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Whether you support or are against climate change legislation, governments around the world are pushing for more environmentally-friendly operations. Now, governments expect corporations to be proactive about the business processes and attempt to minimalize the impact on their surrounding environments. Organizations that perform manufacturing and production roles can expect to see the greatest impacts from new environmentally conscious laws. However, there are ways to prepare yourself and your corporation from hefty fines and time loss. Combing with Six Sigma methodologies, environmental impact analytics is the key business tool for your organization. Today, we will discuss this business analytic tool and why you should use it.

What is Environmental Impact Analytics?

In greater detail, environmental impact analytics measures your organization’s impact on the surrounding environment. As you operate your business processes and manage your supply chain, negative impacts can occur with or without your knowledge. This can include leakages and spills of toxic waste, improper disposal of used products, or other forms of contamination. Sometimes, these occurrences are not always easy to spot. Likewise, pinpointing the location where the impact first occurs can be equally difficult. To combat this, it’s important to perform regular environmental impact analytics.

What variables you measure and how you do so depend on your industry and types of operations. However, most commonly, organizations will measure their carbon footprint, how much water these use, their waste recycling percentage, and as well as the amount of energy they consume. It’s important to note, though, that you should measure your suppliers with the same variables. This helps provide you with the most information about your supply chain, how you use products, and what impact there could be on the environment.

Six Sigma and Environmental Impact Analytics

Performing regular analysis on your environmental impact can be both time-consuming and expensive. However, with the right approach, you can cut down on unnecessary costs. When performing your initial round of data collection and analysis, you can expect this time to require the most amount of time and man power. Yet, after your initial round, you can perform the exact same steps and regular periods. Doing this helps keep your procedures constant and also prepares your organization for time and resources it will require.

There are numerous variables and KPI’s you can measure to create the complete picture of your environmental impact. However, it’s important that you pick the correct ones and stick with them. For this, we recommend appointing a Six Sigma certified project manager. Typically, this will be a Black Belt or higher. Your project manager will be in charge of collecting the right data from the correct sources. This may include a team of other Six Sigma professionals who will mine, store, and analyze the incoming data sets.

Once you have the appropriate data, it’s time to see if you must make changes to your supply chain and operations. For this, we recommend comparing your results with your competitors and the current legislation. By being proactive about your environmental impact analysis, you potentially save your corporation countless hours and vast savings from stricter environmental regulation laws.