Two tips for constructing an eco-friendly manufacturing facility
If you want to build an eco-friendly manufacturing facility, here are two tips that should help you to achieve this.
Use recycled bricks to build the walls
One way to ensure that your facility is built in a way that minimises its impact on the environment is to have your contractor use recycled bricks to construct the walls of the building.
The reason for this is as follows; using fresh concrete or bricks to construct the walls of your facility will increase your construction project's carbon footprint quite a bit.
This is because the production of both of these materials involves the consumption of huge amounts of electricity and results in large quantities of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. This, in turn, exacerbates global warming.
As such, it is best to build your facility with recycled bricks. Doing so will significantly reduce the carbon footprint generated by the construction of your manufacturing facility.
As an aside, recycled bricks are also often less expensive than their brand new counterparts; given this, using them will not only help the planet but could also save you money.
Install a rainwater harvesting system
Regardless of what your manufacturing facility will produce, it will end up using a lot of water on a day-to-day basis.
Activities such as washing floors and equipment, hosing down raw ingredients (to remove contaminants) and formulating liquid-based products (such as drinks, liquid medicines, household cleaning chemicals, etc) all require the use of a lot of water. Your staff members will also drink plenty of water on a daily basis and use the bathroom facilities regularly (flushing toilets and using tap water for hand-washing both use up a considerable amount of water).
Due to the fact that energy needs to be used to deliver water into and around a facility, this type of excess water consumption can drastically increase a manufacturing business' carbon footprint. It can also lead to very expensive water bills, which can have an impact on a manufacturer's finances.
One way to avoid increasing your carbon footprint in this manner is to install a rainwater harvesting system in your new facility. This system will collect droplets of rain that fall into its tanks and then deliver this water to the areas of your facility where it is needed.
Whilst utilising rainwater in this manner will not eliminate the need for a standard water supply, it will help to significantly lower the amount of water your facility's day-to-day business operations guzzle up.