Apr 23, 2011

Business Edge - Morris County Chamber of Commerce

By Michael Daigle

Alcoa Howmet is a leading manufacturer of components for the jet aircraft, gas turbine and other advanced-technology industries and employs 1,000 workers. Fromkin recently shared the silver-extraction system with about 20 plant visitors during a seminar on how companies can integrate sustainable practices into their manufacturing operations.

The event, sponsored by the Collaborative Learning Lab of Transitioning to Green, a green manufacturing consultancy, featured a roster of New Jersey-based sustainability experts who are leading the effort to show large and small companies the benefits of sustainable business practices.

Those benefits include business growth and increased sales, decreased costs and operating expenses, competitive advantages, greater employee productivity and stability, reduced environmental footprints, proactive regulatory compliance and reduced environmental, health and safety risks, according to the experts.

“This effort is coming together now,” said William Russell, an adjunct professor in sustainability at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison and a principal at Transitioning to Green. “There is a gathering storm of different forces, from economic, surviving climate change, environmental to job-related. Where is the tipping point? It’s not here yet but it’s close.”

Russell and Jeana Wirtenberg, president and chief executive officer of Transitioning to Green, co-authored, The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook, a guide to the principles supporting sustainable manufacturing efforts. Wirtenberg also is cofounder of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson.

She said the seminar was held at Alcoa Howmet because it is one of the companies leading the change to green manufacturing. A second Alcoa seminar is scheduled for May 4 at the company’s Kingston, N.Y. plant. For information visit http://transitioningtogreen.com/manufacture. Link to full story

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