Conwed, a manufacturer of plastic netting, has published its Global Sustainability Report 2015. Headquartered in Minnesota and with locations on two continents, Conwed has implemented best practices at all of its locations with the objective of increasing efficiency in its day-to-day operations and creating netting solutions that require less material and generate less waste.
 
Conwed went through an extensive review of its worldwide operations in 2009 and set new sustainability goals in four major areas carbon footprint, water consumption, cubic yards of waste and total process resin waste generated. “We focused on areas we could control and we made operational commitments needed to improve our overall performance while continuously reducing our waste”, says Ivan Soltero, strategic marketing manager at Conwed.
 
Since 2009, Conwed has incorporated closed-loop systems to minimize the usage and disposal of processed water. Ongoing water usage audits, preventive maintenance and identification of further improvement opportunities are designed to drive down water consumption in all of their plants. They have also focused on reusing as much resin waste internally as practical. Additionally, Conwed found recycling outlets for waste that had previously been sent to landfills and invested in equipment and separation processes to facilitate the recycling of these materials
 
“In some cases, we exceeded our own performance expectations but we believe there is still room for improvement in the coming years. Our greenhouse gas emissions and resin waste are right on track; our water consumption and product waste results surpassed our initial goals,” says Soltero.
 
Conwed not only relied on its own internal resources and expertise for its sustainability efforts, but also partnered and collaborated with suppliers and customers benchmarking best practices to improve its own operations. “While we are proud of the progress we made, we understand that sustainability is an ongoing commitment with significant value to Conwed and our stakeholders,” Soltero adds.
 
With a broad plastic netting portfolio such as extruded, oriented and knitted netting used in hundreds of industrial and consumer products around the world, Conwed continues to set a global standard for sustainability in the netting industry.