The race is on to a more sustainable future in the truck and off-highway industries. Hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming increasingly favorable alongside those with internal combustion engines, and companies are hurrying to develop more sustainable products. On the manufacturing side, a greener, more efficient approach is in demand.
Having a sustainability strategy in place is no longer a bonus, but an essential aspect of business decisions. It is also often the deciding factor for not only awarding business, but winning talent.
According to TE’s 2024 Industrial Technology Index, 87% of engineers say that it is personally important to them to support climate change solutions in their work, and 34% report they would leave their job if their company did not provide opportunities to support sustainable initiatives.
This begs the question: What can leaders do to empower their employees to find innovative solutions that are not only sustainable, but also ones that meet industry requirements and positively impact the bottom line?
Define Clear Sustainability Goals
A true sustainability mindset drives behaviors and decisions across every inch of an organization. Many engineers are joining organizations where sustainability is front and center, and they are coming to the table eager to learn more about how they can make an impact. It is not just about creating an interest in sustainability but creating the desire to innovate with purpose. Over the last few decades, the landscape of product design and development has shifted in favor of a more sustainable future, driven mostly by government regulations. Couple that with technological advancements and heightened consumer awareness, and you have created the perfect environment for measurable change to occur.
Within your own teams, it is critical to create a sustainability roadmap that outlines clear, concise goals over the next five to 10 years. Start by ensuring your teams understand where your organization stands in terms of energy and water consumption, emissions, and hazardous and non-hazardous waste. From there, you can look at materials used and their impact, and begin identifying alternatives.
Evaluate Areas Where Gains Are Achievable
Meeting sustainability goals in the off-highway industries is more complex than other industries given the harsh environments in which these products operate. Many components are exposed to dust, dirt, moisture, vibration and more, so it is imperative that the materials used are rugged and able to withstand these climates. The good news is that there are the tools available today to really understand the impact various products and materials used in the off-highway industry have on the environment.
As you travel down the road to sustainability, one of the first steps is to perform a life cycle analysis of the current products in your portfolio. Interpret the results in the context of your goals. Identify hotspots or stages with significant environmental impacts. Based on the findings, look for opportunities to reduce those environmental impacts, improve efficiency, or make other improvements. Ask yourself, “What products are exceeding market needs?” and “What do we believe the life of these products to be?” If a product has the potential to be relevant in the market for quite some time, adapting that product to be more sustainable will be beneficial long-term. For example, using sealing plugs that contain bio-based polymers instead of fossil-based PBT plastics in connectors has allowed some companies to reduce related greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. What’s more, making the switch to using a bio-based DRB flange in connectors has also allowed an estimated reduction of CO2 emissions by 45% and a 30% cost savings.
Encouraging a sustainability mindset from concept to development through to production is key. In today’s market, there are more sustainable materials available than there were years ago, but it's easy t get stuck in the cycle of using the same materials because we know they work. It is important to challenge your engineers to seek out new ways of thinking and develop more innovative solutions that not only meet customer and regulation requirements, but also reduce environmental impact. For instance, if a product uses less material, will it still meet the regulation and performance requirements for the component with confidence? If the answer is no, it is time to go back to the drawing board. The goal is optimally engineered solutions – designing products with engineering expertise to validate the minimum technical solution resulting in zero waste.
Using recyclable, biodegradable packaging materials also plays into the big picture of sustainability. A product needs to arrive at a destination the same way it left the factory, so protection of components is critical. Thanks to advancements in packaging, finding a sustainable solution that maintains product quality is not only doable, but worthwhile.
Finally, where a product is made is just as important as how it’s made. As one part of the sustainability journey, TE conducted an energy audit across its six Industrial and Commercial Transportation (ICT) manufacturing plants around the world. This exercise uncovered numerous opportunities to improve sustainability. For example, after observing excessive energy consumption coming from the compressed air system at its facility in Tangier, Morocco, the company discovered this was likely due to undetected air leaks. Measuring and analyzing critical indicators enabled us to identify these and many other opportunities and work toward rectifying them. We also installed solar panels at that same plant, which now allows the plant to generate approximately 20% of the energy it consumes from renewable sources.
Collaborate With External Stakeholders
Infusing sustainability into a company’s culture is effective and necessary for driving meaningful change. This extends to external stakeholders. At TE, we work closely with our raw materials vendors to evaluate materials in our components in trial samples and provide formulation results. The goal is to help our material vendors evolve their formulation to meet our needs, which in turn will allow us to drive a more sustainable, cost-effective product to market.
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Additionally, seek out opportunities to stand alongside your customers and educate them on your sustainability progress. Sustainability truly is a team effort and there is much to be learned from one another. With more collaboration and commitment, across all areas of the supply chain, there is greater possibility for a larger impact.
In conclusion, sustainability was a mere tagline years ago for many companies. Today, it is front and center of corporate strategy, driving innovation, operational efficiency and long-term growth while addressing environmental and social responsibilities. For engineers, specifically, there is a personal stake in doing meaningful work and creating products that reduce a company’s carbon footprint. And that notion is only going to grow as time goes on. Engineering and business schools have begun embedding sustainability into their curriculum, so engineers are entering the workforce with knowledge of eco-friendly design. By defining clear sustainability goals, continually evaluating products against those goals and being transparent in your objectives, both leaders and engineers can be confident that they are doing their part in creating a greener future.
