Despite many influential individuals and world leaders still denying the existence of global warming and the consequent catastrophes, general public perception about environmental pollution has been consistent for the last couple of years. Terms like green, renewable, sustainability, biodegradability, etc. representing eco-friendly products and processes are now part of the greater discussion. While many boomers are still sitting on the fence, millennials and Generation Z have no confusion about what they want from the companies when it comes to saving the environment. For many younger people, “sustainability” must be an essential clause of the corporate social responsibility contract of any organization. Whether it is a new entrepreneur or a seasoned business person, they need to make their manufacturing facilities more eco-friendly for retaining customers and avoiding stricter government policies. Here, I am going to discuss a couple of measures that manufacturing facility owners should introduce to turn their overall operation eco-friendlier.
Powering Your Manufacturing Process with Renewable Energy
For an owner of a manufacturing facility, this requirement may sound like another “easier said than done” advice given by armchair experts. Yes, powering an entire manufacturing process from renewable energy is not an easy task. However, it has become exceedingly easier in the last decade or so. We now have more efficient ways of harnessing and storing renewable energy. Also, there are renewable energies beyond hard-to-harness options. For instance, a manufacturing process running on hydroelectricity is also essentially using renewable energy with minimal greenhouse emissions. It is also vital for manufacturing facilities to turn to renewable energy because statements like “it is impossible to run manufacturing on clean energy” doesn’t stand up anymore after various organizations have set multiple precedents. I would like to share an example of Tesla’s Gigafactory here. This factory spans 10 million square feet and is responsible for making batteries for half a million electric cars annually. Solar and geothermal energy sources are entirely running this huge manufacturing facility. If a manufacturing plant as large as Gigafactory can take care of its operations through renewable energy, small and mid-sized facilities can surely think about bringing about this green transformation.
