58 | Business World Magazine |
Aug/Sep 2013
programs are becoming a cornerstone of cor-
porate sustainability strategies across indus-
tries as well as large and small organizations.
The US BCSD helps its members achieve
materials-related goals through By-Product
Synergy (BPS), a collaborative project meth-
odology that breaks downbarriers to cross in-
dustry communication by fostering dialogue
and working across groups to identify supply
chain localization and waste-minimization
opportunities. BPS encourages companies
to recognize that one operation’s waste can
be another’s raw material, generating new
revenue, cost savings for disposal and virgin
resource use, energy conservation, and emis-
sions reductions. Mangan says it also sets up
a convenient communication system to link
companies with one another to find the syn-
ergies.
In the US, manufacturers devalue mil-
lions of dollars of inventory each year—even
the leanest manufacturing process does not
eliminate the problems of yield-loss or occa-
sional off-specification products. Instead of
