Focus on Sustainable Manufacturing
The Wagner Companies is a fifth-generation family-owned company based in Milwaukee that makes metal components and has 160 full-time employees. Since participating in the first round of the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s Profitable Sustainability Initiative, introduced in 2010, the company has hired a full-time, permanent sustainability specialist to monitor these issues and suggest sustainability improvements.
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Looking at just two categories of sustainability measures whose savings are easy to quantify—reduced energy usage and waste disposal fees—sustainability measures save the company approximately $350,000 a year. The company has begun making some products that, due to their sustainability features, are becoming more and more desirable to consumers—for example, handrails designed to light walkways with built-in low-voltage, long-lasting LED lights. Increasingly, principles of sustainability have been applied to all aspects of Wagner’s operations, from its supply chain to its packaging, from cleaning the factory to transporting finished goods.
(February 2015)
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