Sustainability guide for manufacturing & repair micro SMEs

Our sustainability micro guide for small manufacturing & repair businesses has been designed to help you become more sustainable, cut carbon, save money, and use resources efficiently.

In this section you’ll find specific tips that are relevant for premises with fewer than 10 employees like garages and workshops, as well as electricians, plumbers and gardeners who travel to their customers.

How to use this guide

This guide provides:

Tips specific to manufacturing & repair SMEs.
A glossary of key terms you might want to refer to as you navigate the guide.

For general sustainability advice regarding Utilities, and factsheets full of tips and tricks for measuring and tracking energy, water and waste, visit the guide landing page.

Manufacturing and Repair Businesses

Manufacturers and associated repair businesses can often generate huge resource savings across all the areas laid out in this guide. Whether it’s the energy consumption and water used during the manufacturing process or the waste and transport associated with the end products, there are lots of ways to reduce costs and have a positive impact on the environment.

Net Zero Glossary for Hospitality

Confused by carbon jargon? Whether you run a café, B&B, or restaurant, our Net Zero Glossary explains key sustainability terms—like Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, carbon offsetting, and energy efficiency—in plain language.

Explore the glossary and build your confidence in making greener business decisions.

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Quick Wins

Keep a close eye on waste quantities relative to the number of products you’re producing. If your levels of waste begin to increase, question whether something in your process has changed.
Have your processes and systems checked on a regular basis to ensure they’re operating efficiently (e.g. a gas boiler with poor control over oxygen levels can use more gas than necessary). Similarly, make sure temperature and pressure set-points on equipment are as they need to be to minimise energy usage.
Try to order materials in bulk where possible to reduce packaging (but be mindful of product use-by dates), and employ a ‘first-in-first out’ policy with materials.
Instead of using blue paper roll and carboard to clean up and manage spills, use reusable/washable cloths and oil mats (where safe to do so). You may be able to use waste textiles as rags.
Plan your projects to minimise waste (e.g. with sheet materials, think about combining two or more jobs on a larger sheet. With metal bar and timber lengths, ensure they are ordered in the right sizes to maximise utilisation). Sometimes delaying a non-urgent job can help to make better use of materials and avoid waste.
When using mixtures of materials for a process (e.g. a paint mix), use standardised measuring guides and apply marks on containers with set measures to ensure you only make the right amount for each job.
Try to reuse waste products such as off-cuts or residues (e.g. keep larger off-cuts for later jobs, or combine leftover inks or paints of any colour with black to avoid waste).
When beginning a new job, use waste material as far as possible for the set-up process (e.g. use waste substrate when setting up on a printing press, or scrap bar when setting up on a lathe).
Consider switching parts of products that aren’t structurally critical and cannot be seen with cheaper and more sustainable alternatives (e.g. replace new timber with used crate or pallet wood for internal parts of furniture items).
Limit your use of compressed air for clean down tasks, as this can quickly become very expensive. A bit of ‘elbow grease’ is cheaper and often more effective!
When storing liquids, ensure they are properly contained (e.g. tightly lidded) and kept away from heat sources and sunlight to reduce evaporative losses.
Make sure to empty material containers fully to reduce wastage (e.g. shake bags out, turn containers upside down or puncture them to empty all residue. IBCs often needs tilting on a slightly angled frame to get all the material out).
Minimise changeover times between jobs and experiment with how you can group processes together to reduce energy losses from start-up/close-down.
Clearly label product containers so they can be refilled with the same product when they are empty. This prevents the need to deep clean containers between jobs whilst still avoiding product contamination.
Your waste products may be useful for other local businesses or the local community. Advertise your valuable spare materials through online apps such as Freecycle or Globechain.
Remove dirt build up as soon as possible and follow a ‘clean as you go’ policy. A build-up of dirt deposits can become increasingly difficult to clean as time goes on and will require more effort and cleaning material.
Separate hazardous wastes (e.g. solvent waste) from other wastes. If you don’t, all your waste may be charged at the higher ‘hazardous’ rate. Speak to your waste contractor to ensure priority is given to recovery and not disposal.
Use triggered dispensers for spraying cleaning solutions rather than an open container and cloth. This will reduce the overall amount of cleaning solution you use.
Where possible, dedicate vessels, pipelines, and other equipment to specific mixes/colours to avoid cleaning between batches. In the long-term, it may be cheaper to purchase additional process tanks or pipelines than spend large sums of money on cleaning and lost material.
Add insulation to hot water pipes, tanks, and boilers to reduce heat loss. You should also insulate water pipes that may freeze in winter when the site is not heated.
Make sure that ventilation and air-handling equipment is correctly ‘sized’ (power rated) for your building. Buying larger units than necessary (e.g. second-hand) can be a false-economy as the operating costs will be higher.
If you’re travelling to customer sites, schedule jobs into clusters to reduce total miles travelled.

Medium-Term Wins

If your processes involve spraying, consider replacing conventional spray guns with High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) models. These provide better control, better coverage, and typically offer 65-85% transfer efficiency.
Have related equipment and machinery ‘interlocked’ (electrically linked) with each other to eliminating the risk of equipment being left on unnecessarily (e.g. extractor fans can automatically switch off as other machinery is switched off).
If you have high ceilings, use infrared radiant heaters instead of fan or convection heaters. These are directional and heat people rather than warming the whole space.
Consider leasing machinery and equipment rather than purchasing. This will spread the cost and ensure equipment is properly maintained and upgraded to the most efficient model on a regular basis

Long-Term Wins

Think about creating and testing products through Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. This will reduce the amount of material you go through when creating moulds.
If your processes require different operating temperatures, consider using separate smaller boilers instead of a large central one. This can reduce the total energy required, especially if only a few processes that require high temperatures.
If your processes require different operating pressures, consider using separate compressors instead of a large central one.
If your process requires chilling, see if you can maximise natural ventilation or install a ‘free cooling’ system.
Install heat exchangers to make use of your excess heat (e.g. take ‘low grade’ heat from a compressor and use it to part warm a boiler or other process).
If you have draughty spaces adjacent to external doors, or parts of the building that require different temperatures, separate them with plastic strip curtains, warm air curtains, draught lobbies and rapid roller shutter doors to save heat energy.
Fit high-efficiency motors where possible and use variable speed drives (sometimes called inverters) to match motor speed to particular circumstances as they change (e.g. on air compressors or a conveyor system). This will drastically reduce motor energy consumption.
If you regularly travel to customers, consider leasing an electric van. This can be an excellent way to drive finance.

Useful resources

Net Zero: A practical guide for cooling businesses - The Carbon Trust

We have a range of resources available for organisations on their net zero journey.

Net Zero Toolkit for Small Manufacturers & Repair Shops

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🧭 Explore Our Net Zero Support Services

Whether you're just starting your sustainability journey or need expert input on a specific project, our consultancy services are here to help: