Sustainable production
– how can we achieve it?

What is meant by sustainable production and how can you make the production of your own company sustainable and environmentally friendly?

Here are the most important things to know about this topic.

There is no industrial sector in which the creation of cost-effective operation and the environmentally-conscious optimisation of production would not gain increasing emphasis.

And why?

That is why your company needs to strive to create the basic conditions for sustainability as effectively as possible.

To achieve that, we will present you what sustainable production exactly means, why making supply chains more cost-effective should not be taken lightly and consider it as a simple industrial trend and what methods can help domestic businesses in laying environmentally friendly and sustainable foundations for their operation by reconsidering their activities.

What does sustainable production mean?

Sustainable production is a concept to be understood in terms of both economic and environmental protection. It means that a company manufactures its products without damaging the environment and harming the people producing them, or by minimising the harmful effects.

Sustainable production in this context includes practices such as the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, optimisation of resource use, or the efficient cutback of the amount of waste generated during production.

Perhaps it already indicates that countless different alternatives exist for creating sustainable production, and each company finds its solution from renewable energy consumption to creating waste-free manufacturing processes or even by reforming and rethinking its supply chain.

It means that not only the large but also the smaller companies can take an active part in more conscious production since even the tiny changes can have a big impact on the sustainability of a company’s products such as replacing a component or base material with an environmentally friendly alternative in the production process or modifying the procurement process or production location.

Why is it important to create sustainable production?

Sustainable production plays a very important role in terms of environmentally conscious operation that has become more and more important in our days as the greatest responsibility lies with the production companies supplying consumers with material goods in the modern consumer society. It is not a coincidence since the emissions of the various industrial sectors are extremely high and unfortunately contributes to air, water, and soil pollution quite heavily.

In case we fail to place the required emphasis on sustainability, we can facilitate the evolution of extremely serious environmental damages which is unacceptable from both an ethical and a medical point of view.

Of course, creating sustainability is not only a moral issue. It is also important due to the increasingly tightening sustainability regulations of the European Union.

Companies that fail to comply with the constantly changing legal regulations face increasingly heavy fines, and in many cases, an environmentally unfriendly operation can lead to the temporary suspension or permanent termination of production in addition to the heavy fines.

It is something that no company director would ever want.

Certainly, we should also keep in mind that making production more sustainable is not only good for the environment and not only guarantees the legal operation of our company, but it is an essential factor of prestige as well.

Business partners prefer to cooperate with a company that performs production in an environmentally friendly way, and conscious consumers also prefer to choose companies that are proven to operate in more sustainable than their competitors in the market. It is true even if they offer their products at a slightly higher price as a result.

According to a World Economic Forum study, for instance, sustainable production can increase the market value of a given brand by 15-30 per cent resulting in a truly serious competitive advantage in today’s increasing market competition and can yield increased turnover in addition to prestige.

At the same time, relevant studies have also revealed that sustainability can help a brand survive tough crises such as the current Covid19 epidemic. For example, Project ROI research indicated that the share price of companies strongly emphasizing their views on corporate responsibility had not fallen significantly even in course of severe crisis periods. However, companies that had had a particularly bad reputation on corporate production responsibility lost $378 million in revenue on average.

Who can be considered
as a conscious consumer?

Conscious consumers are those who keep ethical, health and sustainability aspects in mind besides price when buying a product. Today, the number of conscious consumers seems to show a constant increase thanks to both the widening supply of quality products available to a wider range of consumers and various consumer trends such as the prevalence of environmentally conscious nutrition.

Today, according to the findings of Nielsen’s Global Corporate Responsibility Report, for instance, 66 per cent of consumers are willing to pay more for goods that are produced or manufactured sustainably and three out of four young consumers will choose an environmentally responsible alternative if they are given the choice.

It indicates that conscious consumers require companies to perform conscious production and it has become worth it for a company today to invest money, time and efforts in the development of its supply chain and in making production more cost-effective and sustainable.

Unfortunately, it is discussed quite rarely but it is important to know that the energy sources of Earth are finite and it is as drastic as it may sound.

For instance, the recent study was written by Gaya Herrington, Sustainability and Dynamic Systems Analysis Researcher of consultation agency KPMG pointed out that in case our planet continues to show growth at the same pace as in recent years and decades, it is likely to happen that our vital resources dry up as quickly as in 20 years.

It will not only harm production but could effectively lead to a crisis that would lead to the collapse of the entire economic system and ecosystem as we know it today.

It is an extremely dark future prospectus, but even the smallest initiatives are required to change it. This is why you must take part in reducing waste and increasing energy efficiency as effectively as possible to achieve a more sustainable future.

How can you make your production more
cost-effective and sustainable?

As mentioned above, there are countless ways to make production more environmentally friendly and more economical from minimising waste production to optimising the supply chain most appropriately.

Currently, the latter is extremely important as many companies try to keep their prices low and thus retain their customers and partners by obtaining the parts and raw materials required for their products from supply sources thousands of kilometres away. However, this represents an extremely high environmental load and in most cases, it is not even much cheaper than relocating some production segments to the same continent (think of the recent changes of rules and legal regulations and the continuously increasing custom duties that go with them). Currently, it has already become possible as well.

We do not necessarily have to import certain products from the Far East because we can move their production to the EU member states where the salaries are still low by EU standards.

This way, we will still not have to worry about high production costs and the problem of cross-continental transport, and the associated extremely high ecological footprint will also be solved.

As a result, you can both save money and place the operation of your company on more sustainable foundations.

Sustainable operations in a modern,
changing world?
We can help!

Products made from locally available base materials will therefore help you to make your supply chain as environmentally friendly and cost-effective as possible and your production not only more efficient, but also more profitable and sustainable in the long run as well.

If you would like your business to operate in the most efficient way possible and your products to meet the requirements of modern, conscious consumers, please contact us.

We will help you to carry on your operation in an economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable way in the age of energy sources more and more difficult to exploit and remain independent of global supply chain issues, rising prices and unforeseen situations without having to fear of potential crises situations!

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