Blog

June 28, 2019,Philippines— Although the growth of the global manufacturing industry is beneficial to the economy, it can be destructive to the planet at the same time. Recover USA in their Industrial Waste Management: Waste Stream Statistics report from 2017 estimates that about 7.6 billion tons of industrial wastes are produced every year in the U.S. alone. Moreover, the US Energy Information Administration in their Industrial Sector Energy Consumption report from 2016 also states that the industrial sector consumes about 54% of the world’s total delivered energy.

Fortunately, recent efforts to reduce the generation of waste and fossil fuels by the global manufacturing industry have been progressing, thanks to the growing awareness of the worsening climate crisis and the industry’s increased reliance on the renewable energy market. In fact, Allied Market Research in their 2018 report Global Renewable Energy Market Outlook expects the global renewable energy market to reach the value of $1,512.3 billion by 2025 from $928.0 billion in 2017 because of the industry’s shift to sustainability.

More than just a supplier of alternative energy sources, the renewable energy market is the future of the global manufacturing industry. Take a closer look at the huge role of renewable energy in global manufacturing.

Diversifying energy sources

Fossil fuels—natural gas, coal, and oil—are incredible sources of cheap and instant energy. However, converting them requires heavy destruction and pollution in the environment. Not to mention that fossil fuel reserves are also bound to cease after several more years given the basic rate of energy consumption. 

Solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and more—the global manufacturing industry has already started utilizing other natural sources of energy to not only reduce the climatic effects of manufacturing but also to provide long-term energy security even when the world eventually run out of fossil fuels. 

Developing efficient manufacturing processes

Using renewable energy is not only friendly to the environment but also to manufacturers. Compared to fossil fuels, renewable sources uses less energy to power up the same manufacturing processes and at a lower operational cost too. This would allow manufacturers to increase their production load with the same or lower costs than before, and allocate their budget to more important things such as developing an efficient manufacturing process.

For example, the money saved from using renewable energy can be used to getting more efficient equipment like CNC or computer numerical control machines to speed up production or create power systems within the facility that can help in optimizing or reducing the overall loss of energy.

Improving public health

Over the years, the fossil fuels used by the global manufacturing industry had a large role in air and water pollution in nearby areas causing health problems such as breathing problems, heart attacks, cancer, neurological damage, and more. Additionally, fossil fuels have hugely contributed to the warming of the Earth which then has caused more frequent storms, drought, the rise of sea levels, and more environmental problems. 

The increased supply of renewable energy would create cleaner factories and environment which would help reduce pollution and global warming, as well as improve public health.

Recently, there has been an obvious increase in EMS company in the Philippines and in other countries around the world that have been investing in the renewable energy market. By doing so, the global manufacturing industry is increasingly becoming more eco-friendly while raising its competitiveness in the market. It would only be a matter of time before the whole global manufacturing industry abandons the use of fossil fuels and fully shift to using renewable energy.