SUSTAINABILITY SPOTLIGHT | 10 Six sustainable actions you can take now 4. Start small:BE A CHANGEMAKER The IfM talked to practitioners from a range of A simple yet eective variation is to approach teams global manufacturing firms, as well as sustainable that can look straight away at the dierence between manufacturing experts, to identify common success energy used on good days and bad days. Teams can IN SUSTAINABLE factors and best practices in businesses that had identify ideas and processes that have been proven achieved consistent, rapid sustainability improvements. to work as they have “been done before”. One MANUFACTURING The study revealed that using continuous improvement organisational sustainability example achieved over initiatives can be an excellent way of achieving rapid 15% in improvements remotely simply by identifying sustainability improvements, demonstrating that the and acting on performance variation in annual journey towards sustainable manufacturing doesn’t production and resource data.The Sustainability This is no small feat. The sustainability field is complex and fraught with uncertainty. And the rate of change is accelerating. have to be expensive.5. Get people involved: Association is Organisational resistance to change can be significant and Wide engagement and commitment were found looking for leaders presenting a convincing case to the board can feel daunting. 1. Look at your existing resources: to be the most influential factors in achieving No organisation can improve without understanding rapid improvements and a successful sustainability who want to drive That’s why we’ve started the Sustainability Association. its current condition, so it is vital to first assess existing transformation in a company. Quick sustainability resources at surface level. While identifying current sustainable change In collaboration with world-leading researchers in the field waste may seem trivial, the research shows it’s very wins can be used to seek top management buy-in by communicating their success in achieving costs to new levels in and talented peers from dierent industries, the Sustainability important and is the first and most vital step towards savings, as well as environmental benefits.Association provides member companies with the right conservation. Choose three to four priority issues their manufacturing knowledge, right expertise and right network and identify target performance dimensions such 6. Recognise eort and success: organisations.to accelerate sustainable change in their organisation. as energy/CO2, water, waste and/or potentially one Creating a working environment that recognises and other significant pollution challenge for your business. rewards eorts towards sustainability improvements Not only is reducing energy consumption good for can help employees at all levels to engage with sustainability performance, it also reduces costs, so this FIND OUT MORE AND JOIN THE ASSOCIATION: alignment with key business drivers helps sustainability sustainability challenges. It is critical to make employees feel important and at the heart of the engage.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/sustainability-association/ to quickly become mainstream.improvement process. 2. Don’t wait for a full sustainability strategy: Set realistic targets that are achievable in the short term to avoid discouragement and build confidence among employees and managers. It can help to start by Download the full report holding internal discussions on priorities and focusing on well-known issues and impact points. For example, • Discover ways manufacturers during interviews in the study, companies highlighted achieve rapid sustainability opportunities to switch processes and equipment o.improvements 3. Include sustainability KPIs: • Understand success factors What gets measured gets improved. Monitoring and barriers in progressing metrics that align with sustainability is key to driving sustainability initiatives sustainability improvements through continuous • Receive a checklist with 20 improvement. It’s enough to start small with KPIs, recommendations selecting a few that track the current sustainability to drive resource condition in a cell or facility, such as the use of eciency electricity, water, coolant or the volume of materials waste. It’s also important to share these metrics often (ideally in real time) with key stakeholders, especially on the shop floor, so they can also seek improvements and start to drive those KPIs in the right direction.