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How can manufacturers address the environmental impact of their plants?

During the pandemic, businesses had to change how they operated in response to new guidelines and safety requirements. At the same time, consumers were adapting their lifestyles and attitudes. One of the recurring themes from changes to consumer behaviour is an increased desire for environmentally responsible purchases.

Alongside the shifting focus on eco-friendliness for consumers, the environment has grown as a priority for leading bodies. In April this year, the government announced that plans to reduce carbon emissions would be sped up, with a target of 78% by 2035 and an eventual aim of being net-zero.

With sustainability and the environment becoming critical issues for consumers and the government alike, it makes sense that businesses need to do what they can to address eco-friendliness in their operations. However, with manufacturing one of the leading industries for climate change contribution, it is especially challenging for plants to address their impact.

That being said, in the post-pandemic era, where consumers and governing bodies seek to be greener, the manufacturing industry must adapt. By incorporating the right changes in your plant, you can do your part to meet targets while keeping your customers on side.

In this guide, we have explored what manufacturers can do to reduce emissions and positively change the environment.

Set targets for your plant

When embarking on a mission to improve your plant’s environmental impact, the first step is to set targets. These targets will give you a benchmark to work towards, highlighting the trajectory you want to follow as you begin to adapt.

The targets you set will be specific to your plant, though looking at the government targets or even your competitors may inspire you. Examples could include:

  • Reducing emissions by 5%
  • Cutting waste by 25%
  • Minimising energy consumption by 10%

You want to make sure any goals you set are feasible in your factory without impeding your productivity levels. It’s okay to start small – once you’ve met those targets, you can focus on pushing your results even further. Similarly, you want to set a reasonable time to achieve them.

Once you have designated your environmental targets, you must communicate them with your staff and other stakeholders. This will bring everyone in alignment about your priorities. From there, you can create an action plan as to how you will work together to make those targets a reality.

Reduce waste

One easy way to improve your plant’s impact on the environment is to cut the amount of waste you produce. In 2018, commercial and industrial waste was predicted to amount to 37.2 million tonnes. While waste is inevitable in most factories, doing what you can to lower the volume will have welcome consequences on the environment. Reducing waste can prevent it from going to landfills, where it can cause chemical pollution, release dangerous emissions, and wreck natural habitats.

There are many ways to reduce waste in your plant. One of these is to utilise adequate quality control protocols.

Quality control practices, such as product inspection, can help you improve the quality of your output to meet standards consistently. This prevents you from having to throw away sub-par products. It also reduces the need to re-run lines (requiring excess energy consumption and supplies) when output hasn’t met the relevant quality threshold. Instead, you can identify and address issues ahead of time and refine your production line to assure quality every time.

Secondly, you want to utilise machinery that offers reduced product giveaway. This will prevent excess product, which gets thrown away rather than repurposed elsewhere in your production.

Waste can also apply to your packaging processes, so it’s worth considering these too.

By reducing waste, you can also improve cost-effectiveness in your operations. By throwing away less, you can ensure the supplies you buy are being used to create products that can be sold on, helping you to get more bang for your buck.

Find efficient solutions

When seeking to improve your environmental impact, it is essential to identify efficient solutions that will support you.

Many factors contribute to efficiency. One example could be finding machinery that has reduced energy consumption. Such options will allow you to maintain productivity while reducing the amount of energy you use, thereby lowering the eco consequences and costs.

Another option is to find high-speed and accurate solutions that enable you to speed up turnaround, thereby cutting production times while still maintaining quality output and reducing the need for waste.

Ultimately, the best thing you can do for efficiency is to find machinery that is perfectly aligned to your requirements. Consider your products and seek solutions that match their needs. By doing so, you will ensure that you are meeting your output goals, helping to reduce waste and energy lost to unexpected downtime or having to re-run lines if your production line isn’t up to scratch.

Maintain machinery

As we’ve already touched upon, efficient machinery and reduced product giveaway are critical factors to improving your sustainability. One way to ensure both in your plant is to maintain your equipment regularly.

By carrying out maintenance on your machines and inputting appropriate repairs where possible, you can ensure your production line works at an optimal level and with total accuracy. This will also stop unexpected downtime, resulting in wasted energy, materials, costs and time.

Following an equipment maintenance plan and spare parts management will help you systematically review your machinery and keep everything in good working condition, without inaccuracies and other faults leading to excessive energy consumption and waste.

Consider renewable energy sources

As you’d probably expect, manufacturing uses a lot of energy. Once you consider all the machines and processes that need to be run, it amounts to significant use of electric, gas and other energy types. Around 71% of the world’s energy is non-renewable, including that used in manufacturing, which contributes to greenhouse gases, pollution and global warming.

While few plants will drastically reduce their energy consumption, beyond ensuring they have energy-efficient machinery, utilising renewable energy sources can help ease the impact on the environment. This includes solar, air, hydro, biomass and geothermal.

Consider working with energy providers who use renewable sources or even installing solar panels in your factory. This will enable you to balance out the impact of your energy consumption by partially fuelling your operations with more eco-friendly alternatives.

Dispose of waste properly

We’ve already mentioned that commercial and industrial waste, including manufacturing, contributes a large volume of waste in the UK. While reducing waste is one way to limit this contribution, it’s often impossible to avoid waste entirely.

To promote better sustainability and meet your environmental targets, any waste your plant does produce must be disposed of properly. Identify waste management partners who can take care of the issue for you, but ensure they employ environmentally conscious processes. If you are disposing of it yourself, make sure it is being thrown away in the right places to minimise littering. 

You should also seek to recycle or re-use waste where possible. In some circumstances, product waste can be used elsewhere in your production line, which can also help to cut costs. If you need to dispose of it, consider if it could be recycled and make sure it goes to the right places (such as recycling bins or centres) to allow that to happen.

This will help you ensure any waste you produce is discarded considerately, minimising any further damage to the environment.

Choose environmentally conscious partners

Finally, in your bid to be more eco-friendly, you need to make sure this extends to the partners you choose to work with.

Depending on your plant, this could apply in many ways. Firstly, you need to ensure your chosen waste management company correctly disposes of rubbish and utilises recycling where possible. Next, you can select energy providers who use renewable energy as part of their offering. You can also partner with suppliers who follow similar eco missions to yours in their operations so that you can support each other in your goals.

Another way to work with environmentally conscious partners is to find machinery providers who create their products with a ‘green’ focus or offer solutions that can assist you in your targets through lower energy consumption or limited product giveaway.

By finding allies that implement sustainability in their work, you can help lower your plant’s environmental impact. The right partners should empower you to use sustainable supplies, follow eco-friendly processes and improve efficiency across your production lines.

You can also highlight that you only work with environmentally friendly partners in your mission statement, which will delight consumers seeking to make more ethical choices.

Conclusion

Although the nature of manufacturing means the industry contributes a high degree of emissions that could cause climate change, it does not mean that factories need to be an enemy of the environment. In fact, Make UK states the industry could be a significant player in the UK’s green revolution.

By incorporating eco targets into their operations and putting in necessary measures to facilitate them – such as waste reduction and proper disposal, renewable energy and utilising efficient, well-maintained machinery – manufacturers can shift their impact on the environment in the right direction.

In an era where eco-friendliness is critical and companies who don’t embrace it face reputational damage, lost sales and other repercussions, addressing environmental issues in your plant will safeguard you. Better yet, you can feel comfortable in the knowledge your business is playing its part to make the world a better place and reap the rewards.

Get in touch with Yamato to find out how our solutions and services can assist you in your environmental goals.

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