Many manufacturers are struggling to keep the lights on and convince shareholders they are still relevant. Because of this, they too often avoid talking to their customers about what they want.It’s too bad. When it comes to your company’s green strategy, if you wait for your customers to “force you” to go green, then you have it all backwards.
In the article, Green Ultimatum, published recently by the respected U.S. journal IndustryWeek, the author asks the question: “What happens when manufacturers tell their suppliers to go green – or else?”
In July, super retailer Walmart unveiled its plans to create a “sustainable product index” during a meeting with 1,500 of its suppliers. The company’s president and CEO Mike Duke made it clear that green wasn’t a fad, and that their customers cared about the issue. “We do not see this as a trend that will fade,” said Duke. “Higher customer expectations are a permanent part of the future.”
The company is asking its more than 100,000 global suppliers to answer a 15-question survey to assess their environmental record. The questions focus on four areas: energy and climate, material efficiency, natural resources and people and community. Those are kind of soft and fuzzy questions, and I can safely say that most manufacturers I’ve met with over the years wouldn’t have a clue where to even look for the answers. If you think I’m too harsh, check out the questions yourselves by clicking this link and then click on the “15 questions for suppliers” PDF towards the bottom of the page.
The need to go green when you aren’t looking down the barrel of a gun is a point we’ve raised before in Green Business and one most manufacturers would rather not address. If a Canadian manufacturing executive were to talk candidly, this is likely how the conversation would go. “Give me a break, don’t I have enough issues with overseas competition, fluctuating exchange rates, rising energy prices, shortages of skilled labour, and shrinking demand for my products? Now I’m supposed to invest money I don’t have to come up with green products?”
The short answer? Yes.
So why aren’t more manufacturers doing it? One reason cited in the IndustryWeek article is cost. The article reports that consumer-electronics manufacturers pay about $3 billion a year to meet the ROHS standards imposed by the European Union, according to a study from the Consumer Electronics Association.
But another equally important reason is ignorance. A recent survey by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers found that 20 per cent of their survey respondents have been asked to provide “environmental footprint” information to their OEM. The trouble, according to the SME, is that of the 1,046 manufacturing professionals in the survey, 16 per cent weren’t sure what the term “environmental footprint” means.
It’s true that manufacturers are struggling to keep people employed, keep creditors at bay, and are busy with other initiatives like implementing lean manufacturing or cost savings plans. I get that. Many just haven’t had time to invest in learning the green language or sizing up the green opportunity in their markets. But this ignorance is costing them.
“It’s clear that being a green manufacturer will be the entrance fee for suppliers in the years to come,” says Mark C. Tomlinson, executive director and general manager of SME in a recent news release discussing the survey findings. “Obviously, a lot of suppliers need to be brought up-to-speed on sustainability issues before their OEMs require it…And they need to understand that implementing lean to green practices can also help with the bottom line by eliminating waste.”
The SME release touts an upcoming conference September 28-30 in Austin, TX as helping manufacturers get up to speed. The Lean to Green Manufacturing Conference aims to provide knowledge and workshops to help kick start green initiatives.
There are a host of other green conferences springing up, and the early adopters will be there in full force, proud as punch of what they’ve achieved and more than willing to help tell you about how you can get green. It’s not rocket science, it’s business. Get out there, network, interact, learn, innovate and compete. If you wait too long for the green light, someone is liable to crash into you or leave you in the dust.
Contributing editor Todd Phillips ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is a longtime observer of Canadian manufacturing and the founding editor of Advanced Manufacturing magazine.
