“Sustainability” can’t just be a buzzword for modern manufacturers who are intent on meeting stakeholder demands and increasing their global competitiveness.

In fact, sustainability should be a key practice and objective for producers across industry sectors and sizes, says Michael O’Donnell, vice president of operations for Cleveland’s Manufacturing Growth and Advocacy Network (MAGNET).

Mike O'Donnell“The first thing is setting a culture of sustainability,” recommends O’Donnell. “Smaller companies can make that part of their priority as well, or else their workers won’t be thinking about it.”

Formerly a niche concern, going “green” is now becoming baked into the corporate infrastructure. The business case for this work is multi-faceted, notes O’Donnell, adding that enterprises that embrace sustainability can reduce waste—directly improving cost and operational efficiency. Coordinated efforts around these initiatives can also foster public trust and attract new customers.

Today, companies of all sizes and sectors are embedding sustainability into their core practices. Cleveland-area manufacturing behemoths like Lincoln Electric widely publicize their work in recycling and water usage—programs often linked to the larger Environmental, Social, and Governance goals expected by customers.

A large company’s eco-friendly practices can have a trickle-down effect, experts say. For example, small- and medium-sized producers may invest in an energy-efficient HVAC system, an upfront cost that nonetheless yields future savings.

“We need to be good environmental stewards and can write policies that say suppliers need to do better,” O’Donnell says. “Larger companies can pass down a policy to a supplier, and [ask], ‘Can you demonstrate that you’re able to do this?’”

Many roads to travel
Cleveland’s long maker legacy should be advantageous for the industry’s environmental stewardship, says Mindy Kuth, whose Kuth Consulting firm guides mid-sized companies through their sustainability challenges.

Mindy KuthStill, thin margins and the multi-faceted responsibilities incumbent upon mid-market officials can make the road to green manufacturing a bumpy one. New clients often come to Kuth with a problem, like trying to understand a supplier sustainability form that evaluates how well they’re managing their environmental impact.

“Many times, these forms have been kicking around for weeks until someone finds out there’s a deadline coming up,” says Kuth. “These companies just have limited internal capacity [for this work].”

On a daily basis, businesses can integrate facets of the 70s-era “reduce, reuse, recycle” movement, which emerged alongside the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Enacted in 1976, this legislation empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the generation, transport, and storage of hazardous waste.

The “3Rs” prioritize waste management, stressing item reuse and recycling. From the modern manufacturing standpoint, even small organizations can find ways to reduce their environmental footprint, says MAGNET’s O’Donnell.

Some companies get creative when striving for sustainability. O’Donnell points to a local oil and gas purveyor that generated a thick wax during the manufacturing process. For three decades, this wax went to the dump. Then, the company started putting the wax into fire logs, creating an additional revenue stream.

Reuse and innovation are not the only paths sustainability-minded businesses can travel. Installing industrial smart sensors provides real-time insight and analysis on power usage while giving officials a heads-up on maintenance needs.

Staggering daily equipment load is another way for businesses to save both money and energy, adds O’Donnell.

“People coming into work in the morning will put on all the machines at the same time,” he says. “Instead, let’s stagger it. That way, you don’t increase peak demand too much, and you pay less. That’s one of the things you check out with smart sensors. Those meters will show you how much you’re pulling.”

A trickle-down effect
In author Jason McLennan’s “The Philosophy of Sustainable Design,” McLennan states that designers should “eliminate negative environmental impact…through skillful, sensitive design.”

For manufacturers, this means designing products with recycled materials, or creating durable goods that require less frequent replacement, diminishing the resource burden of building substitutes.

NEOEx solar panelsSolar panels, LED lights and more efficient machinery are initial steps for businesses interested in prioritizing sustainability. Even optimizing a warehouse's layout can reduce fuel consumption for forklifts moving goods throughout the space, according to O’Donnell.

For small shops, process improvements often stem from larger producers that rely on those producers to complete a product or part. At the same time, rollbacks on clean-energy tax credits may offer less incentive for smaller organizations to lean into sustainability.

While President Donald Trump levied tariffs on countries with looser environmental regulations on rare earth mining for clean tech and defense, to help localize production, O’Donnell says he does not see those changes making a significant impact on the sustainability desires of small or mid-sized U.S. manufacturers.

Businesses beginning their sustainability journey should draft a clear statement outlining their expectations and calculating their potential return on investment, says Kuth, the manufacturing consultant. Implementation, data tracking, and continuous improvement should also be part of this roadmap, she adds.

“Is this an innovation play or an ROI (return on investment) play?” she says. “First, know what you’re doing, what you’re tracking, and where you’re having a problem.”