This article is part of ERA’s three part series, Sustainability: Going Beyond Compliance. Part three explains essential components of a successful sustainability plan and how you can put it into action.
You’ve decided to take actions to make your business more sustainable. Congratulations!
... So what steps should you actually take to get there?
Answering this question is one of the most difficult tasks you’ll ever have to tackle as part of your environmental management duties. Many businesses, big and small, have no idea how to transform the abstract idea of sustainability into a concrete reality.
Now that you know the nine core principles of sustainability (check out part two in this series for a refresher), it’s time to make those ideals a reality.
The Secret of Sustainable Businesses
Those businesses that have managed to create a successful sustainability plan all have a few things in common:
- Their plan is customized to their needs and goals
- They measure and monitor everything
- Their plans are realistic, not idealistic
Many businesses trying to get sustainable are hoping for a sustainability solution that is prepackaged. Although there’s nothing wrong with basing your own sustainability plan on successful case studies, every business is different. A small business simply might not have the resources to support the efforts as a global manufacturer. That doesn’t mean you can’t get just as sustainable.
Measuring and monitoring everything is essential. How else can you know if you’re actually making progress without monitoring your energy usage or waste output? Sustainability is difficult to measure since there’s no standard way to quantify it.
Sustainability looks different to each business. It’s up to you to decide what parameters you will measure based on your goals. Some of the most common - and useful - things to measure are energy usage, waste output, Greenhouse gases (GHG), and hazardous air emissions (HAPs).
Finally, a plan has to be realistic. Huge businesses, like IKEA and Walmart, are moving to renewable energy sources as part of their sustainability plans, but they aren’t doing it all at once. These companies are converting certain locations to solar and wind power one by one. It simply doesn’t make sense to put a financial strain on your business to jump to 100% sustainability all at once.
Another great example is Proctor & Gamble’s ambitious sustainability plan. The business plans on using 100% renewable energy and cutting product waste down to zero. However, these are long-term goals. For the year 2020, P&G plans on reducing packaging waste by 20%, converting plants to use 30% renewable energy.
Your sustainability plan can be as ambitious as you want, just make sure you have achievable, quantifiable goals and a realistic timeline.
Concrete Actions You can Take Today
Figuring out what steps to include in your own sustainability plan can be tough. Here are some of the most useful actions you can take right now or include in your future timeline that will definitely help you get more sustainable.
- Ask your suppliers what kind of sustainability efforts they have made. The steps they have taken will be highly relevant to your own business.
- If your sell products to another manufacturer, ask them what their sustainability efforts and expectations are. This is a great way to make your business more appealing to them and increase your overall profitability.
- Get rid of disposable cutlery and cups in the break room and make sure there are recycling boxes in every office. (Though this seems like a small step, international manufacturers have already embraced “no waste” policies for employees.)
- Do a self EH&S audit or get a professional green audit. If you don’t know where to start, an outside environmental specialist can be a useful way to start identifying opportunities.
- Create an employee education program or manual that states how every employee is responsible for helping get sustainable. This might include refresher courses on proper paint application or signs in the lunch room asking people to recycle.
- Volunteer or partner with a green program. Getting the team together to clear debris off a beach or plant trees is a good way to get started. You could even make a donation to clean air initiative. We don’t need to tell you what great PR these things can be.
- Schedule a tune-up for your equipment that produces the most waste. Make sure everything is working at maximum efficiency.
- Get an environmental management system. It’s time to start treating your environmental impact like you do your finances. There are lots of ways to accomplish this, though most businesses these days are either implementing or programming environmental management software.
- Green your purchasing policies. One of the simplest steps to take is to always take into account the environmental impact of your purchases, and not just how they’ll affect your bottom line. Sometimes this takes changing the way your finance department thinks about purchases.
- Start measuring your waste, energy usage, and emissions. You need to develop a baseline for your plan as well as create benchmarks.
Your Sustainability Plan Metrics
One of the biggest struggles in putting your sustainability plan into action is knowing which metrics you should track and measure.
In fact, in a recent sustainability study of the Aberdeen Group, surveys showed that the number one challenge was to accurately measure the return on investment (ROI) of sustainability projects, with 42 percent of respondents listing that as the biggest hurdle.
When it comes to sustainability, you could measure every environmental input and output, and still never have enough information to know 100 percent how sustainable you truly are. The secret is to focus your attention on the most important metrics that can tell you the most about your performance.
The same Aberdeen Group study showed that the most successful sustainability plans had a few common elements when it comes to data management:
- A centralized repository of compliance laws
- Automated EH&S data collection using an EMS
- Easy accessible real-time and historical data to decision-makers
As we explained in part one of this series, Defining Sustainability, sustainability is about striking the balance between what you take out of the environment and what you contribute back. Therefore, the most important metrics are the ones that focus on your inputs and outputs.
Your inputs are the resources and materials that you use to manufacture your final product. This includes the energy sources you use to power your processes as well as the materials that go into your products. Although all manufacturing requires resources, sustainable manufacturing aims at using less, and from more renewable resources.
Managing your outputs isn’t just about giving back to the environment, but also making sure you aren’t generating or releasing substances that can harm the environment or our health. When it comes to toxic emissions, you want your output to be as close to zero as possible.
In the next sections, we’ll outline the most useful and usable metrics you should start measuring today to help achieve your sustainability goals.
Measuring Inputs
In order to know exactly how much you take in and use during your processes, you will need to measure:
1. Energy consumption from non-renewable sources
Every process requires some form of energy. The problem comes when you rely strictly on non-renewable resources. Eventually these will run out, and if you haven’t already made the move to become more sustainable, it’s time to start.
2. Energy consumption from renewable sources
You want this measurement to be as high as possible. Using renewable energy is the best way to ensure the long-term success of your business.
3. Water use
You should be quantifying both the amount of water you use in your processes (for example, to cool a boiler) and how much your facilities use in general. You’ll always need to use water, but you should try to reduce this as much as possible.
4. Raw material and processed material usage
Everything that comes into your site as a raw material eventually comes out either in the form of a finished product or as waste. You’ll need to know how much comes in so that you can compare it with how much comes out. If your materials are sustainably sourced, it doesn’t matter how much you are using, as long as they are used to create a product instead of waste.
5. Toxic material usage
Sometimes the raw materials you use might be considered toxic or hazardous to human health. You should differentiate between your toxic materials and other materials so that you can try to reduce the amount of toxics entering your facility. Toxics are more likely to end up leaving your site as harmful waste.
Measuring Outputs
Perhaps more complex is quantifying your outputs. Outputs can be harmful to the environment in some cases, and they’re often the most difficult to reduce. This makes them even more important to be able to measure. Ideally, you want your emissions to be as close to zero as possible.
As part of your sustainability plan, you should be measuring:
1. Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) & Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
The most common emissions from sites are air emissions. They can occur during a variety of processes and have a wide range of effects on the environment and health. You’ll need to measure not only your air emissions, but also how effective your control technologies are from preventing air emissions from escaping your facility.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs)
GHG are a hot topic right now and a big part of modern sustainability practices. So much that consumers expect businesses to be actively reducing their GHG emissions. Many counties require you to measure and report your GHG emissions, and most others have a voluntary GHG reporting structure in place.
3. Toxic & hazardous waste generation
Measuring your waste and toxic waste generation is essential because it tells you how efficient (or inefficient) your processes are. It will also give you the data you need to create recycling projects and benchmarks for proper waste handling.
4. Water emissions
Although not every manufacturing process uses water, you should be measuring any water outputs you release. Are you sending the water out for treatment? Or is it entering the environment untreated? Are you within acceptable limits? All of these factors matter for reaching sustainability.
5. Production tracking
This means quantifying how much production you can get out of your raw materials. Unlike the other outputs, you don’t want this to be close to zero. You’ll be able to use this value alongside your raw material inputs and waste outputs to determine exactly how effective your processes are. Your goal should be to get the maximum production possible from your raw materials, thereby creating less waste.
Using these metrics, you will be able to get a comprehensive picture of how efficient your environmental performance is, and whether your inputs and outputs are in balance. While each individual piece of information will only give you a partial picture, combined you can use them to discern trends in your performance.
If you're looking to make your sustainability plan a reality, then ERA's Corporate Sustainability Software can help. You'll gain access to a comprehensive library of standard metrics and emissions factors, along with complete customization through KPIs, dashboards, and more. Capture all of your sustainability data, draw practical insights, and put your best foot forward when it comes to sustainability reporting and continuous improvement. Talk with one of our project analysts to discover how ERA can transform your sustainability programs.
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