Energy – Page 6 – Lean Six Sigma and the Environment

Quickly and confidently detect when your utility bills need attention

By -admin
Posted on October 7, 2012August 31, 2022
Posted in Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Uncategorized

Managing energy bills can difficult, especially if you live in a climate with four diverse seasons in a year, and you work for a company with fluctuations in equipment usage. The changing weather and work load makes it difficult to determine when the numbers are too high, or there is an actual reduction in usage.

How the internet negatively impacts the environment

By -admin
Posted on October 2, 2012August 1, 2021
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy

Facebook recently released its carbon footprint report for 2011, and they calculated their impact on the environment at 285,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. That’s the equivalent of 55,882 passenger vehicles or 7,307,692 trees, according to the EPA Greenhouse gas calculator. The majority of that comes from their data centers, which power their servers, and make the

Yet another reason why the cards are stacked against energy reduction

By -admin
Posted on August 18, 2012February 25, 2022
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Transportation

It’s hard enough to get people to invest in energy reduction conservation or upgrades, but it’s even more frustrating when you realize that you need to deduct the company or individual tax rate from the savings, which reduces the return on investment or payback period. The main reason why energy reduction is not on the

20 Lean and Green organizations share environmental successes

By -admin
Posted on August 16, 2012May 6, 2014
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Land and Building Use, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Pollutants, Raw Materials, Solid Waste, Transportation, Water

The best way to convince your management to embrace sustainability is to show the success of others, especially competitors and customers who are doing the right thing. Pamela Gordon has compiled success stories from 20 international organizations in her book, Lean and Green: Profit For Your Workplace and the Environment. The companies highlighted in the

8 reasons to get your company to invest in renewable energy

By -admin
Posted on July 25, 2012April 6, 2020
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy

In a perfect world, the payback on renewable energy would be 2-3 years, and companies would be flocking to invest their money in it. That’s not the case. Paybacks are 7-20 years, and they require a large investment upfront (hard to invest only a little bit in these projects). Most of the problem is that

Reducing electricity in a large facility or company

By -admin
Posted on July 9, 2012April 6, 2020
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools

Often times we read about case studies where a company implemented a lighting project, or replaced equipment, or implemented some electricity savings project. However, it’s not very often that the approach on HOW to arrive at that solution is discussed or explained. Perhaps there was no approach, just an idea that got implemented. But that

Predicting and reducing electricity consumption

By -admin
Posted on July 7, 2012April 6, 2020
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools

One of the major issues we encounter with many facilities looking to reduce their electricity or natural gas consumption is the lack of available data to dig deeper. Luckily, there are some ways around that, but they’re going to take some effort on your part. Let’s explain how it works and get you started, then we

Use QDIP sheets to identify environmental issues

By -admin
Posted on June 17, 2012April 6, 2020
Posted in Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Pollutants, Raw Materials

Visual controls are an important part of any process. One of the best examples I have seen was at a supplier I visited a few years ago. I haven’t seen it used many other places, which surprises me, since it is so simple. It’s called QDIP, which stands for Quality, Delivery, Inventory and Productivity. As

Lean “Go and See” mindset also works on the environment

By -admin
Posted on May 13, 2012December 22, 2021
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Uncategorized

I’d like to share another example of Lean and Six Sigma application to environmental issues. Let’s start with a simple approach for reducing energy that doesn’t require a lot of technical expertise or outside consulting. Sometimes we don’t see wasted energy as a problem on the same level as product defects, excessive inventory, or over

More reasons why coal-fired power plants need to go!

By -admin
Posted on April 8, 2012May 15, 2020
Posted in Energy, Pollutants

Most of my previous thoughts about coal-fired power plants were centered around the CO2 emissions they produce, and how it is leading to climate change. As I’ve done more research, the direct impact on human health could be an even larger reason for getting off of our dependence on coal. The Clean Air Act requires the US