water management
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Water scarcity may spur improvements at manufacturing facilities Water is often consumed in large amounts and is a vital ingredient for making many common products, ranging from cars to smartphones and computer chips.
N
ow a new study from
ask how industry is responding to climate-
only when they face persistent drought,”
Penn State and UCLA
change-induced events, like droughts.
said Muthulingam, an associate professor
has discovered that com-
“Most of the prior research has been
of supply chain management. “These effects
panies that use water
focused on how companies are negatively
also extended into the facilities reducing
in their manufacturing
affecting the environment,” Dhanorkar said.
emissions in other ways, such as into the
processes may actually
“We wanted to flip it and see how companies
land and air, too.”
pivot to become efficient and more eco-
respond to climate change. It opens a new
The researchers said one explanation
friendly when water becomes increasingly
area of research that can, in the future, start
for the results could be that water scarcity
scarce during times of drought.
to look at not just manufacturing, but also
prompts companies to become more careful
The researchers — including Suvrat
how these climate-change-induced events
about how they use water. But, because
Dhanorkar and Suresh Muthulingam from
affect innovation and other economic factors
water is used across processes, companies
Penn State and Charles Corbett from UCLA
like unemployment.”
become aware of other areas where they
— found in their study that subsequent to
For the study, the researchers gathered
periods of water scarcity, manufacturing
data from 3092 manufacturing facilities in
“A lot of these industries use water
facilities that use water extensively stream-
Texas from 2000 to 2016. The research-
at different points in their processes,”
lined their processes to lower their toxic
ers focused their study on Texas because
Dhanorkar said. “So, when there’s water
emissions into water, like lakes and rivers.
the state frequently experiences droughts
shortage and you’re investigating how to
An added benefit the researchers found
and periods of water scarcity, as well as
improve water usage, it may also reveal
was that the changes in the processes also
producing many types of products including
shortcomings in other aspects of the
resulted in reduced toxic emissions into land
food, petroleum, coal, chemicals and metal.
processes that aren’t related to water as
and air. On average, the estimated reductions
The data included information on the
well. These companies might be learning
weeks of drought experienced by each facil-
a lot about their processes not just from
ity and the total amount of toxic emissions
a water standpoint, but more broadly.”
in toxic emissions were more than 2.5%. Dhanorkar, an associate professor of supply chain and information systems,
recorded at each facility.
can improve as well.
Dhanorkar and Muthulingam said they
said the study — recently published in the
“We found that water scarcity can induce
hope that in addition to spurring additional
journal Management Science — is one of the
manufacturing facilities that rely heavily
research on the topic, policymakers could
first to flip the question of how industry is
on water to improve their environmental
also use the findings to inform future poli-
contributing to climate change and instead
performance by lowering toxic releases, but
cies around climate change.
10 Sustainability Matters - Feb/Mar 2022
www.SustainabilityMatters.net.au