Risks and challenges

In the short term, the manufacturing industry will be greatly affected by climate change. The risks threatening the manufacturing industry are numerous and vast. These include resource scarcity (including water) due to extreme weather events; physical risk to supply chains and profitability risks due to increasing raw material and energy costs, as well as disrupted energy supplies. There are also threats to profitability due to carbon legislation that will affect high-emissions manufacturing businesses. Moreover, since the manufacturing process entails the production of large quantities of greenhouse gases and the creation of extensive amounts of waste and also uses toxic non-renewable materials, the manufacturing industry faces litigation and reputation risks. Other businesses are achieving energy efficiencies in their supply chain and processes, giving them a competitive edge that they can communicate to consumers, and consequently posing a competitive threat.

Opportunities

Manufacturers all over the world are looking to consultancies like GCX to help them find ways to turn these impediments into opportunities. By developing climate friendly products, early adopters are making themselves more competitive and are creating new markets for their products. In order to ascertain energy efficiency and the potential effects of climate change on component and resource availability, some manufacturers are performing full Life Cycle Assessments on their products.

GCX has also been instrumental in helping manufacturers assess the effect emissions legislation will have on their profitability, as well as the necessity of substitutes for toxic products. With GCX’s help, waste streams are being re-evaluated and seen as opportunities to provide renewable energy and, through comprehensive energy efficiencies implemented across the entire manufacturing supply chain, companies are able to maximise profitability and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

GCX will also help companies engrain climate-change awareness into their company culture and brand through staff education, regular PR releases and marketing. By communicating the transparency of their emissions-reduction initiatives, astute companies are also attracting new investors.

What can GCX do for you?

• Efficiency:

Through determining your carbon footprint and a business-case energy efficiency audit, GXC will assess your company’s carbon emissions and help you to set targets and budgets that suit your business. From here, GCX will help you to implement reductions and achieve your cost-cutting goals, which include education campaigns in your organisation to engrain climate-change awareness in your company’s culture and to ensure that employees support internal initiatives. GCX will also undertake to monitor your emissions on a continuous basis. The journey towards becoming a low-carbon business also offers significant PR and marketing opportunities that can be harnessed to differentiate your company as a climate-change leader.

• Identifying carbon projects:

GCX will assess your business to determine whether you have carbon assets that can be converted and commercialised into carbon-credit projects. These projects include waste heat recovery (smelters), fuel switches (boilers) and waste streams (waste water). GCX will then conduct a feasibility study in order to gauge the size of the opportunity. If it is a viable project, GCX will help you to achieve registration and full commercialisation through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

• Legislation and reputation:

GCX will determine the effect that carbon laws will have on your business and identify the best ways to ensure your continued profitability, which also include establishing the reputation risks posed by being affiliated with a high carbon-emissions business.

• Converting waste into energy:

Companies need to realise that their waste offers energy-efficiency and revenue opportunities through carbon credits. GCX will work with you to ascertain waste streams that offer these opportunities, through projects such as fuel switches, waste-to-energy and waste heat recovery processes. An example would be switching from large coal-fired boilers to biomass.

• Lifecycle assessment (LCA):

GCX’s LCA services endeavour to help companies understand the carbon emissions in their products, from cradle to grave. This information is vital if you are planning to introduce a green alternative to your current product range. Research shows that consumers trust a company and are more willing to buy its products if it has a clearly defined climate-change strategy.

• Adaptation:

Adaptation involves the adjustment of systems in order to respond to actual or expected weather events or their physical manifestation. These adjustments mitigate the harm or exploit the beneficial opportunities that result from these events. GCX will assess the effect that climate change will have on your supply chain and business as whole. Our specialists will highlight the risks inherent in your business model and identify solutions to this risk and help you to implement them.