The Congressional Budget Office conducted a study to determine the greenhouse gas footprint of the U.S. Of the 4.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emitted in 2021, 12% of it was from the manufacturing sector. They found that of this, a little over 50 million metric tons of CO2e was released due to food manufacturing processes.
Grand Rapids is home to several large food manufacturers. These include Roskam Baking Co., Kellogg's, Hearthside Foods, Coca-Cola, Gerber, and Founders. This makes Grand Rapids a perfect region to build a foundation on how food manufacturers can approach sustainability.
As the world faces a looming environmental crisis, some are searching for solutions to curb the impact of climate change. With a growing awareness of the impacts of climate change, it comes as no surprise that the public is more concerned about sustainable practices than ever before. Manufacturers can find this public demand at odds with their expansion and productivity. This can make it difficult for manufacturers to determine how to proceed.
Companies have access to research which identifies multiple lenses for organizations to implement a balance of growth with sustainable practices and some of the largest food manufacturers are working toward sustainability goals. To ensure those goals succeed, it is critical for organizational leadership to understand the mentality of their management teams in relation to green manufacturing practices.
External Pressures
To understand the manufacturing sector's role in sustainability, it is critical to lay the foundation of external pressures placed upon organizations to become stewards of the environment. Li and Tian (2024) found that the public has a role in influencing businesses decisions to implement green practices. Interestingly, this impact was stronger in regions with less environmental regulation. Additionally, Xianchun and Xunpeng (2018) found that as public pressures for green investment increase by 1%, regional green investment increases by .073%.
Internal Pressures
There are also internal factors which can urge organizations to implement sustainable programs. Organizations are beginning to see that to ensure long-term growth, manufacturers need to ensure that they will continue to have access to resources in the future. This implies that sustainability allows for a competitive advantage (Dwivedi, Sassanelli, Agrawal, et al, 2023). This also builds trust with stakeholders and consumers which increases demand for the company's products.
Moving Forward
With both external and internal pressures to implement green manufacturing processes. The implementation of these can increase labor or capital expenditures (Song, 2024). This means it is incredibly important for companies to implement these processes with careful planning. Lean manufacturing is a model that that enables companies to assess their value stream and make informed decisions (Shi, Baldin, Koh, et al, 2018). When this is paired with continuous improvement it is possible to create a productive, sustainable culture if it's fully embraced (Lim, Sabil, Othman, 2022, p14).
What are the sentiments and beliefs held by Grand Rapids food manufacturing's lower through middle management in relation to sustainability?
While this question is targeted to a niche demographic, the findings can be extrapolated to other organizations and provide insight for corporate leaders on the various concerns of their employees that they need to address to have a successful policy rollout. Doing so, will ensure that leadership is able to acquire the buy-in of employees throughout the company which is critical to effective policies.
The theoretical framework that is applied to this study is the Sustainable Lean Production Theory (SLP). SLP utilizes a continuous improvement mindset to assess value creation and sustainability, resource efficiency, and waste elimination throughout an organization to minimize environmental impact while maximizing organizational productivity and value. To conduct continuous improvement, organizations utilize a process called the DMAIC Process or Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This means that organizations must define their wastes, value creation, and resource efficiency, then measure and analyze these metrics. Next they determine how to improve these facets of production. Lastly, the control phase is where implementation occurs.
Employee engagement is critical for successful implementation, so while applying the DMAIC process to their organization, corporate leaders must understand and include lower and middle management in this process. To ensure that this is possible, leadership must understand what concerns, sentiments, and support is needed by managers throughout the organization for each of these topics. With this understanding, leaders can encourage buy-in for sustainable processes because management will feel understood and that their concerns are accounted for.
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