Today’s Customers Are Driving the Manufacturing Industry to Green Practices and Products
Quite frankly, in the past manufacturers were ahead of the sustainability learning curve mostly due to regulatory pressures. However, in setting the standards for minimizing environmental pollution, a funny thing happened on the way to a cleaner world – customers began to demand sustainable products as well as products made with sustainable manufacturing practices. Manufacturing embraced the concepts and now serve as eco-leaders for the global business environment.
“Sustainable manufacturing” is a term defined by the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) and has two components. The manufacturing of sustainable products refers to the production of products like renewable energy, green building, energy efficiency, green products, and social equity-related items. Sustainable manufacturing is the creation of any products (green and non-green) using processes that do not pollute, conserve natural resources, and are energy efficient. The U.S. Department of Commerce adds economic soundness for consumers, employees, and communities to the definition. Though this sounds a bit like a school lesson, it is important to understand that sustainable manufacturing is a broad term embracing how the plant itself is operated as well as the types of products produced.
Ultimately, the goal is to perform in a way that meets the needs of people today to ensure future people can meet their needs also. Most of us think of it in simpler and more personal terms: If we use up our natural resources today, what will our great-grandchildren do? Implicit in sustainable manufacturing is an important concept that can easily be overlooked. As sustainable practices advance, the natural next step is to consider if the products produced are even necessary. Is it worth using water and energy to produce certain goods? One day, this question will take on a life of its own, but for now the fact it has been asked is an example of how manufacturing has stayed ahead of the sustainable learning curve. Manufacturers drive sustainability through the supply chain, promote environmental research, apply innovative technology, and generally make manufacturing smarter.
The reason is manufacturing has embraced sustainability reasons are not strictly altruistic. U.S. government regulations, particularly those issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have required reductions in energy usage and waste for a number of years. Also, sustainability practices drive economic benefits, like reducing costs, creating new revenue opportunities, and creating jobs for a talented workforce. Some typical ways economic benefits are achieved is by reducing utilities expenses, selling waste materials, reusing natural resources like water, and eliminating government fines for failing to comply with regulations.
A Pyramid of Sustainability
Sustainable manufacturing practices can be viewed as a five-layered pyramid. The largest segment of the pyramid, the bottom, are not ‘green’ companies per se, but they use green operating practices including consuming less water and power, producing less pollution or waste, recycling by-products, or purchasing raw materials from sources that use environmentally sound extraction processes. For example, PepsiCo has an environmental sustainability initiative built into its procurement and supplier diversity programs. Ricardo Barrientos, Global Procurement-Senior Director of Supplier Diversity, explains that PepsiCo applies sustainable sourcing practices at all of its global locations in areas of product manufacturing and packaging.
Moving up the pyramid, the second level are companies that produce sustainable products using green methods. Sustainable products include packaging that can be recycled or repurposed (reused by the consumer) or products made with materials that are biodegradable or minimize use of natural resources, like precious metals. Up one more level are the companies leading the way in the production of green technologies or products like solar power or the smart grid.
On the fourth level of the pyramid are found sustainable manufacturers that have built certified facilities adhering to the highest standards of operation. For example, the recently constructed Caterpillar Winston-Salem truck axle manufacturing facility in North Carolina was awarded a LEED Silver Certification. LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The Caterpillar plant is the first heavy manufacturing facility in the U.S. to earn this designation. The plant uses 25 percent less energy, 40 percent less water, and created and restored new habitat on unused property. The plant was built with a state of the art geothermal system for heating and cooling, rooftop solar panels to heat water, skylights for natural lighting, and energy efficient mechanical systems.
A Pinnacle of Sustainability
At the pinnacle of the pyramid are manufacturing hubs. The hubs combine entrepreneurs and advanced technology to produce applications that lower waste in production processes and make best use of technology. The hubs represent the coordinated effort of interdisciplinary companies and agencies to advance innovation in manufacturing processes, including sustainability. New Lab in New York City, scheduled to open in 2014, is a good example of a state-of-the-art hub that incubates new businesses and ideas by bringing together green manufacturing start-ups, university researchers, digital fabricators, designers, and technology specialists.
Thinking in terms of “green” leads to innovation because the traditional ways of doing everything from product designs to materials sourcing to production and distribution are questioned. Every component of the manufacturing process is re-evaluated to determine how it impacts people and their environments – product design, manufacturing equipment energy efficiency, life cycle engineering, reuse and recycling, green supply chains, green transportation and distribution, energy conversion of existing plants, water resources management, materials selection, packaging, and materials extraction and production. Extended to social responsibility, sustainable manufacturing also embraces economic efficiency for every community involved at any point in the product life cycle. That is just an elaborate way of saying that the manufacturers consider how their practices impact people in communities, working for suppliers, and working in the manufacturing plants.
As technology advances, sustainable manufacturing becomes a more sophisticated proposition. Manufacturers are now market drivers as much as they are being driven to adopt sustainable practices. It is difficult to pinpoint when they crossed the line from being interested mostly in government compliance to being innovative leaders, and it really does not matter. What matters is that manufacturing eco-innovation is increasing at an increasing rate.
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