Environmental Consequences Of Green Manufacturing

Industries and Electrical generation are estimated to produce “a little over 50%” of greenhouse emissions, making it the biggest problem (Petterson

Manufacturing plays a very important role in an organization particularly to build competitive benefit and improve performance. Manufacturers have been neglecting their social environmental responsibility and have focused too much on their profits. The minimization of waste and pollution produced can be achieved by product and process designing. Green manufacturing is an emerging field as a solution taken by the industries in the recent years.

The heavy usage of machinery and fossil fuels required in industrialization leads to high amounts of carbon emissions. The mass amount of raw materials used in each industry accumulates and

Target is partnering with the NRDC on the NRDC’s Clean by Design Initiative to reduce manufacturing’s environmental effects. Additionally, Target was a founding member of the SAC, which developed the Higg Index as an environmental and social sustainability self-assessment standard. As a result, Target uses the Higg Index as part of its vendors’ annual scorecards and is working with SAC members on the launch of the Higgs Index 2.0. Finally, Target also partnered with the WRI as one of the road test companies of WRI’s sustainability SWOT or sSWOT (Target, n.d.a,; Metzger, Putt del Pino, Prowitt, & Goodward, 2012, p

Though humanity still has developed industrial systems, there have been laws and social norms put in place to protect the environment. Odum discusses fuel-powered systems in industrial areas, “they require so much energy and create so much waste heat and pollution, that they have an enormous impact on the other two environments.” In 1993, this was true since the primary use of energy was coal, oil, natural gas, all carbon emitting energy sources. However, countries like China, Germany, the United States have reduced the emission coming from these fuel-powered systems in the past 25 years. There are now other options for environmentally clean power, people are recycling their trash, using less water, and cutting back energy usage.

There are several obstacles for manufacturers attempting to employ changes in their processes for more sustainable practices. One problem that manufacturers will run into is the lack of direction. Knowing that change is needed is the easy part of reaching sustainability. Knowing what changes to make is a much more complicated challenge. The idea of sustainability is discussed often, yet broad scope ideas are traded without specific details and applications. Team B Consultants Inc. (TBCI), is the

The Go Green Initiative WBS dictionary as shown in Chart 2, contains information pertaining to each work package. It is important that the project team review the dictionary for accuracy as the project progresses.

The carmaker, which employs 15,000 people, including 3,500 engineers at two product development centres in the Midlands, is part of the EU ETS scheme and has signed up to a Climate Change Agreement. Head of sustainability Frances Leedham says One of my objectives is to make environment and sustainability part of doing business. It was unheard of a few years ago, but there is a clear incentive to decarbonise our economy and focus on renewable energy. Across our UK facilities we have set ambitious targets, and by 2012 we aim to reduce operating carbon emissions by 25 per cent, waste to landfill by 25 per cent and water consumption by 10 per cent. So crucial is the companys sustainability agenda to long-term business growth that a 9m fund has been set aside for investment in efficiency measures across the business, targeting areas where the biggest savings can be made. Jaguar Land Rovers paint shops, for example, have been identified as the largest consumer of energy in the whole manufacturing process. By sharing best practice between production sites, the company has implemented more than 50 initiatives-from optimising use of air compressors to closing parts of the paint shops when they are not being used. These measures have saved 13,200 tonnes of carbon emissions and more than 1.5m in energy costs over the past two years. But Leedham insists smaller schemes have a significant effect, too Things such as lighting, heating

A study done in 2015 by the Royal Society of Chemistry, a non-profit organization of chemical scientists in the UK, shows that, if the US were to switch to utilize solar and wind energy sources, the air pollution mortality will decrease by at least 62,000 premature deaths yearly. In addition, converting would eliminate up to 3.3 trillion dollars per year in “2050 global warming costs to the world due to US emissions,” and the average person would save $1500 in health costs and $8300 on climate costs yearly. (Jacobson). Opposition to cleaner energy sources comes mainly from the business world, which fears the EPA estimated $1.4 billion in factory modifications; however, “$2.9 billion to $5.9 billion will be saved each year due to fewer missed days of work and school, emergency room visits and premature deaths” (Adams). By changing the methods in which we acquire energy, we can change air and life quality in a positive

The industry can be very susceptible to environmental issues together with other manufacturers. With the advent of campaigns toward saving the environment and “going green”, the society is now more concerned with how the industry’s wastes and other by-products are being managed. Using recycled materials and recycling one’s wastes can affect the industry’s over-all image as an environmental advocate.

Reduction in emissions and energy efficiency is the backbone of CN’s sustainability policy. In order to achieve that CN has focused on three key areas; reducing

One positive implication capitalism has to the natural environment is industrial ecology, a system of chain production and consumption, serving to the lowest environmental impacts in a most environmentally sustainable economy as the main goal of operation (Richards & Pearson, 1998). The Companies in a like to operate in such way because of four major reasons. The most important factor is known as the corporate well-being, for it is determined by higher profits and growth provided by innovations in an industry. Profits are increased from recognizing the production ineffiency costs that comes from wasted inputs and energy losses; this allowing cost savings to increase and ineffiency to decrease. compliance with cleaner technology alternatives such as ones that produce less waste and less energy will provide long term savings which are both beneficial to the environment and the business at hand. A real world example freight company changes their salvaged driving equipment to hybrid vehicles. Money is temporarily lost, but the gasoline and maintenances cost savings will compensate in a long run period of time.

“Lean synchronization is the aim of achieving the flow of products and services which is able to deliver exactly what customers want, in exact quantities, exactly when needed, exactly where required at the lowest possible cost” (Slack et al, 2010) . Lean’s mandate to eliminate waste, this aspect makes it an ideal way for organisations to minimize their impact their products have on the environmental. The waste that has impact on the environment is: bad use of material, people management, inadequate process design, inefficient production etc. In this essay I will further elaborate what Lean synchronization is and how companies reduced their environmental impact on their products; I will also be illustrating this further by using two

The manufacturers are more worried about their survival and the capability to maintain sustainable design in their manufacturing process [7]. Manufacturers can try to manufacture products using designs that use less energy and fewer natural resources for better sustainability. As the first step, the manufacturers will have to invest in research and development of the most effective way in order to attain these criteria, and this involves cost. Lack of technical support among employees in achieving sustainable manufacturing is another issue that manufacturers need to look into and resolve [3].

Environmental issues have become more apparent in today’s society leading to an increased awareness; however, further consideration is needed for global solutions. Air pollution is one the largest environmental issues targeting the Earth’s entire population. Energy efficiency plays an important role for promoting renewable energy so without it, resources for non-renewable energy are declining. All over the world fossil fuels, like coal and oil, are harvested to fuel factory production in order to meet consumer needs and releasing dangerous greenhouse gases. Corporations often outsource to developing countries for cheaper labor and a higher profit margin where environmental laws are less strict compared to other countries. Since the laws are so lax, factories can continuously emit a surge of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere depleting the air quality and ozone. Deforestation has also allowed the entry of more greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere furthering the threat of global warming and climate change. Not to mention, it has destroyed many of the Earth’s tropical rainforests leaving millions of different species without homes increasing the extinction of already endangered animals. Global pollution is a serious problem and some potential solutions are converting to energy efficient fuel, focus on renewable energy sources, and reduce deforestation.