Conwed has published its new Global Sustainability Report 2016. Headquartered in Minnesota, with manufacturing sites in the U.S. and Belgium, Conwed has implemented best practices at all of its locations with the objective of increasing efficiency in their day to day operations and creating netting solutions that require less material and generate less waste.

Conwed made a conscious review of all its 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 believed we needed to focus on areas we could directly impact at each of our manufacturing locations. Improving our production efficiency while continuously reducing our expenses and waste was a natural way to impact our sustainability record.” says Ivan Soltero, senior strategic Mmarketing Manager at Conwed.

Since 2009, Conwed has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 13%, water consumption by 24%, cubic yards of waste by 79% and total process resin waste by 19%.  Conwed performs ongoing water usage audits, preventive maintenance and identification of potential improvement opportunities in collaboration with manufacturing and operations teams at each location. The ultimate goal is to reduce water consumption in all of their plants until the most optimal level is achieved.  The biggest impact of this sustainability program has been controlling material waste by improving manufacturing processes and internally reusing as much resin as possible to drive down waste costs. Furthermore, Conwed invested in equipment and separation processes to facilitate identification, collection and recycling of materials that are consequently sent to recycling outlets.

“Embracing a sustainability program has had a direct impact on our business because we are focused on finding ways to do things better, more efficiently, with the least amount of waste. That surely impacts our financial performance, but it also reassures our customers that we are driven to manufacture the best plastic netting with the least amount of material and waste”, said 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. “Although we are proud of the progress we made, we understand that sustainability is an ongoing commitment with significant value to Conwed and our stakeholders. Sustainability efforts are now part of our everyday business”, said Soltero.