Sustainable Manufacturing: More than a Fad?

1. "Green" means it costs too much.

2. "Lean" means your supply chain is going to be disrupted by the next natural disaster...

"Sustainable" manufacturing should focus on product life cycle. I will most definitely purchase a product that can give me a 20 year life versus a 3 year life, and pay a substantial premium. This is true environmentally friendliness. Put a "Green" tag on it, and I will most likely walk away without even considering it. As with most buzz words, it has been so over-used as to be totally useless for evaluating a product...

Agree, but the manufacturing processes can be "green". For example, the organization where I am working, uses Light diesel oil as fuel. The cost is Rs. 43/litre. If I use agrowaste briquettes, the cost is Rs.4/kg with heat value about 40% of the oil. After factoring lower burning efficiencies, the savings per year work out quite substantial(about Rs. 5 million)considering the fuel consumption of about 800 litres/day.

Another initiatice that I am trying is recycle paper waste(mix of cardboard, silicon release, paper, adhesive labels) that go presently as land fill. If I am able to sell this(to a paper mill) or use this as fuel, this would be a green technology project.

Rajesh

This is all very commendable, and any smart business would follow similar paths. Is this "Green"? Most people would say so. I would concur ONLY if you can demonstrate that this allows you to produce a higher-quality product (i.e., longer life- less food for the downstream waste stream) for less than the competition. While short-term financial perspectives may frown on the capital expenditures, and the "payback" may be difficult to project for any distance into the future due to the volatility of conventional fuel prices, that very volatility is the primary justification for investigating alternatives to conventional energy supplies. But to fully evaluate one's impact on the environment, one must factor in to how many of one's products wind up in the landfill in short order...

In this case, the payback is less than one year and the agrowaste prices are very low. Even if these go up significantly, the savings would be still substantial in addition to being "green". The product quality does not come in to picture since the raw material for products remain same.

Another alternative I am exploring is schrading the paper waste and use it for packing products where we presently use polystyrene foam(Themocole). This would also save money and would be a "Green" project.

I agree that where the product quality is likely to suffer, we must consider "Life cycle" environmental impact rather than short term gains.

In India, the argument for going vegeterian is that it is more "green". You use less resources to produce same amount of vegetarian food when compared to nonvegetarian food. But how many people would be so committed to change their food habits for "global good"?

Rajesh