Driving sustainability through digitalisation

SETTING THE scene, Nikesh Mistry, sector head for industrial automation at GAMBICA referred to the UK Government’s legally binding commitment to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 68% compared to 1990 levels by 2030, asserting that unless stronger action is taken this target will be missed.

“If stronger action isn’t taken by industry, manufacturers and end-users alike it doesn’t look as though we will actually reach our goals,” he said

Addressing this, GAMBICA has created Environmental Impact Champions, whereby the association has sent out a survey to all its members, which allows them to benchmark their performance against industry standards for CO₂ emissions, as well as identify their main emission sources and come up with a reduction plan. GAMICA then uses the data collected to monitor trends and produce reports to be shared with members so that they can then demonstrate their approach to customers and tenders. Each company can compare their data with industry standards, with the intention of then achieving year-on-year improvements – individual company data is not shared with other businesses.

Different mindsets

One of the benefits of being a sizeable organisation is that GAMBICA is able to have a range of groups addressing similar things, but involving different individuals and mindsets.

“We’ve got the university group who might influence sustainability, we’ve got the wider GAMBICA members in all sectors and we’ve got our GAMBICA Young Council,” said Mistry. “This is 16 professional in the first ten years of their careers spread across all the GAMBICA industries.”

The group is currently concentrating on STEM, sustainability and professional development, which is particularly pertinent.

“The younger generation sees sustainability from a different point of view,” asserted Mistry. “Sustainability is in the media, it’s at the forefront of what’s going on, and it’s personal to them.”

As part of their remit, members of the GAMBICA Young Council are creating a ‘jargon buster’, helping to decipher the buzzwords that get used around sustainability, as well as coming up with a guide for sustainability best practice.

“They want to create initiatives to help businesses, not just ticking boxes,” said Mistry. “They are working with companies like My Green Lab and other sustainability focussed businesses to help them go into our members and help on the sustainability side of things.”

So, once the groundwork has been laid in terms of completing the surveys and discovering where carbon emissions are, what are the next steps that a business can take to reduce their carbon footprint and begin their journey to becoming a smart sustainable enterprise?

Four focus areas

Mistry outlined four areas of focus to help businesses on their sustainability journey, the first of which was optimisation of resource use and economic decoupling whereby the environmentally negative impact of resource consumption is minimised and the processes are optimised.

The second focus highlighted was that of energy usage, an area which, said Mistry can be overlooked. As he pointed out, while it is vital not to ignore energy saving technology, simply improving energy waste can bring about huge benefits in terms of a reduced carbon footprint. Examples cited by Mistry include something as basic as turning off machines when not in use and not running them to full capacity unnecessarily.

Another factor that Mistry looked at was waste treatment and recycling. GAMICA works with a number of companies such as B2B Compliance, a not-for-profit organisation set up to help businesses with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling (WEEE).

The fourth area of focus, that of technology, is particularly important. "I cannot stress how important it is to use technological advances to maximise your efficiency," said Mistry.

It's about taking the digital technologies that we have – which in many instances are not new technologies, but have been available for many years – and getting started on the journey to use them.

"The pandemic was a catalyst of technology. Companies need to remotely access their data, their machines, they need to do machine maintenance from wherever they may have been because they couldn't go on site," said Mistry.

As he pointed out, technology proved essential in maintaining productivity throughout the external shocks of the pandemic; and this is also pertinent to the current situation with global unrest and the continuing ripples of Brexit to contend with.

"Digitalisation isn't just about manufacturing, it's about logistics, the warehouse, transport, labour, scheduling, quality systems – these are all areas that technology can have an influence in," said Mistry.

And for those unsure of what technology might be right for them, there are many companies that can help. It is also good to be part of an association like GAMBICA where competitors can come together to discuss the wider challenges.

Existing technologies

Next up was Francois Disch, digital transformation delivery lead at Schneider Electric UK&I, who put forward the assertion that 70% of CO₂ emissions currently produced can be eliminated using existing technologies.

"There's a lot to do currently, and there's going to be a lot in the future too, but really we can say that we've got everything in our hands to break this curve and get down to the 1.5 degrees that we need to," he said.

Disch looked at electricity consumption and how it has more or less doubled each decade in the recent past, something that he attributes partly to the drive towards electrification. This, said Disch, doesn't necessarily mean 'green', but it does mean 'clean' - in other words, the electricity may be produced from a number of sources, which may or may not be sustainable, but the point at which the electricity is consumed is clean.

"The goal is to use electrification, use green energy, and then go back to the source of the production of electricity and get it cleaner in parallel," said Disch.

Being at the forefront of energy management and industrial automation, and understanding how they are interwoven, Schneider Electric is ideally placed to address the challenges around electrification and the transition to sustainability. Indeed, Schneider is consistently recognised as one of the most sustainable companies in the world and since 2014 is the largest independent broker of renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

"We are managing our own CO₂ emissions and we are connecting our expertise with our clients," said Disch. "We have experts in digital energy and sustainability pathways across the world."

Three logical steps

Disch outlined three logical steps to optimising a company's carbon footprint, the first of which is to strategise. This step includes measuring current carbon output, creating a decarbonisation roadmap, providing structure and governance, and communicating the commitments both internally and externally.

"At the is point we haven't changed the output, the carbon footprint, but we have a way forward," said Disch.

The next step is to digitise, which involves monitoring resources use and emissions to provide live data which is then used to identify savings opportunities. Progress should be benchmarked and reported.

The third step, decarbonisation, is about electrifying operations, reducing energy use, replacing the energy source, and engaging with the value chain with the aim of impacting the overall carbon footprint.

These steps are eased by applying a degree of common sense and Disch outlined some basic actions that businesses can take including replacing inefficient machinery, using green energy, and even simply raising awareness.

Grow your knowledge

This article gives just a taster of what was covered in the webinar, so if you want to find out more details visit the website below and view the event on-demand at a time to suit you.

You can also sign up for the next webinar on 14 March, brought to you in association with Schneider Electric, titled 'Sustainability & Servitisation: The New Battlegrounds for Machine Builders', which promises to drill down into how regulations and emissions calculations will impact buying decisions, how to use sustainability credentials to win new business, and how to leverage 100% tax breaks for capital expenditure.

www.controlsdrivesautomation.com/webinars