Sustainability, I appreciate, equates to more than eking every last drop out of scrap in your manufacturing process.

In order to make your product stand out on project work, over recent years, more emphasis has been put on the overall projects carbon footprint.  For upfront investment by manufacturers significant savings can be made by recruiting a Continuous Improvement Manager or consultancy to review plant efficiencies.  This is only part of the puzzle.

Having worked with a window profile system house for a number of years, I have recently finished an Operations Director role for a new multi-million pound investment into a recycling arm for their UK operation (case study below). 

Reading the below article, I have drawn a lot of comparisons with that of what my client is trying to deliver.  With Brewster Bros. investment in Scotland, they have targeted to recycle 400,000 tons of construction and demolition waste a year at a turnover of £3m.  This, against the Scottish governments backdrop of "making things last" - aiming to recycle 70% of construction waste by 2020.  

Clearly you know your business, its operations and manufacturing processes better than me but I hope this article provides food for thought - are you genuinely providing the greenest and most cost efficient solution in your processes?  Can you squeeze even more profit from your manufacturing processes and methodologies?

www.collingwoodsearch.co.uk/case-studies/building-products/operations-director-plastic-recycling-upvc-windows-doors/