The Lean and Energy Toolkit

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Lean Windows of Opportunity for Energy Savings

While significant energy efficiency gains often ride the coattails of Lean implementation, some energy use and cost reduction opportunities may be left on the table. This toolkit provides numerous ideas for leveraging Lean events and methods to explicitly identify and eliminate even more energy waste. As discussed in Chapter 4, Lean methods can also be used to ensure that energy-saving practices become fully integrated into an organization’s culture and the way it does its work. The net result is right-sized energy use that minimizes costs and environmental impacts.

It is important to remember that when implementing Lean, there are critical windows of opportunity for reducing energy use. When a process is being reconfigured as part of a Lean event, a window of opportunity arises for making additional process changes to improve energy efficiency at a lower marginal cost.

Failure to explicitly consider energy use during Lean events may miss several key types of opportunities. These opportunity areas include:

Upgrade the energy efficiency of equipment. Efficiency upgrades for motors and drives for equipment, air compressors, lighting, and other energy consuming equipment often have rapid payback periods.
Switch to a less-polluting fuel source. In some cases, there may be an opportunity to consider switching fuel sources used in a process. For example, it may be more efficient to switch from burning wood scrap to natural gas for generating process heat.
Design new buildings to be smart energy users. Life-cycle energy costs for new and renovated buildings can be significantly reduced when energy conservation is incorporated into decisions at the design phase. See EPA’s Green Building website (www.epa.gov/greenbuilding) for more information.
Increase the fuel efficiency of your fleet. For some businesses, vehicle fuel costs are a major portion of operating expenses. Consider vehicle fuel efficiency when making fleet purchase and lease decisions. See EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership website (www.epa.gov/otaq/smartway) to learn how to make your fleet more efficient.
Design products to use less energy. If a Lean effort touches on product or service design, consider how the product or service affects customers’ energy use. This can open new opportunities for adding value.

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Going Even Further with Clean Energy

Addressing the environmental impacts of energy use does not need to stop with Lean. Companies are increasingly taking additional steps to reduce and offset the environmental and climate impacts of their energy use. These steps can enhance employee and customer perceptions of a company’s environmental commitments and help reduce an organization’s greenhouse gas footprint. Here are a few ideas:

Green Power. Many energy utilities provide the opportunity for customers to purchase a percentage of their electricity as “green power.” Utilities invest the proceeds from green power charges in the development of new renewable energy sources. See EPA’s Green Power Partnership website (www.epa.gov/greenpower) for more information on purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources.
Carbon Offsets. Some organizations have committed to supplement their efforts to reduce energy consumptions by offsetting the carbon emitted to the atmosphere by the energy that they do use. While the development of markets for selling and verifying carbon offsets is in the early stages, a number of organizations have emerged to broker sales of carbon-offset sales. Funds generated from the purchase of carbon offsets are invested in energy-efficiency projects, renewable-energy projects, or other efforts designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To Consider

Can you think of creative ways that your organization can reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Do you have any major renovations, construction projects, or purchase decisions coming up in which energy savings opportunities could be considered?
Are there things you could do to help your customers and/or suppliers reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions?

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The Lean and Energy Journey

This toolkit represents the beginning of an exciting journey. As customer and societal expectations around energy efficiency, environmental performance, climate protection, and sustainability continue to increase, Lean initiatives offer compelling opportunities to improve both economic performance and energy efficiency. We hope that this toolkit spurs creative thinking and innovation within your organization and encourages you to explore these opportunities.

We also hope to learn from your Lean and energy experiences and to refine the techniques presented here in future versions of this toolkit. We wish you success on your Lean and energy efficiency journey.

Your Thoughts on the Lean and Energy Toolkit

Now that you have finished this toolkit, reflect on what you read by answering these questions:

What strategies and tools in the toolkit seemed particularly interesting and useful?
What steps will you take next to improve Lean and energy management integration at your organization?
What Lean or other process improvement methods do you think might have good opportunities for improved Lean and energy performance?
What other information and tools would assist your organization to improve its Lean and energy efficiency efforts?

Please contact EPA to share your experiences with Lean and energy improvements and/or to discuss partnership opportunities by using the form found at: www.epa.gov/lean/auxfiles/contact.htm.

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