Environmental impact reduction as a result of cleaner production implementation: a case study in the truck industry

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a truck manufacturing company in Brazil that implemented a series of initiatives towards cleaner production in the manufacturing process as part of the UNESCO Program for sustainable development. The current literature mainly emphasizes the cost reduction of the production processes and the economic gain resulting from cleaner production implementation, and the research focuses on the identification of environmental benefits. Few studies address the actual environmental impact reduction resulting from cleaner production initiatives. This study aimed to propose a procedure based on the use of the Material Input per Service Unit to gauge the environmental impact decrease obtained as a result of the adoption of cleaner production processes by a truck manufacturing company. The results from this study showed that there were social and economic benefits from the actions taken. There was a reduction of employees' exposure to hazardous materials and financial benefits of US$ 3.5 million for the company. There was a corresponding environmental impact reduction of 964 thousand tons of raw material that was not extracted from nature.