Environmental responsibility is a huge concern for all businesses these days. Customers are increasingly basing their purchasing decisions on how eco-friendly the products are. That means companies don’t want to deal with a manufacturing company that is producing products in a wasteful or damaging way because they won’t be able to sell them on to their customers.
3 Environmentally Friendly Tips for the Fall
That means that any manufacturing companies that are still using outdated equipment and environmentally damaging processes are going to struggle to get by. If you’re losing customers on a large scale and you’re having trouble drumming up new business, it might be because you aren’t putting enough thought into making your manufacturing process more eco-friendly. If you want your manufacturing company to stay relevant, you need to make these changes.
Use Recycled Materials
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This is one of the easiest ways that you can reduce your impact on the planet. The technology for using recycled materials is always improving and the quality of product that you can make with used materials is just as good as anything that you can make using more wasteful techniques. If you’re making anything from plastic, you need to be especially careful. There is a big movement at the minute to reduce plastic waste and stop it from ending up in the oceans so people are reluctant to buy any plastic items that aren’t made using recycled materials. The first step is to update your equipment and get yourself a Dana plastic recycling machine. It’s worth finding Dana Service Center as well in case there are any issues with it. It’s a bit of an investment to upgrade your equipment but you’ll see a big increase in sales if you can start using recycled plastics. Customers are willing to pay a little bit more for sustainable materials as well so you can increase your prices a little to offset some of the money that you’ve spent updating your equipment.
It’s not just plastic products that you can make using recycled materials either. People are always looking to develop more sustainable alternatives to materials so there is usually a way that you can introduce recycled materials into your manufacturing operation. Once you’ve done this, you need to start altering your marketing campaign so it’s built around the fact that you produce products using recycled materials.
Recycle Your Waste
As well as making your products from recycled materials, it’s important that you recycle your waste as well. A lot of big companies produce so much waste and pollution and that plays very badly for them, so they’ll lose a lot of business. But the companies that are seen to be making a serious effort to reduce that waste will find it a lot easier to get new customers. That’s why it’s essential that you’re recycling all of your waste properly. This is also a great opportunity to make a bit of extra money because you can sell recycled materials to other companies that use it for manufacturing. You can also make savings by recycling waste paper and using it to make packaging etc.
Recycling waste is especially important if you use hazardous chemicals in your manufacturing operation. If you don’t dispose of those chemicals properly and they end up contaminating a water supply or damaging local habitats, you’re going to get a lot of bad press. There are usually processes in place to dispose of hazardous waste so make sure that you get in touch with the local authorities and find out what you need to do.
It’s a lot easier to keep on top of your waste and recycle it properly if you don’t produce as much in the first place so you should always be looking for ways to make your operation more efficient and less wasteful. You can also encourage your employees to cut down on their waste by introducing a bit of healthy competition. Offer a reward of some kind for the team that produces the least waste over the year and you’ll see a big reduction.
Regular Energy Audits
Reducing Your Footprint
Being environmentally friendly isn’t just about the materials that you use or the waste that you produce, it’s about the energy that you’re using as well. The first step to reducing your energy usage is finding out how much you’re using in the first place. You should be doing an energy audit at least once a year so you can work out exactly how much energy your manufacturing operation uses. You can identify any areas that are particularly wasteful and focus your efforts on them when trying to cut down your usage. This is so important because, not only does it make your company more attractive to customers, it also saves you a lot of money. Once you’ve identified your problem areas, you can start making changes to reduce your energy use.
Update Equipment
To Save the Planet, Start Small
You should already be updating your equipment so you can use recycled materials but it’s worth reviewing all your machinery to see whether it’s eco-friendly or not. Older equipment isn’t going to be anywhere near as efficient as more modern machinery. That means if you haven’t updated your operation in a long time, you’re probably using way more energy than you need to be. If you’re just starting out in the manufacturing industry, all of the equipment that you buy should be quite efficient. But if you’ve been operating for a long time, the old equipment that you’ve got is likely to be incredibly wasteful. It might seem like a big expense to update things, especially if the equipment that you’ve already got is fulfilling your needs, but it’ll save you a lot of money in the long run. If you can make some large energy savings, you can get a lot of good publicity and bring some new customers on board.
Eco-Friendly Partners
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Most manufacturing companies will have to deal with other companies at some stage. Whether it’s to source raw materials or specific parts that you can’t manufacture yourself, you’ll have to rely on somebody else’s manufacturing operation. It’s important that you choose wisely because, even if you’re making an effort to ensure that your operation is eco-friendly, you can’t always say the same for the other companies that you partner with. Customers are only interested in the environmental responsibility of the end product so they don’t care whether it’s you or one of your partners that is doing damage to the environment. Before you enter into an agreement with any other company, you should ask them for details about their operation and how sustainable it is. You might have to pay a little bit more money for environmentally friendly products but it’s worth it.
Delivery
Once you’ve manufactured the final product, it’ll need shipping out to your customers. You may handle this yourself in-house or you might outsource it to another company. Either way, you need to make sure that you’re doing it in a responsible way. The carbon emissions from delivery trucks are pretty high so you need to find a way to reduce them as much as possible. Planning efficient routes so deliveries are covering the minimum amount of distance possible. You could also consider investing in electric vehicles or hybrids that are better for the environment. If you’re going to be outsourcing your delivery to another company, it’s important that you ask plenty of questions about how they manage their carbon emissions.
You’re really going to struggle to stay relevant in a marketplace that is increasingly focused on environmental responsibility if you don’t make some big changes to your manufacturing operation.
