Green practices are an important concern for our facility, as environmental concerns have risen in recent years and companies can benefit greatly from implementing some designs that favor environmental sustainability. Green Analysis worked with Materials and Materials Handling to recommend certain practices. Below is the green practices RayDesks is looking to adopt.
4R Principles
The 4R Principles are waste management principles that focus on reduce, reuse, recycle, and refuse. They allow for people to reduce the waste that would generally be produced in large amounts in a manufacturing facility for the benefit of utilizing products and maintaining environmental health. Refusing, reducing, and reusing make the most sense within a manufacturing facility setting.
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Reduce
Reducing the paper products within the facility. RayDesks recommends that digital media should be used as much as possible over printed media for communications within the facility. While recycling programs are often used to recycle paper, RayDesks wants to focus on reducing paper as costs can be high for recycling and paper recycling tends to only be beneficial when large amounts of paper are in use.
Reuse
Use powder paint instead of traditional paint. Powder paint can be reclaimed and reused, leading to a 97% utilization rate for a box of powder. Powder paint is also more environmentally friendly than traditional paint, as there are little to no Volatile Organic Coatings (VOCs) in the powder and powder paint has lower carbon dioxide emissions than traditional paint. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) even recommends that powder paint be used whenever possible. The powder paint takes only an hour to dry and uses one coat, which is time-efficient within our facility.
Within the facility, RayDesks recommends reusing pallets, through buying recycled pallets and reusing those pallets. More cost savings will be added when the pallets are reused, after the initial order. In addition to the cost savings, environmental benefits of using recycled pallets include reducing landfill and reducing the facility’s carbon footprint.
Within the facility, RayDesks recommends reusing pallets, through buying recycled pallets and reusing those pallets. More cost savings will be added when the pallets are reused, after the initial order. In addition to the cost savings, environmental benefits of using recycled pallets include reducing landfill and reducing the facility’s carbon footprint.
Recycle
Within our facility, a variety of materials are being used, including ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic, silicone rubber, and polyacetal. Overall, most of our materials can be reused within the facility at least once. ABS, silicone rubber, and polyacetal are easily disposed of or recycled. RayDesks recommends that that the facility participates in Business Waste and Recycling Pickup with Waste Management of Memphis, Tennessee to recycle these materials.
Energy Efficiency
RayDesks recommends using ENERGY STAR-qualified light bulbs, Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Bulbs, in our facility. These lightbulbs will be more cost-effective over time, as they will have to be replaced much less than incandescent light bulbs. While a LED bulb costs $8 versus $1 for incandescent bulbs, the lifespan of LED bulb is 50,000 hours versus 1,500 for incandescent bulbs. This means that using a LED bulb will save around $350 after 25 years for each individual light bulb replaced.
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