Sign the Green Pledge The Green Business Handbook
Tips for Green Manufacturing

Green manufacturing supports and sustains a renewable way of producing products and services that will not harm you or the environment. It all begins by eliminating or reducing the following WASTES: 

1. Downtime:
Downtime of machines affects their productivity during the day. They will consume more electricity if they are left unattended in their downtime.

2. Excess Waste and Inventory:
Look for waste and then try to eliminate it or reduce it. The waste could be in the form of defects, scrap, excess raw material, unneeded items, old broken tools, or obsolete fixtures and jigs. 

3. Defects or machines problems:
Machines with defects and low maintenance consume more electricity and waste most of what they consume, which limits their efficiency. 

4. Underutilization (of space and resources):
Conduct space management to assess the amount of space you really need. Excess space can consume more electricity, cleaning detergents, and production time. 
For energy usage, hire an energy audit company to assess your energy efficiency and provide you with recommendations on what kind of energy investments will provide with the best savings. 

5. Transportation and material handling:
Installing GPS systems in your company's vehicles can help monitor where and for how long your vehicles drive around the city, allowing you to cut down on unnecessary routes and travels. 

6. Overproduction:
Study your customer and market needs before deciding on how much to produce. Manufacture quantities enough to satisfy your consumer needs and avoid excess inventory and non-value added processing. 


Other ways include:
  • Take raw materials and combine all of them to form a finished product
  • Convert pollutants and wastes into byproducts and promote their use and recycling along with the use of the product (such as ink cartridges) 
  • Avoid the use of hazardous chemical conditioners, chemical anti-bacterial or chemical preservatives in any of the products that might end up in waste systems (landfills) or in the environment 
  • Use raw ingredients (which can and does include organic ingredients if the pricing is reasonable) as much as possible if the finished product is biodegradable 
  • Use new technology which in turn will decrease your energy consumption process

Estimated benefits of Green Manufacturing:

By following the tips and procedures above, you would be taking a major step towards achieving these benefits:
  • Up to 30% reduction in overhead operating costs
  • Up to 10x increase in sales per employee
  • Up to 4x increase in profits
  • Up to 50% to 90% savings in processing time
  • Up to 70% reduction in process queues
(Sources: Green Manufacturing 101—Business Knowledge Source Website)
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