Most businesses are on board with finding ways to be more sustainable. Unfortunately, the steps they take - while well-intentioned - tend to be small potatoes when looking at the bigger picture. There is nothing wrong with office recycling programs, investment in solar, and other ways companies can be more sustainable, but more must be done in order to counterbalance the global environmental crisis currently unfolding.
Making a real impact on climate change, resource scarcity, and other hallmarks of the ongoing environmental crisis will require major industries and manufacturing outfits to operate more efficiently from top to bottom. Only by maximizing efficiency and minimizing waste at a massive scale - across all industries - can humanity hope to successfully combat climate change.
While governments continue to debate on ways to legislate the planet out of its current environmental crisis, the private sector has the means to take action on its own. One of the ways in which major industries are pushing for a more sustainable business model is by adopting state-of-the-art lean manufacturing principles. Lean is nothing new, but ways to use digital resources and big data to further reduce waste and maximize efficiency are rapidly revolutionizing the lean production systems for industries worldwide.
The development of lean manufacturing software in recent years now allows industries to throttle their production in ways which were previously impossible due to the constraints of computer technology. Rather than simply be a set of policies and operational principles, these tools are a way to integrate lean directly into the works. Readers can visit Leading2Lean to learn more about the ways in which lean tools are helping industries be more sustainable.
If state-of-the-art lean technology continues to be adopted by major industries worldwide, global resource management will undergo a paradigm shift. Given the broad spectrum of manufacturing size and scope, the individual impact will vary but the combined contributions will be profound.
While the embracement of updated lean production systems will play a major role in the effort to combat the ongoing climate crisis, it won’t be the only factor in play. Ways to reduce energy needs and resource demands are critical for slashing the carbon footprint of big industry, but there are other environmental concerns which major business must take into consideration.
One of these concerns is water usage in industrial settings. While the amount of available freshwater isn’t diminishing, the global industrial demand increases every year. This greatly limits the amount of freshwater available for other purposes vital for human life and maintaining ecological balance.
Another example of how sustainable industry includes more than embracing lean manufacturing is the need to reduce actual waste. Whether it’s toxic or unrecoverable in other ways, industrial waste remains a top concern for environmental protection and the protection of precious ecosystems.
The truth is there is no shortage of ways for companies to be more sustainable. Given the urgency of the present environmental crisis, it’s time to pull out all the stops. With that said, it’s best to go in order of most impact. For major industries around the globe, this means taking advantage of state-of-the-art lean manufacturing, cutting back on water usage, and reducing unrecoverable waste product. Everything else falls into place thereafter.
