Local Zero Waste Manufacturing

The growing international 'zero waste' movement imagines a future where everything is a renewable resource, and where industrial practices meet societal needs without damaging and depleting the planet’s natural systems on which on our future depends.

Notes Dr. Bill Sheehan, a Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, “High levels of energy and materials consumption in industrial countries are the driving force behind the decline in virtually all major life support systems on [the planet]. Of all the materials used in products, only 1 percent is used in products 'durable' enough to still be in use six months later, according to industrial ecologist Robert Ayres.”

In response, the zero waste movement calls for a 'whole system' approach to resource management that maximizes recycling, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the marketplace. Sheehan calls this “radical resource efficiency and eliminating rather than managing waste.” Jeffrey Hollender, President of Seventh Generation, calls zero waste “the mother of environmental no-brainers.”

Examples from BALLE Networks

BALLE network programs in local, zero-waste manufacturing have included:

• Education and mentoring around industrial ecology and bio-mimicry
• Aggregated demand for materials sourcing and distribution
• Sustainable manufacturers summits
   

Business Spotlight: Sustainable Business Network of Portland

Rejuvenation began in 1977 as an architectural salvage shop in a derelict North Portland saloon. Jim Kelly, who still owns the privately held company, began the business with $1,000 and an eye for discarded architectural treasures. When business was slow, Kelly rebuilt vintage light fixtures found amidst the castoffs. Demand for the fixtures grew until eventually Kelly began manufacturing period-authentic lighting in his Portland factory for customers throughout the United States.

Today Rejuvenation is America's largest manufacturer and leading direct marketer of authentic reproduction lighting and house parts. Rejuvenation products are made to order and sold through the company's catalogue, website, and retail stores in Portland and Seattle. And it still sells unique architectural salvage in its Portland and Seattle retail stores.

With preservation as a core value, it's no surprise that restoring old buildings using recovered materials is a Rejuvenation habit. The company extensively rehabilitated the site of its Portland store, the historic 47,000-square-foot Neustadter Building, which for many years served as a wholesale flower mart. Its manufacturing plant is the 80,000-square-foot former Chase Bag Factory built in 1939. Rejuvenation's Seattle store occupies the main floor of the Nisqually Building, built originally in the early 1900s for a manufacturer of specialty rail cars. The building makes use of a 25-foot-high clerestory as a source of natural light.

The company pays employees to walk, carpool, or ride bikes to work, subsidizes those who take public transit, and maintains a fleet of company bikes. Rejuvenation decided to stay in the city of Portland rather than move to the much-less-costly suburbs largely to limit the commute for the majority of its employees.

But the centerpiece of the company's environmental commitment is its "lean and green" approach to manufacturing. The founder of Rejuvenation learned about the Natural Step, a framework grounded in natural science that helps organizations and businesses integrate processes to support sustainability, in 1997, and volunteered the company to be the first participant in an innovative pilot project designed to integrate Natural Step sustainability principles into an "environmental management system" based on International Standard ISO 14001. Rejuvenation was able to analyze the environmental impact of its manufacturing, and the framework to make metal cleaning, metal coating, antiquing, polishing, plating, and painting processes more environmentally benign.

Adopting a hybrid of "lean manufacturing" in the Rejuvenation factory has improved efficiency, safety, and quality. For example the water-based ultrasonic degreasing equipment produces cleaner parts with non-toxic materials. And the closed-loop ion exchange system treats water from the antiquing process, extracting heavy metals for safe disposal, eliminating discharge to the sewer and allowing re-use of the processed water. They've also lowered their production of VOCs through new equipment and controls.

"There is much to be done," says general manager Alysa Rose. "Yet from our experience so far, we believe it is important to look for early successes and not be paralyzed by thinking too big."

For more profiles of Zero-Waste Manufacturing business members of local BALLE networks, click on the links below:

Roxbury Technology Company, Boston, Massachusetts

Seventh Generation, Burlington, Vermont