The ecology of commerce

Ecology of Commerce

What is Sustainable Manufacturing?

Sustainable manufacturing is loosely defined as a business practice that takes into account the natural environment as part of its processes with an objective to have a minimal impact on the environment while undertaking its economic goals. It also encompasses the technologies that companies develop to transform the raw materials into finished products without using non-renewable sources of energy and emitting little waste and pollution back into the environment. It includes all aspects of manufacturing starting from extraction to components to the efficiency of assembly lines to the disposal of unwanted materials and waste. Many companies today are increasingly aware of the negative impact on the environment and they want to do everything possible to reduce the carbon footprint of their business on the environment.

The federal Government estimates that industries account for about one-third of energy consumed in the U.S. And so, the initiatives taken by the companies can play a vital role in the future sustainability of our planet. To achieve this, the companies have adopted a wide set of practices that are suitable to their business practices and products. The design engineers are coming up with newer products everyday that make minimal use of the resources, reduce waste and prevent pollution or contamination in any form and the best part, they are using minimum resources to come up with these sustainable products.

Ways to achieve sustainable manufacturing

There are numerous ways to integrate the environment into every business and it depends to a large extent on the nature of the business, the practices and methods followed during the production process and the existing level of impact on the environment. However, there are certain broad ways that each company can look to implement sustainable manufacturing. They are:

Reduce the use of fossil fuels

Fossil fuels are non-renewable and their extraction is costly for the environment. In today's energy-deficient world, the first step that all companies can do is to reduce their impact on oil. This results in a win-win situation for everyone involved because it saves energy for the future and also, the companies can build manufacturing processes that work on alternate renewable sources of energy such as solar or wind power.

Avoid waste in any form

Another means to sustainable manufacturing is to reduce or eliminate waste in the process as well as the final end product. This is applicable to every industry today as unwanted materials have no place in our environment. Its best to avoid them in the first place than to think of ways to dispose them off safely because the hard reality is that there is no "safe" way to dispose waste. One way to reduce waste is to look at different precision manufacturing equipment that can lead to waste reduction (Hibbard, 2009).

Eliminate pollution

A hot topic today is pollution and the different means to avoid them at any cost. Though there is abundant research on pollution and how it should be avoided, its important that all this information is implemented in the manufacturing processes so that the pollution levels on all forms of natural resources is limited or at best, eliminated. Many manufacturing units are exploring the option of using dry machines for metal removal because they use minimal coolant for its operations. There are other ways to reduce pollution and its important that every company takes the necessary steps in this direction.

Recycle and reuse

These are the magical words of sustainable marketing and thereby, a healthy planet. Recycling waste and reusing the same products in different phases of manufacturing is a tough, but yet essential choice that companies should make. A good example is the amount of metal chips that are produced as a by-product or waste of manufacturing. Earlier, these chips were hauled and transported to different metal recycling centers to dispose them off. The cost and effort that comes with this form of disposal is high and so, many companies are exploring the option of using machinery to compress these metal chips and convert them into useful products such as hockey pucks or small billets (Hibbard, 2009).

Prevent energy waste

Energy can be recovered and reused for other processes. A good example is the hybrid cars that recover the energy and reuse them instead of converting it into heat that is used for braking. Similarly, machines can also recover energy and reuse them for other processes. This is one aspect that manufacturing companies can look into to get more energy from the same raw materials as this will lead to a lesser need for energy and thereby, a more sustainable future for the companies.

Save time and effort

When many people think of implementing sustainability, they think of the bigger things, but not the simpler ones that can provide a good measure of savings in terms of environmental resources. One of the least thought of ways is saving time and effort. When a machine can complete the same process in a shorter period of time, it saves on energy without compromising on the quality of the end-product. This is more challenging than one may think, but its definitely worth the effort.

Examples of Implementation

An example of such a sustainable manufacturing initiative is taken by Ford to revamp their practices at the River Rouge Factory. The proponents had proposed to make changes to the plant that resembled a natural ecosystem. It consists of a 93,000 meter plant and the roof will be covered with 42,000 meter sq of sedums, succulents and other plants that will hold the rainfall. Such a roof not only acts as an insulation, but also provides efficient storage of water. Also, the waste water will drain into underground holding tanks where the particles will settle down at the bottom of the tank. The clear water will then be released to wetlands while the toxic materials will be absorbed by plants and other materials. In addition, the River Rouge area, a designated brownfield site will be treated by Clayton Rue (Brouwer, 2002). These sustainable environmental manufacturing steps will improve the quality of the people working and living in the surrounding areas as well as the entire environment.

Another example of sustainable manufacturing is the initiatives taken by VT industries. This company is based in Holstein, IA and is one of the largest manufacturers of doors in North America. It uses lean manufacturing techniques to reduce its time and also, its green initiatives makes it a model company for many others in the same line of business. The doors are manufactured using renewable and recyclable materials that are FSC-certified. Moreover, people using these doors can earn LEED credits and all the products are in compliance with the California Air Resources Board (CARB)'s formaldehyde regulations (Koenig, 2011).