Green Collaboration

A recent local newspaper article told the story of a small group of manufacturers in Athens, GA that has started getting together on a monthly basis to brainstorm how they can help each other improve in the areas of waste reduction, energy conservation, water conservation, carbon footprint, etc.

This is a really good idea. Because the companies are likely in different industries, they can approach the issues from different perspectives and bring new ideas to the table that will benefit the other participating companies.

Since they share a local presence, by joining together they can have more influence on government agencies and other resources (recycling contractors, trash collection and landfill, etc.) through their larger collective voice and buying power. There could be some common suppliers, especially for indirect materials and supplies that can be approached as a buying group or consortium. They could encourage carpooling or vanpools among neighboring plants rather than just company-by-company. They might even share facilities that are not in constant use like conference rooms or meeting facilities.

It’s possible that they may find ways to more directly help each other. Scrap or by-products from one company might be useful to another. They may be able to share resources like wastewater processing facilities or power/heat cogeneration.

By sharing ideas across different industries, energy and resource saving practices can ‘cross-pollinate’ much in the same way best-in-class benchmarking can bring innovative breakthroughs from one industry to another.

Not all of these ideas are strictly ‘green’ – some are just about saving money. But that’s another kind of green that companies are always interested in.

Plus it’s so easy – traveling from one local company to another for a face-to-face meeting is a short walk, not a plane ride.  Read similar articles at www.daveturbide.com