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Manufacturing – An emerging climate change pioneer

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Manufacturing - An emerging climate change pioneer

It was Barack Obama who said, "We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it." And it could not be more true.

Climate change is one of the most pervasive issues facing humanity today. We are seeing an unprecedented rise in natural calamities, an increase in temperature and depletion of precious finite resources like never before. While the causes for this fast-forward to climate change can be attributed to a range of industries and practices, the time is now nigh for everyone involved to step up and take responsibility.

The manufacturing industry isn't immune to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. It accounts for 19% of direct global emissions. That’s almost 1/5th of the total emissions that we see currently! Since the traditional take-make-dispose approach is now threatening long-term sustainability and the planet’s resources, we need to look at the changes we can make to the existing structures we abide by.

Laying the building blocks for change - The why and how.

The significant contributors to the increase in carbon emissions from the manufacturing industry have been overproduction, waste, and an overreliance on fossil fuels. To solve these problems, manufacturers are taking big strides to reverse this trend. A reliable alternative would be a cleaner and more efficient system, with reduced resource consumption, and less waste and emissions. The World Economic Forum shared three concrete steps that the manufacturing industry needs to take, aligned with the same:

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, emissions, waste and natural resource consumption were low. The manufacturing impact on the environment was not taken into account because the volume being generated was much lower than what we see today. This is why, while a shift adhering to the principles above is in the pipeline, it is coming at a slow pace. The switch from traditional models to newer, more sustainable ones will take time due to the scale of change it requires. So, while we wait for the rise of sustainable models on a larger scale, let us look at the Runaya model, built on the back of sustainability and the goal of achieving the lowest carbon emissions in the industry.

Runaya - Creating and living the change

Runaya is revolutionising the resources industry by creating environmentally friendly solutions that are led by a zero-waste philosophy and promote a circular economy. With a dross recycling plant at Jharsuguda, we provide an end-to-end solution for the recovery of aluminium and processing of residual waste, to address one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today - the handling, evacuation, processing, and disposal of dross in an environmentally friendly manner.

Additionally, with a sustainable model to eliminate waste and recover metal through patented technology, we can now process mining waste and maximise metal recovery.

Runaya is also supporting other enterprises to get on the path to reduce their carbon footprint by using products such as their low-carbon steel slag conditioner and Runaya briquettes, produced using almost zero carbon. While other players in the industry emit 600 kg of carbon footprint per one tonne of briquettes, Runaya produced only 60 kg of carbon footprint for the same amount! This number is set to reach zero once the company goes 100% solar-powered.

Conclusion

Sweeping changes need to be made across every aspect of manufacturing if we are to collectively transform our operations & products and future-proof our business growth. But before physical change can be brought to fruition, we need to change our mindsets to one of accountability, responsibility and action - because it is only