The whole discussion around going green has been quite popular recently. Part of it is the regulatory environment. There are lots of legal requirements for manufacturing companies to go green in a variety of areas. However, there are also other reasons why going green is a major advantage. When a manufacturing company goes green, it cuts down on its costs and makes its operations more efficient. Customers are also becoming more aware and prefer green companies to others, which means that going green gives a competitive advantage in the marketplace. So how can your manufacturing company take steps toward going green today? Here are some top eco-friendly tips.
Get Everyone Involved
If you want your business to be green, you’re going to need the help of your employees. This isn’t about just telling them what to do, but getting them involved in the planning and implementation of the whole initiative right from the start. When everyone in the company is dedicated to turning it into a green company, it is much more likely to successfully be so.
You can get the employees to form a planning committee with the sole task of brainstorming different environmental solutions that will help make the company green. When they come up with different policies, they can then handle rallying the other employees and implementing these policies. This is bound to be a lot more effective than the top-down approach where the leadership just passes on policies and regulations down to employees.
Lighting
A lot of lighting is used at manufacturing plants. If you’re not using energy efficient lighting, then a lot of energy is going to waste here and you could do something about it. It’s possible to halve the amount of energy your plant consumes and eliminate the risk of contamination by mercury, just by switching to sustainable lighting. There are plenty of lighting systems that are made with green methods and they can all lead to you paying lower utility bills and lowering or eliminating your air pollution.
Reduce your Use of Paper
Another area where you could definitely make improvements is in your use of paper. A lot of companies have gone completely paperless. There are lots of systems and software applications available today that make it possible for manufacturers to communicate with both onsite and offsite workers without using paper while simultaneously improving quality and boosting productivity. On the one hand, going paperless is good for the environment as it means less trees cut and less ink used. On the other hand, it enhances productivity, saves on costs, proofs against errors, offers real time control over changes and improves traceability.
Have an Environmental Management Solution
An environmental management solution is a set of practices and processes that are designed to reduce the impact that an organization has on the environment and also to make it more efficient in its operations. Toyota, for example, has the lean manufacturing system while Motorola has Six Sigma. These are both EMS policies that not only made the companies that employed them wildly successful, but also completely revolutionized their respective industries. A good EMS will not only reduce emissions and waste, but will also drastically increase productivity.
You can hire a consultant to evaluate the situation for you and devise the appropriate EMS for you. You could, for example, order your essay here – saving areas in your firm and draft a perfect EMS for you. With a good consultant, you will get the right system for your specific situation.
Make Recycling Easier
When you make the work of recycling easier, then employees are much more likely to adopt it. A good way to do this is to place recycling bins all over the factories and front office. This makes it convenient for the employees to recycle and makes them more likely to adopt the habit. Instead of generic waste baskets, having separate bins for plastic, paper, organic waste, and so on forces employees to be more conscious of the type of waste they are putting away. Not only will the waste get sorted into the relevant categories automatically, but employees will also be forced to be more aware of the different types of waste they throw away and perhaps more conscious of what they buy and consume in the first place.
Incentivize Environmental Consciousness
Your employees will be a lot more likely to adopt environmentally conscious habits if you incentivize it. You could ask them to bring their own lunch to work in environmentally friendly lunch boxes by buying them lunch once a week on the basis of them having this behaviour. They could also check narrative essay topics and help their children to write an essay. Alternatively, you could have a monthly award for the most environmentally conscious employee and reward them with a gift voucher or something similar. When the habit of being environmentally conscious is incentivized in this way then employees are much more likely to adopt it.
Conclusion
As a manufacturing company, going green is to your advantage no matter what vantage point you look at it from. It is important to implement it step by step, phasing out wasteful processes and equipment bit by bit in order to make the transition smooth. That way, your workers won’t feel like it is a sudden and demotivating experience and will have time to learn and understand the new system.
Author Bio
Elizabeth Skinner is a writer and proofreader with a focus on environmental sustainability and topics on going green. She has vast experience in the field and likes to write helpful articles for people in different industries to help them with the process of going green and promoting sustainability.
