5 minutes read: OpEd “Manufacturing as a Sustainability Enabler” + The Green Link Ecosystem Alliance’s new Sustainability Expertise on Demand specialist Needl.org
Op-Ed_
Manufacturing as a Sustainability Enabler
The 3rd domain in The Green Link’s Sustainability Strategic Framework is Manufacturing (aka Production) – once your Product / Service Design is done and Procurement has secured the required sustainable materials, time to create, build, assemble… and this is a significant area of your company’s environmental footprint.
Chances are that most of your current processes, machinery, tools and ways of even thinking about manufacturing is the product of a 20th century-old approach (pun intended) …. But that doesn’t make it a prime target for environmental conscious retrofits and upgrade.
If you allow your teams to challenge the status-quo, providing them with a rigorous methodology and round the world examples of what others have done, chances are you’ll uncover many opportunities to decrease your environmental footprint & achieve a great ROI.
Time to consider manufacturing as a Sustainability Enabler. Let’s leave aside the usual suspects like installing solar panels on your factory’s rooftop or switching fossil-fuel boilers to biomass with local sourcing from farmers (though we do encourage you to review this if not already in place).
Let’s dive into some great, alternative thinking from industry leaders & cutting edge academic research around the world.
1/ Intel Corporation harness factory “waste-heat” to reduce natural gas consumption
At Intel Corporation ’s new manufacturing plant in Leixlip (Ireland), a radical approach has been taken to repurpose the heat produced by high-temperature manufacturing process. Previously such heat was captured and expelled into the atmosphere though cooling towers.
The new approach actually provides a new purpose for the generated waste-heat: it is now used to provide heated water back to the manufacturing sites buildings.
“That so-called “waste heat” can be used for tasks such as preheating the ultra-pure water Intel needs for semiconductor fabrication or keeping buildings at the site warm during cooler weather, said Richard Riley, P.E. ., principal engineer in Intel’s corporate services development group.” – as reported by Trellis Group
Retrofitting existing buildings is also an option has Intel also demonstrated in its Fab10 production site. By using water-to-water heat pumps, Intel estimated that an equivalent of 18.3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity will be save per year.
This approach has enormous potential as highlighted by the recent McKinsey & Company report “Waste not: Unlocking the potential of waste heat recovery”.
“Depending on whether waste heat is used for heat or electricity, the annual global saving could reach up to €140 billion—comparable to the worth of all natural gas imported by the European Union.”
To better understand the many different ways, you could think about repurposing waste-heat, here are 3 approaches identified in this report.
More information here and here.
2/ University of Leeds estimates leveraging existing tech could reduce harmful emissions from the industrial sector could be by up to 85%
A key principle of The Green Link‘s approach is that if companies were already scaling existing clean tech, our world would be already on a better climate trajectory… Nice to know this principle is now backed by serious scientific research 🙂
A new peer-reviewed study, led by the University of Leeds (working for the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), found that decarbonising the industrial sector is technically possible with a mix of both existing proven tech and not-yet-out of the lab ones (i.e. medium to high-maturity technologies ranging between Technological Readiness Level 6-9).
This means that we already have tech capability to reduce what is currently responsible for 25% of worldwide of GHG) emissions. Moreover, what’s truly breath-taking in the study is how many different industrial processes could be improved. The list includes – among others:
- Iron & Steel
- Food & Drinks
- Glass
- Chemical…
Wondering if something would be appropriate for your industrial prices? Check out the chart below for a 1st level answer:
Now’s the time to engage internal discussion on where would you like to put the focus for 2024 on improving your manufacturing environmental footprint 🙂
This study was performed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Bath and Imperial College London. More on information available here and you can download the study here.
3/ Applying Elon Musk’s Algorithm for sustainable manufacturing
Reading William Isaacson’s brilliant biography provides a unique perspective on Elon Musk’s focused drive on simplicity – a trait he shares with the late Steve Jobs. To maximize production throughput, Elon regularly challenges its team to run “The Algorithm” to review where improvements or simplification can be made.
This has proven extremely efficient both at Tesla & SpaceX , bringing both companies to high-level of quality with reduced complexity and – vs. their respective industries peers – a better environmental footprint.
Companies that are looking to improve the environmental footprint of their production facilities would be wise to consider applying “The Algorithm” whether for retrofitting existing production lines or boldly building new, more climate-friendly, ones.
Elon Musk Algorithm is a 5-step process, both admirably simple to understand and yet challenging to execute as it requires a significant corporate courage to challenge the status-quo, even the 20th-century old sedimented ways of working.
1. Question (challenge) every requirement.
This means diving into every specification, chasing the original author (if it come from a department, ask for someone to be your point of contact), challenging why is this requirement needed for and working with them to reduce the complexity of the requirements
2. Delete any part or process you can.
This requires being on the production floors with your production staff looking at how things are done. Put great care in documenting what is actually being done and look for bits of the process or actions that can be taken out – then test the new version (adding back deleted steps if required).
Worried you might gone way too far? Here’s Elon’s rule of thumb “If you do not end up adding back at least 10 percent of them, then you didn’t delete enough.
3. Simplify and optimize.
Once you and your production staff have come up with a new production process, drill it again and look for ways to simplify and optimize further.
In Elon’s own words “This should come after step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or process that should not exist.?
4. Accelerate cycle time.
Focus on finding ways to accelerate each process after they’ve gone through the first 3 steps.
5. Automate.
The final step, diving into current robotics & automation capabilities to take care of repetitive or dangerous production steps.
Why not start with automation? Well as Elon explains “That comes last. The big mistake in (TESLA) Nevada and at Fremont (factories) was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs shaken out.
Why should you consider it?
If applied rigorously (though probably with an additional pinch of quality assurance tests than Elon’s happy-go-boldly-taking-chances-even-if-it-breaks philosophy), chances are you will find there are financial savings & improved environmental footprint opportunities such as, among others:
- Requiring less materials (less material = less upstream Scope 3 footprint)
- Switching to bio-based or environmentally friendly new materials
- Consuming less energy
Now it’s time for you to go and boldly challenge the manufacturing status-quo !
Needl.org – Expertise on Demand
We are extremely proud of introducing to our readers the next member of The Green Link Ecosystem Alliance: Needl.org, a platform of independent experts dedicated to Sustainability.
Founded in 2020 by Isabelle Viennois and Damya Bouferrache, Needlresponds to companies’ growing need for access to independent experts in Climate, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, Water Resources.
Needlcontinuously identifies and selects specialists who can be mobilized rapidly. Since its creation, Needl has built up a pool of nearly 1,500 independent experts. Needl’s network is international.
Whether you need a one-off insight into carbon footprint or biodiversity assessment methodologies, a double materiality analysis for your CSRD sustainability report, a biodiversity transition plan or an internal carbon price, Needl can help.
In just a few hours, on the basis of your briefon the platform, Needl sends you a shortlist of 3 independent experts who match and available to you.
Register to Needl.org and you’ll access to webinars with high-level experts in Sustainability fields
