A Core Green Activity – Managing Wastes
Randolph T. Haviland, IAP International

You’ve probably heard the song “Anything you can do, I can do better…”  Here’s a great way to look at any process people do in a business or household, and make it better and more green at the same time.  It’s a way to use less of everything – less material, less energy, less time and less money.  Anybody can make things better this way, whether they make things in a factory, or serve people in a hotel or bank or store, or make decisions and push paper in an office, or clean their own home.

Think about each thing you do – at work, at home, at play – and look for ways to eliminate (or at least minimize) the things on the list below.  You’ll probably find lots of things you can eliminate.

1. Defects in products or processes (including things that don’t work or are damaged, packages that can’t be opened, mistakes, inaccuracies, errors, falsehoods)
2. Overproduction – giving someone more than they need – more product(s), more packaging, more service, more information
3. Inventories – anything waiting to be used, stuff waiting for the next step in the process, parts or packaging or products in inventory
4. Unnecessary processing – Doing things that do not add value for the customer or consumer (for example, in service businesses – find out if the customer wants you to do what you’ve always done and stop doing it if they don’t want it)
5. Unnecessary movement of people – walking halfway around the building to drop off a file for the next step in the process)
6. Unnecessary transportation of things and of people – moving a product from country to country and adding a new component in each country)
7. Waiting
1. By employees, for something to do
2. By customers or consumers, for the product, or service or administrative step they need or want
8. Products and services which don’t meet users’ needs – check early and often to be sure people actually want what you’re designing; if they don’t, stop immediately and harvest as much of what you’ve already designed as you can and use it for something else
9. Regular waste, the stuff we all pay for and then throw away.  To eliminate it, make sure all material things can be recycled, and reused as much as possible, and that at least 98% of all energy is used.  Consider
1. Everything you use and everything you provide to someone else (products, packaging, service materials)
2. Anything produced with a product or service but not part of the product or service (byproducts, e.g. tree bark in paper manufacturing or cooking oil in a restaurant)
3. All energy flows (both in and out) for all products, packaging and processes

Numbers 1 – 8 were developed by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota motor Company.  They continue to serve Toyota well, and are part of a concept called LEAN.  See the book Lean Thinking by Womack and Jones for more information.  Number 9 came from the author.  See the book Use Less Stuff by Rathje for more information and lots of examples.  Eliminating the things on the list above is the simplest way to increase efficiency by using less of everything – less material, less energy, less time and less money.  It’s also the simplest way to make less impact on the environment at the same time.

Look at everything you do, find the wastes on this list and eliminate them.  You’ll make things better!

Randy Haviland is currently Principal of IAP International, a consultancy working at the forefront of environment-related opportunity/issue identification and analysis, transforming regulatory, activist and scientific concerns into actionable business intelligence.  Previously, he led various initiatives over twenty years in corporate environmental affairs at Johnson & Johnson.