The Pros and Cons of Green Manufacturing

Pivot International  |   March 01, 2017

The idea of “going green,” whether it’s in manufacturing or any other business, is quite appealing on the surface. After all, we’ve only got one planet, and it makes sense to work towards its preservation. But once you begin to investigate what it takes to truly be a green manufacturer, it becomes clear that it’s not an easy process.

Businesses are, after all, businesses. Ideally, they are designed to run as efficiently as possible. And though we all might want to see going green as a concept with no downside, the simple truth is that no idea is without its drawbacks. Here are some pros and cons when it comes to going green in manufacturing.

Pros:

Marketability

It’s a clear fact that going green is good for PR. A company that’s devoted itself to having as little an effect on the environment as possible can garner some real positive feelings from the media and from consumers.

Sustainability

A manufacturing model that considers and protects the environment is obviously going to be more stable over the long-term than one that doesn’t. After all, how can you continue to make your product if the resources you need have been exhausted?

There might be sacrifices in the short term, but the better a product treats its supply chain, the better off it’s going to be.

Competition

If you can maintain or even surpass the standards of the products around you that are NOT green-manufactured, the resulting mix of quality and perception will give your product an edge. Consumers love companies that are conscientious, but they also love reliability.

A manufacturer who can ensure both is bound to profit from that combination.

Future Investments

Though this point could probably go along with sustainability, it’s worth mentioning that environmentally unsound manufacturing could cost you more.

Spending money on materials that are wasted, or not used to their fullest potential, will be an expensive proposition in the long run.

Cons:

Keeping Up

What’s considered “green” now might be contradicted or disproved further down the line. With new scientific discoveries coming every day, it’s possible, perhaps even probable that a measure a manufacturer takes today to protect the environment might be found to be less reliable, or even more harmful down the road.

In addition, it’s important to remember that standards are not static. They change as we learn more about our world and how it works.

Keeping up with those standards can be challenging, and the penalties for not keeping up with them can be severe.

Different Rules

Let’s face it: There are competitors that don’t go green who might have some advantages over you. Quicker is often cheaper, and a manufacturer who can create a product more quickly than you can probably do it for less.

They’ve also got the advantage of time. If they beat you to the marketplace with their version of your product, you’ve lost a valuable edge over your competitor.

It might feel good and benefit you in the long run, but by playing a different game with fewer rules, your competition could win an early round.

Know Your Role

As much as it might give a business owner a clearer conscience to be a green manufacturer, the roles of environmentalist and businessperson sometimes don’t mix. There are decisions you have to make in both fields that don’t complement the other.

Ultimately, the decision to become or to use a green manufacturer must be each individual company’s decision. From there, you can decide what steps to take, and in what increments.

Just remember that what’s beneficial to the environment may or may not be beneficial to the bottom line.