SUSTAINABILITY SPOTLIGHT | 4 Makin e “In even the very best companies, what was considered nvisible isiblenormal 20 years ago is now seen as absurd,” says Steve. “For example, factories would leave machines on overnight or over the weekend just to ensure the next job would be high quality. The best companies don’t do that anymore. At Toyota, an employee comes in a few hours early to ensure that the machines are operational for the shift. This practice saves them a lot of energy and money.” Examples like Toyota highlight that there is a growing focus on sustainability in industry, but many manufacturers still need convincing to change their practices, especially when they cannot see their waste. The case for industrial frugality A material world Energy waste often goes unnoticed, so it is an Manufacturing serves the purpose of producing important area of focus for Steve and his colleagues material goods for consumers, and industry has the in their work with industry. With renewable energy capacity to do so on a large scale. The sector’s history powering more than half of the electricity sold in of pollution and industry’s connection to consumerism, the UK, it is not self-evidently a sound priority, as however, may lead to the belief that manufacturing is Steve explains: “If a manufacturer exclusively relies incompatible with sustainability. This belief is incorrect on renewable energy, one might assume that there and fails to recognise that food, clothing, medicines, is little incentive for them to conserve energy, other building materials and other essential items are all than to save money. However, this is not entirely true. manufactured goods that we rely on. A sustainable Paradoxically, reducing energy consumption can be an industrial system is necessary to provide these goods to eective strategy to reduce real CO2 emissions. When a global population of over 8 billion people. Achieving a manufacturer uses less energy, the overall energy sustainability cannot be delivered by closing down Studies show that people manage their spending more carefully when they pay by demand in the industrial system decreases. In the UK, industry, which is good news, but we must increase our renewable energy has become cheaper to produce than innovative thinking and implement solutions. cash rather than card. Cash is visible and tangible, and wasting it feels harder to do.fossil fuels, so it is more likely that fossil fuel providers will be impacted by lower demand than renewable “It is hard to come up with general sustainability energy providers will. Reducing the proportion of fossil recommendations for manufacturers because they Based on industrial sustainability work with countless In the 1980s some researchers believed that we had fuels in the energy mix therefore makes sense from an are so very dierent. We can’t say, ‘Do this to this manufacturers over many years, Professor Steve Evans, two centuries to tackle the issue of climate change, economic perspective.”type of machine, do that to your schedule, do this to of the IfM’s Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS), has but not everyone agreed with this prediction. Over compressed air.’ But there is hope, because what we concluded that this principle applies to other resources the following decades, the tireless eorts of those With a view of the whole resource system, a frugal find works consistently is to show people that waste is too. He regularly observes that electricity, compressed who dissented against this view helped to shift mindset is the only sensible option, according to Steve. happening. Each factory has its own toolkit for dealing air, water and surplus materials hide in plain sight in perceptions. Unfortunately, climate change continued Even on the materials side, there is work to be done with waste; we just need to show them that the waste is factories – in cables, tanks, pipes and skips – and are to worsen during this time because of a lack of to make that change: “Material waste should not be there. We find that we don’t have to teach them how to consequently wasted. However, when these resources consensus and inadequate action. We now face a the biggest challenge for manufacturers because it is identify changes that will improve the situation. They’re are made more visible, their perceived value increases, crisis that we are not prepared for, which demands a in their bins. You can physically see material waste if already good at that, and that is really quite important. resulting in more careful management. This is a positive large-scale transformation of our industrial systems. you bother, but most people don’t bother. Even in our We must teach them how to see the waste so that they development for the environment, the climate and the In 2011 Professor Steve Evans established the CIS at homes, waste tends to become psychologically invisible can tackle it,” says Steve. financial bottom line.the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) to facilitate this once the bin lid goes down, so we need to be told to change, and he has since observed some promisinglook for it.”