustainability initiatives now present an opportunity for companies to drive efficiency with comparatively low levels of capital investment. 

As a Texas company with near-universal brand recognition, Acme Brick Company can and will lead by example, not only within its industry but within the entire Southwest region and even among fellow Berkshire Hathaway companies.

What is the one lesson that Acme Brick Company has learned from your conservation and sustainability efforts that others can take back and think about applying within their own space?
Best practices already in place at an organization can often serve as a model for implementing or increasing conservation and sustainability efforts. At Acme, that resource has been workplace safety. Acme’s robust safety culture, one of the industry’s strongest, first took root in the manufacturing side of the company and, in recent decades, has expanded to all locations and all employees. Many of the communication and education strategies developed to promote workplace safety adapt easily to conservation and sustainability: regular reports, stories in company blogs and newsletters, and periodic updates as warranted. In some years, the company has held a companywide “Safety Day” stand-down, where sales and administrative employees, as well as plant employees, attend demonstrations and meet to discuss safety-related topics. Locations that meet defined safety goals are recognized with a short ceremony, VIP guests, writeups in company publications, and often a catered lunch as well. This campaign has been a successful blueprint for Acme’s conservation and sustainability campaigns.

Why is Texas an important home or base of operations for Acme Brick Company?
Our company was founded in Texas, near Millsap in Parker County. Seven of our 15 brick plants are in Texas, along with three Featherlite concrete block plants and 20 company-owned sales locations. Our headquarters have been in Fort Worth since 1907.

As a company founded in 1891, when there were only 2.2 million Texans, Acme Brick Company is an integral part of the built environment of Texas. We estimate that more than two million houses, most of them in Texas, have been built with Acme Brick Company products. Nearly every major Texas university features Acme Brick on its campus:

• Abilene Christian University
• Baylor University
• Prairie View A&M University
• SMU
• Tarleton State University
• Texas A&M University
• Texas Tech University
• TCU
• The University of Texas

Acme Brick is also part of many commercial buildings that have become architectural landmarks. These include:

• Adolphus Hotel, Dallas
• Burk Burnett Building, Fort Worth
• Gulf Building (now JPMorgan Chase Building), Houston
• Milam Building, San Antonio

Our business is closely tied to the homebuilding industry. Rapid population growth in the state’s major metro areas makes Texas one of the nation’s most vibrant housing markets, which in turn makes Texas vital to Acme Brick Company.

Is there anything else you’d like to share that makes Acme Brick Company’s strategy and approach to conservation and environmental sustainability unique?
We obtain most of the raw materials for brick production through mining. In recent years, we have increased our reclamation efforts at current and former mining sites. These efforts include the wetlands project mentioned earlier and two others as well: 

• An Acme facility in central Kansas, which closed in 2020 after more than 25 years of operations, underwent a reclamation program designed to return the property to productive cropland if the new owner so desired. Initially, the Vondra Pit had 30-foot-high walls, exposed stockpiles of material, and soil erosion that had left no healthy topsoil. Acme contoured the land to reduce erosion and spread stockpiled topsoil. The reclaimed property now includes two ponds, indigenous grass and flower species, and abundant wildlife.
• A lake at a former Acme facility in Oklahoma supports migratory birds, including Canada geese, along the Central Flyway.

Also worth mentioning is that fired clay brick is a sustainable building material. Our bricks are made from locally sourced raw materials, carefully blended for rich, consistent color, and precision-fired in computer-controlled kilns to develop inner strength and color fastness. A brick exterior naturally complements a building’s insulation by delaying and damping the transfer of heat, saving energy. As an interior finish, brick contributes to air quality as a chemically inert material that does not generate fumes and does not require paint or other coating. Acme Brick buildings adapt graciously to changing tastes and uses – and at a building’s end of life, brick can be cleaned and repurposed.

Birds flying over Clinton Park Lake. 

Find out more about Acme Brick Company’s conservation and sustainability efforts here.