Another key trend that has been emerging in recent years is the emergence of sustainable manufacturing. As the demand for products and services becomes more dependent on the environment, sustainability has become a real priority for business owners.

What is Sustainable Manufacturing?

Sustainable manufacturing can be defined in different ways, but first and foremost it represents a mindset. There is currently no approved definition that lets us know which activities are sustainable or not because of that we need to look at it from the ESG (environmental, social, governance) perspective.

Even though using lithium batteries isn’t sustainable, but the use of e-scooters and e-bikes make an efficient solution to transportation.

Sustainability is a journey where the final destination is reducing the negative impact on the environment and people.

Sustainable Manufacturing Process

A sustainable manufacturing process can be compared to the work of an ecosystem.

For example, the leaves of the trees later turn into food for other plants. Sadly, no manufacturing plant has been able to recreate this feat.

A sustainable manufacturing plant would be one that uses its waste to produce new materials while using wind and solar energy as fuel.

The Competitive Advantage of a Sustainable Factory

Climate changes have already affected our life and work and it won’t stop there because the prices of resources are increasing. This is the reason why companies are researching sustainable operations more than ever.

Some companies are trying to see how making energy use efficient whilst eliminating waste by watching their energy consumption in relation to their product output.

Companies that understand the risks that the climate change brings are more prepared to avoid or deal with events followed up by it.

The climate change has caused a lot of business risks and some of them include the revenue that has been lost from clients who have been struck with bad weather, supply chain distribution caused by floods, droughts and carbon tax impact.

Because of all these risks, business have all the more reason to remodel their factory floors to make them greener and more sustainable.

By applying sustainable manufacturing processes companies can save money and resources in the process.

Sustainable vs Green Manufacturing

Since the switch to sustainable manufacturing process can’t happen overnight, that is why companies use the Green Manufacturing framework for improvements.

It can be used to transform a company who wasn’t using renewable energy to a company who uses renewable energy.

Challenges in Achieving Sustainable Manufacturing

The sustainability projects are met with a lot of skepticism because they require a change in current ways of process managing and also require initial investments.

To decrease business risks and increase profitability the sustainability initiative must be considered a long-term investment. Companies who invest in ESG (environment, social, governance) outperform their competition.

Take Your First Step Towards Sustainable Manufacturing

Some of the things you can do that brings you a step closer to sustainable manufacturing are:

  • Improving the quality of products by reducing the material that is wasted
  • Improve energy efficiency with the use of real-time data

Reducing carbon footprint caused by manufacturing processes