Climate change is irrefutable, and so is the impact of traditional manufacturing on our planet’s invaluable but limited resources. Now, the question is, how do we strive for industrial growth while also being mindful of the traditional environmental impact of production?
Manufacturing systems, though they create utility and essential material for humankind’s needs, in the process of doing so, they consume a large amount of resources that generate enormous waste and emit excessive CO2 in the environment. Thus, we must standardize our manufacturing processes and the outputs to curtail the adverse effect on the environment.
A recent report by the United Nations said that CO2 emissions must be cut by half by 2030. Green manufacturing with a long-term objective for sustainability will indeed address the environmental challenges that we face today at a systemic level.
Green Manufacturing can be defined as a method for manufacturing that uses renewable or non-fossil fuel energy, minimizes waste, promotes safe production, and limits the environmental impact. It is a system that integrates product and process design issues with factors of manufacturing, planning, and control in such a manner as to identify, quantify, assess, and manage the flow of environmental waste to ultimately reduce the environmental impact.
Sustainable practices can be employed within manufacturing facilities, across the supply chain, and through the customer base. Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have opened up possibilities for process innovations. This supports developing environmentally friendly materials, decarbonize energy, develop digital methods for doing more with less, and extend the cycle of goods within a “zero waste to landfill” framework.
This eventually results in reduced use of fossil-fuel energy, a lower carbon footprint worldwide, technology advancements that optimize efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability across the full manufacturing life cycle, including the supply chain; and the building of a strong foundation for a global circular economy.
Further, Green Manufacturing can enforce research and utilize technologies to use the raw materials efficiently, waste management monitoring before scraping – reduce, reuse, recycle & renew, water conservation through treatment plants, and usage of biodegradable material wherever possible.
There are different ways in which companies can incorporate Green Manufacturing.
Increase energy efficiency
To improve energy efficiency, one can apply operational excellence levers to improve operational performance and emission levels simultaneously. Besides, take steps to generate, use, and recover heat more efficiently.
Recycle and remanufacture
Converting waste into reusable material (recycling) can reuse existing parts to produce new equivalent products (remanufacturing). For recycling, one of the best examples can be introducing a closed-loop system involving local recycling of materials (often plastics) to create new products. When we use recycled materials, significantly less energy is consumed to that of virgin materials.Â
Use circular manufacturing
The method is also known as lean manufacturing, includes recovering resources and repurposing the materials. Lending equipment as a part of the sharing economy uses predictive maintenance to increase the lifetime value and durability of machines and equipment while using a renewable power source.
Conclusion
Traditionally, the manufacturing industry consumes valuable resources and generate industrial waste. But today, many manufacturers recognize that environmental responsibility is not only good for business, but it is also becoming an integral part of the way products are marketed, purchased, and operated. So, it is essential to consider sustainability at all levels of the life cycle of the manufactured products. Green Manufacturing is no longer just a feel-good way of manufacturing, but it has to an integral part of all our future growth plans so that we are securing the environment in which we all live.