Overheard at the Sustainable Manufacturer Network Conference

Missed the Sustainable Manufacturer Network Conference & Exhibits May 18-19 in Chicago? We missed you. Had you been there, here are a few comments you would have heard. It’s as if you were there …

“’How do we get corporate management buy-in?’ That is the age-old question. But you definitely have to get it to get anything to work in your organization.” – Ryan Scott Smith, continuous improvement engineer, Landscape Forms, in response to questions from the audience.

“I found that you’ve got to put it into language they understand.” – Lanita Stevens, United States Gypsum Corp., about highlighting cost savings and financial benefits in trying to get buy-in for sustainable projects.

“It’s inter-generational theft.” – Bill Stough, CEO, Sustainable Research Group, regarding the concept of one generation’s overuse of natural resources – the opposite of sustainability.

“We found that 95 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our natural gas use. Not even 5 percent is from our electricity use.” – Environmental Supervisor Ann Hastert, Caterpillar, regarding the manufacturer’s discontinuation of coal-fired boilers and launch of several electricity efficiency upgrades.

“Green was the market share that grew.” – Sustainable Design Manager Monica Miller, ThyssenKrupp Elevator, regarding why the manufacturer sought LEED® certification to align with the green buildings market.

“We’ve been telling the big cleaning products manufacturers that consumers want green cleaning products. The big companies were like ‘Eh. We don’t believe what consumers say anyway.’ Smaller companies … Seventh Generation, Method … started by just exploiting niches that big companies weren’t paying attention to.” – Scot Case, VP strategic consulting, Natural Marketing Institute.

“We hope it’s a new model for manufacturing.” – Saskia Van Gendt, Captain Planet, Method, about how the B Corp (benefit corporation) framework solidifies the manufacturer’s long-term mission to have an equal commitment to doing social and environmental good alongside making a profit.

“Demand for recycled PET outweighs supply three to one.” – Chandler Slavin, sustainability coordinator for Dordan Manufacturing, who performed extensive research on  PET while striving to get her company’s PET-based packaging product into the recycled waste stream.

“Which is more sustainable: a meat-eater driving a Prius or a vegan driving a Hummer?” – Executive External Strategy and Communications Fellow Mark Jones, The Dow Chemical Co., referencing Michael Pollan’s controversial claim about diet impacts voiced at the 2009 Poptech conference, pointing to the need to ascertain all environmental impacts of a product throughout its entire lifecycle.

“Air quality was our most difficult aspect. Now our air quality is 30 percent better than required by ASHRAE 62.1.” – Monica Miller, ThyssenKrupp Elevator.

“There are lots of benefits to using renewable energy, like environmental stewardship and marketing. But it always comes back to the money” – Marc Lopata, president, principal engineer, Azimuth Energy, explaining that when solar energy makes financial sense it is an easy business decision.

“Financing solar installations can be done in one of four ways: purchase outright, power purchase agreement (PPA), PACE (property assessed capital equity), or lease.” – Brian Lynch, senior manager, projects and solutions, SolarWorld Americas Inc.

“Don’t be afraid to go solar. It’s the right thing to do.” – Santos Rodriguez, renewable energy tech, environmental, health, and safety, Wahl Clipper.

“I’m sure someone is dreaming about it.” – Saskia Van Gendt, Method, in response to an audience question as to whether Method management aspires to be a publicly held company like fellow B Corp Etsy. “Current federal tax credits end in 2016, and I don’t trust this Congress, so right now is a good time to install solar.” – Brian Lynch, SolarWorld Americas Inc.

“Compliance is the foundation of corporate sustainability.” – Jeffrey Cross, sales manager, Dakota Software.

“Knowing how much waste you’re creating is a perfect reverse engineering opportunity.” – Bill Stough, Sustainable Research Group, regarding performing a waste audit to identify continuous improvement opportunities in the value stream.

“We generate almost 4,000 tons a year just of paper and wood waste—pallets, cardboard, packaging, crates … All of that is recycled. It translates to sparing over 26,000 mature trees from being cut down.” – Ann Hastert, Caterpillar.

“‘Collected for recycling’ does not mean ‘recycled.'”– Chandler Slavin, Dordan Manufacturing.

“What I didn’t get was why other people didn’t care about this stuff like I did.” – Scot Case, Natural Marketing Institute, about his first realization as an asthmatic that automotive exhaust contained air pollutants.

“The use of the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ have grown exponentially. If that growth continues, we’ll be using them on every page by the year 2030, once per sentence by 2050, and by about the year 2090, ‘sustainability’ ‘and ‘sustainable’ will be the only words we say.” – Mark Jones, The Dow Chemical Co., joked while using data from Google Ngrams.

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Want to get involved in next year’s event? Share your concept or sustainability story with eco-minded manufacturers at next year’s conference? We’re in
the conference planning process right now and we’d love to hear your ideas. Please submit your presentation proposal by completing this form: http://fma.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_aaaljDlsmV5Rxbv
— Megan Paja, Manager of Member Services

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