Kentucky Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative

Sustainable Manufacturing is a Competitive Advantage

In today’s competitive marketplace, leading organizations recognize that in order to succeed, sustainability must become an essential part or their business strategy. Understanding the intersection of sustainability and the business of manufacturing will enhance environmental performance as well as business operations, product development and competitiveness.

The Kentucky Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative (KSMI) is designed to assist manufacturers with learning how to integrate sustainability, into day to day manufacturing operations and new product development, from a life cycle perspective, in order to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and spur innovation and new product development across the enterprise.

KSMI Training Series

A series of webinars and workshops were offered to demonstrate how sustainable manufacturing principles and practices can drive a strategy to enhance environmental performance and help achieve business goals and objectives into the future.

Hosted at manufacturing sites, the major themes of the initiative included sustainable value stream mapping, incorporating a life cycle perspective, implementing aspects of the new ISO 14001:2015 standard, sustainable product development, and developing a culture for sustainability and innovation. Throughout the training series an emphasis was placed on economic competitiveness.

KPPC continues to provide no cost technical assistance for Kentucky manufacturers.

Module 1 (November 2017)

Webinar 1: Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative
This webinar defined sustainable manufacturing and outlined the purpose and elements of the Kentucky Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative. View the recording of  Webinar 1.
– November 8, 2017 (Recorded)

Workshop 1: Evaluating the Current State
The workshop presented key environmental challenges facing Kentucky manufacturers and focused on extending lean manufacturing practices to incorporate sustainability measures in order to better evaluate the current state environmental and business performance. A discussion of the business case for sustainable manufacturing was a significant element of the workshop.
– November 16, 2017 at GE Appliance Park, Louisville, KY

Find out more about the completed Module 1 learning events.

Module 2 (January 2018)

Webinar 2: Life Cycle Perspective (LCP)
This webinar presented a practical approach to “thinking” about product life cycles, as is included in the new ISO 14001:2015 standard, in order to address environmental issues and sustainability from a systems, or life cycle perspective. View the recording of Webinar 2.
– January 11, 2018 (Recorded)

Workshop 2: Envisioning the Future State
The workshop was planned to discuss ways in which the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) can be accessed and made useful to manufacturers. Participants would learn how to incorporate a life cycle perspective in their ISO 14001:2015 environmental management system. Webinars followed the planning of this event that addressed innovation and practical approaches to incorporating sustainability into new product development.
– January 25, 2018 (Cancelled)

Note: This workshop was canceled due to unexpected circumstances.  Some of the technical content planned to be presented has been incorporated into the last workshop and additional webinars.

Find out more about the Module 2 learning events.

Module 3 (February 2018)

Webinar 3: Developing a Culture of Innovation and Sustainability
This recorded webinar will help inspire a culture of innovation and sustainability within organizations and provide training with best practice examples of successful endeavors. Maker’s Mark Distillery also discussed sustainability efforts at their facility. View the recording of  Webinar 3.
– February 8, 2018 (Recorded)

Workshop 3: Sustainable Manufacturing – Moving Forward

This workshop focused on a positive culture for sustainability through a series of presentations including benefits of using Kentucky TRI data, incorporating life cycle perspective in the ISO 14001:2015 environmental management system, and sustainability efforts at two Kentucky manufacturers.

There was also an overview of the core engineering research facilities at the University of Louisville, as well as a presentation by and tour of the Ford Louisville Assembly Plant.

An introduction to sustainable product development was presented.

Find out more about the Module 3 learning events.

Benefits of the KSMI Training Series webinars and workshops

The learning experienceof the webinars and workshops provide a way to look at your manufacturing processes from the perspective of sustainability with an ability to take action specific to your operational strategy.  You will be empowered to:

– Evaluate your current state and identify opportunities through sustainable value stream mapping.
– Develop a life cycle perspective to enhance environmental performance and encourage innovation.
– Effectively implement aspects of the new ISO 14001:2105 standard.
– Incorporate sustainability in new product development.
– Connect with University of Louisville engineering research capability.
– Build an organizational culture that embraces innovation and sustainability and succeeds.
– Receive direct, no-cost technical assistance from KPPC engineering staff.

Sustainable manufacturing benefits include:

Lower your costs by systematically improving efficiencies in production and distribution processes – reduce energy use, water and material waste, reduce packaging and shipping costs and recycle or reuse materials

Develop and promote sustainable business practices that increase worker productivity, reduce employee turnover, encourage employee ownership of efficiency efforts and promote organizational behavioral change

A sustainability strategy can improve your company’s market position and brand value by enhancing your public image as a responsible steward of the environment
Recognition as a sustainability leader in the community can raise your company profile with clients and increase your access to grants, capital sources and new investment opportunities.

“A company that has a positive environmental reputation has a competitive advantage”