By Bryan Christiansen
Amid evolving regulations, compliance demands, and consumer expectations around, “going green” is no longer optional but absolutely necessary. So far, too few businesses are showing tangible results of their sustainability efforts.
According to Google Cloud’s Sustainability Survey, despite 96% of organizations reporting they have introduced at least one green initiative in place, a range of challenges limit their progress. Company executives point to issues including access to the right technology and the lack of a clear definition for sustainability success as obstacles to reaching green goals.
While sustainability is often associated with reducing waste or cutting down on carbon emissions, making it a reality and building a truly green business goes far beyond making these changes. The process also involves increasing operational efficiency, conserving valuable resources, and extending the life cycle of key assets. A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) can play a critical role in enabling organizations to design modern sustainability strategies and reach their green goals by streamlining maintenance tasks, tracking asset performance in real time, and optimizing resource allocation across the business.
Where Maintenance And Sustainability Collide
Many organizations overlook the effect investing in their maintenance practices can have on improving sustainability efforts. Taking too reactive an approach to maintaining assets and inspecting their status creates unnecessary resource consumption and waste. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy found that poor maintenance practices can lead to energy waste of up to 30% for buildings.
Proactive and preventive maintenance uses data and monitoring tools to predict and address potential issues before they cause system failures. Implementing a CMMS technology eases the transition by continuously tracking the use and status of equipment. With 80% of manufacturing plants citing aging equipment or machine breakdowns as the leading cause of operational inefficiency, CMMS plays a pivotal role in reducing unexpected breakdowns, extending asset life, avoiding premature machine replacement, and optimizing resource use.
Tracking And Managing Green Goals
As highlighted by Google’s Sustainability report, many organizations find it difficult to determine what exactly sustainability success should look like and which metrics they should use for defining it. There is no magic metric and each company’s sustainability methods for showcasing their progress against goals will be different. Leveraging a CMMS platform offers a single source of truth for tracking sustainability efforts, simplifying the processes of defining success and highlighting wins.
When integrated with other solutions, a CMMS platform can optimize tracking and reporting for key sustainability metrics. By gathering and analyzing data on resource consumption in real time, organizations can identify processes or assets that are leading to inefficiencies and make quick corrections. Additionally, since CMMS platforms log facility data in real time, they can assist teams in creating a calendar for setting sustainability milestones and continuously tracking toward them. Ultimately, decision-makers and all relevant stakeholders gain full transparency into the organization’s green initiatives. They can go from just talking about sustainability to offering verifiable reports of their commitment to it.
Improving Collaboration And Dedication To Sustainability
Within many organizations, simply aligning on sustainability goals poses a challenge. By centralizing key info and boosting transparency, a CMMS platform’s reporting features help get everyone on the same page. When aligning on goals and reviewing ongoing performance data, teams have all the information they need at all times. For example, a company using a CMMS can coordinate facility managers from various locations to align maintenance schedules, ensuring energy-saving initiatives and waste reduction efforts, ultimately helping the organization hit their sustainability milestones.
Additionally, a CMMS platform fosters accountability among all departments since everyone’s contributions and performance are always tracked within the platform. Individual personnel can earn recognition and feel a greater sense of pride in a job well done while managers gain valuable insights for refining talent management.
Put CMMS At The Center Of Your Sustainability Strategy
A CMMS should play a central role in any organization’s sustainability strategy, helping drive efficiency, productivity, and accountability across different departments. A leading-edge solution empowers organizations to not only meet sustainability goals but also position themselves for long-term environmental and operational success.
Christiansen is a self taught full stack developer turned marketer turned entrepreneur. Bryan is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS, a leader in CMMS software which empowers the unsung heroes that support the world.
