Sustainable Manufacturing

Sustainable activities have become commonplace in the workplace in regard to switching off lights, conserving air-conditioning and heating, and recycling. A much larger opportunity in natural resource conservation and sustainable operations, however, resides in the manufacturing sector.

Large manufacturing plants have several opportunities where they can contribute to better treatment of the environment because of the following characteristics: (1) large amounts of natural resource and raw material consumption; (2) heavy energy demand; (3) dependence on hefty equipment and heavy modes of transportation (trucks, railroads, shipping); and (4) large amounts of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes.

The world’s economies use three types of resources to produce goods and services: (1) natural resources; (2) manufactured resources; and (3) human resources. Natural resources are clean water, clean air, land, forests, crude oil, coal, minerals, and radioactive elements. An easy way to define natural resources is any matter produced by Earth without human input. Manufactured resources are things that humans make, usually products or materials that come out of manufacturing facilities such as factories, mills, and refineries. Typical examples of manufactured resources are consumer products, lumber, textiles, and petroleum products such as gasoline. Human resources are the people who work in support of the economy.

Sustainable manufacturing is any activity that minimizes the use of natural resources in the process of making a product. Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has explained that sustainable manufacturing encompasses “technologies and engineering practices to enhance the productivity of resources and minimize environmental burdens.” Therefore, in order to conserve natural resources, industries must find ways to be more efficient in making manufactured resources and managing human resources.

Sustainable manufacturing, also referred to as green manufacturing, does not come without extensive planning, some increased expense, and the natural tendency of the business world to resist change. Challenges to sustainable manufacturing make this one of the more complex aspects of environmental science. Some companies have taken steps toward sustainable resource and energy use, however, so a blueprint does exist for other companies to follow. In time, the most innovative companies may achieve zero energy and/or zero discharge operations in which a manufacturing plant produces all of its own energy and recycles materials so that it puts no waste into the environment.

In order to achieve zero energy and zero discharge conditions, manufacturing companies have numerous options. This chapter discusses the main methods for converting current manufacturing practices into less environmentally destructive practices. The chapter covers the structure of today’s manufacturing plants, the wastes that come from large plants, pollution control, and energy management in manufacturing. It also discusses an area of concern for many companies—how to balance decisions that are good for the environment with the need to make a profit. It also shows the ways in which manufacturers can lead programs toward sustainability and benefit entire communities in the process.