ACCORDING to recent study by Dow Chemicals, eight out of ten manufacturing managers in the US, Brazil, Italy and Germany view reduction of waste as a higher priority than other environmental factors such as increasing energy efficiency or developing environmentally friendly products.
However, managers in China, Korea and India, consider the development of environmentally friendly products as a more important driver than CO2 emissions, use of clean/renewable energy sources or waste reduction.
Peter Cartwright, Dow Corning’s executive director for environment, health and safety, said “While the focus today may be on dealing with waste, in the future I anticipate we’ll see more emphasis on areas such as CO2 emissions and use of renewable energy sources as the climate change issue gets more attention”.
The study also found environmental and sustainability programs have a strong influence on whether a company will be considered as a potential supplier. On average, eight out of ten companies globally say that environmental and sustainability factors are taken into account when they select suppliers.
In India, one in two managers consider environment/sustainability factors of critical importance — a much higher level than their counterparts in China (26%).