Cleaner Production Programmes

Introduction

Does your business spend too much money on materials, solvents, waste, energy, water, packaging, and would like to become more resource lean? Or does your business want to reduce its potential environmental risk due to the substances it uses or its production processes?

“Cleaner production” means

• Using energy and resources efficiently
• Avoiding or reducing the amount of waste produced
• Producing environmentally sound products and services
• Achieving less waste, fewer costs and higher profits

All types and sizes of businesses can put cleaner production practices in place. Areas that can be included in a cleaner production programmes are energy management, minimising input materials, modifying production processes, design for the environment (including recycling), reusing water, training staff to decrease wastage, recycling, and so on.

Process

The cleaner production process usually includes: 

1. Benchmarking current use of resources through ‘input > process > output’ analysis.
2. Identify opportunities to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ resources.
3. Champion changes in processes to achieve identified opportunities.
4. Benchmark changes in resource use to identifying savings in resource purchasing (energy, water, materials), and reductions in ‘waste disposal’.
5. Identify new opportunities to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ resources.

Important foundations to successful cleaner production programmes are:

1. Support and/or programme champion at management level.
2. Team with representatives from the shop floor, engineering, office and management.
3. Encourage all staff to participate in identifying opportunities and implementing changes in processes.
4. Remember that most staff participate in cleaner production programmes to protect the environment for their children and their children’s children, not necessarily for the financial savings to the company.

Case studies

Norcross, Henderson

In 1996 Norcross began working with suppliers to find solvents and chemicals that would improve environmental performance and were safer for staff to use. As a result they reduced the number of chemicals they used, opting for multitask chemicals. Additionally they now use a water miscible blanket and rollerwash with a high flash point. 

Norcross aimed to have cleaners they felt were safe enough for staff to handle without gloves. These changes reduced the number of chemicals on site from four to one, a reduction of 75%. This resulted in a reduction of waste (from chemical expiring) potential liability, improved product inventory systems, and cash savings.

Norcross also conducted an energy audit that resulted in Norcross setting up an effective energy monitoring programme, which, combined with a plant redesign, resulted in substantial energy savings of $20,000 per annum.

Laundry & dry cleaning services, Kelston

Operating from a purpose-built factory in Waitakere City, LDC has one of the largest textile plants in Australasia. The company is certified to ISO 9001 standards in quality management and to ISO 14001 in environmental management systems. LDC’s existing management team oversees all environmental initiatives and share out specific project responsibilities amongst the team.

In 1994 LDC installed an Energy Management System to monitor energy use and produce detailed information to enable LDC to find methods for improving efficiency. As a result LDC were able to reduce the cost of electrical energy proportional to turnover by 20%. The system was later expanded to incorporate the monitoring of both gas and water use which also lead to a reduction in the cost of gas proportional to turnover by 12%.

In-depth case studies

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