October 1, 2019 Going Green: It’s Easy

Eco-friendliness and manufacturing haven’t always gone hand in hand, but it’s now easier than ever before to go green in this sector.

Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash

October 1, 2019

Thanks mainly to its sheer size and scale, it’s common knowledge that manufacturing isn’t a particularly eco-friendly industry. Business owners in this sector often don’t make an effort to go green; this is an unfortunate but very real truth. Once a conscious effort is made and the right steps are taken, however, it is surprisingly easy to run a manufacturing business that doesn’t pollute the environment or waste the earth’s valuable resources.

To go green in the manufacturing sector, you must:

Carry out regular energy audits

Just like any other company in your industry, your manufacturing business uses copious amounts of electrical energy on a daily basis just to survive. Without this juice, you wouldn’t be able to fuel your operations or produce your products. In this day and age, though, you don’t necessarily have to be guzzling energy like there’s no tomorrow.

There are now a number of viable energy management efforts that can and should be made within your industry, and all you have to do is put one in place within your business. One of these efforts should entail you carrying out regular energy audits. True, it will always be necessary for you to use up energy in some capacity, but if you monitor your usage, you’ll find it much easier only to use energy as and when you need it. From the information that your audits unearth, you will be able to collate an action plan that will allow you to restrict energy usage within certain workplace zones. The end result? You discovering actionable information about your use of electricity and, subsequently, you being able to put an energy-efficient plan into place to stop you wasting it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

If you want to get serious about going green, then you need to strive to reduce, reuse, and recycle your waste. Once embraced, these three all-important Rs will help you to cut back on all the damage you do to the environment, particularly with regards to marine life.

To reduce, reuse, and recycle effectively, you should:

• Buy products with less packaging
• Avoid single-serve and individually wrapped items
• Embrace ‘precycling’ — the act of only ever buying products that are packaged in materials that can be recycled
• Cut back on your use of disposables
• Stop paper billing — have all of your important documents sent to you via the web
• Use packing materials over and over again until they can’t be used any longer
• Purchase reusable products
• Feed the loop by opting to invest in recycled goods
• Use baling wire, such as that made available at www.balingwiredirect.com, to separate your different waste materials
• Have your plumbing rearranged to ensure your warehouse is making better use of waste/rainwater

Align yourself with green partners

You’re only as green as the partners that you do business with. To ensure that you are as eco-friendly as you can be in this instance, you must resolve to align yourself with external forces that take saving the planet as seriously as you.

This could very well cause your business to undergo an operational reshuffle, or it could simply entail choosing a new packaging supplier because they put a bigger onus on the utilization of renewable energy. No matter how big of an operation it is to make such a change, just be sure to make it. It’s one of the best and most impactful things you can do in your bid to go green.

Update your machinery

Your current machinery might be performing well and doing the job that you ask of it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good for the environment. If your tech is outdated, it could very well be using up more energy than it is necessary for it to use. You should, then, set some money aside to update your machinery if you haven’t done so in quite some time.

If you want to see exactly how green your new technology is, you can always measure it by having an electric power management system installed.

If you’ve never sought to make your business more eco-friendly before now, chances are, its many processes and operations aren’t particularly good for the environment. As you now know, however, it’s easy being green in the manufacturing sector, so there really is no reason for your company not to play its part in deterring climate change.

Take the above advice and join thousands of manufacturing business owners like yourself in the fight to save planet earth.

Delicia Warren

Delicia Warren is a freelance writer, passionate about the environment, organic farming and food production. An advocate for a holistic approach to the world’s problems, she has a particular interest in the small changes individuals can make to their lifestyle to minimize their environmental footprint.

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