Factories that give back

A sustainable shift

As the world becomes increasingly digitalised, a generation of consumers are demanding more: more variety, more convenience, and manufacturers who embrace more environmentally friendly business practices. Naturally, this has had a major effect on industries – especially when it comes to food and beverage. Now, it’s no longer enough that food and beverage factories need to be more intelligent, efficient and cost-effective – they also need to be more sustainable. 

But what does this mean, and where should manufacturers begin?

Going green from beginning to end

Take design. To be truly green, manufacturers must account for every single detail involved in running a factory: from ensuring the site respects the surrounding ecosystem, all the way to reducing energy and water waste during production. It also means working with suppliers who themselves are sustainable.

This leads us onto another segment: optimising resources. For the food and beverage industry, optimising resources means controlling how ingredients and materials are sourced, processed, stored and transported. This, in turn, can only truly succeed if manufacturers improve how they monitor and control every situation on hand.

And then we have the movement towards carbon neutrality, or even going carbon free. How far can sustainable factories go in eliminating carbon output? To answer this question we must look into the steps needed to reach this goal – or get as close as possible. For food and beverage manufacturers in particular, this could be through obvious routes like reducing electricity, natural gas and water consumption to an absolute minimum. Perhaps by switching to thermal energy from renewable sources, like heat pumps and concentrated solar power.

Other factors include carbon footprint labelling, whereby manufacturers display the carbon footprint of a product on the packaging. This kind of information can help consumers make more informed decisions about their purchases.

The path forward

All in all there are many layers to creating a sustainable factory, the likes of which we will explore in greater detail in our Sustainable Factories series, with part two focusing on resource optimisation. What factors must be incorporated for a factory to be considered sustainable – or on the path towards sustainability? Furthermore, how can the right partner help make such a shift easier?

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