From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: Green Factories–Renewable Manufacturing Methods That Create a Cleaner Earth

If serious problems like global warming and the devastation of natural ecosystems are to be averted, changes must be made. One way to accomplish that is by moving towards a green philosophy for manufacturing. People still need products, and manufacturing supplies workers with employment. However, manufacturing doesn’t have to pollute the earth in the process. Below is an overview of a few of the renewable manufacturing methods that can create a cleaner earth.

Recycling

Although it may seem like a cliché, recycling is one of the most effective methods for creating renewable manufacturing processes. Recycling has certain advantages beyond the benefits for the environment. For one, it can help slash costs since recyclables are often far less expensive to obtain than raw materials.

Green Production

Maintaining a green production facility also means making an attempt to lower the amount of electricity and fuel you waste. Some assets in factories and other facilities must maintain specific temperatures to safely operate. This includes things like pumps, pipes, propane tanks, valves and more. Some companies, like Powerblanket, know that if these freeze, they can break. Heating such things can be quite expensive. However, there is one cost effective solution that has no impact on the environment. It’s to wrap these assets in heated power blankets. Many of them can even be temperature-controlled as well.

Renewable Materials

If your company produces a product, you could also choose to rely on materials and resources that are completely renewable to manufacture that product. Some excellent examples of renewable building materials for products include bamboo, hemp, flax, cotton, cork, oil, beeswax, linseed oil, agar, wool, and sea grass. All of these can be grown repeatedly with little impact on the environment. They are far renewable than things like wood and other limited resources, and they produce basically no pollution byproducts.

Efficiency Audits

One of the best ways to make a factory greener is to perform an efficiency audit. Such an audit will examine everything within the organization and the running of a facility to find things that can be improved to increase efficiency and lower that facility’s environmental impact. You may find, for example, that your factory workflow is designed in a way that wastes energy or that you could switch to more energy efficient light fixtures.

Overall, manufacturers must attempt to move towards a greener future. It must be done to insure that significant problems like global warming are defeated. Doing so will allow future generations to have both gainful employment as well as the ability to enjoy a clean and pollution free planet.