Sustainable Spray Technology

Head of Industrial Sustainability Kevin Gottlieb discusses the future of sustainability, the impact of the sustainability assessments program, and the benefits and challenges of implementing sustainable solutions.

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What does Sustainability mean to industry?

What does sustainability mean to industry? That's a tough question. So if you ask 10 different people what sustainability means to them, you'll likely get 10 different answers. So I think the same is true of an industry. Sustainability can mean different things to different markets. To me, I think sustainability is really just about balance. More specifically balancing two sometimes opposing ideas which are preservation and progress. So on an industrial scale, what that really means is just focusing on the efficiencies of our resources so that we're able to increase production output while decreasing operational inputs. So, in essence, it's just really that age old adage of doing more with less put into practice. 

Why is being sustainable important?

Well, being sustainable is important for a number of reasons, I think first and foremost, it's just the right thing to do. So whether it's on an individual level or an industrial scale, I think being sustainable is, really a shared responsibility. And I do believe that we all need to do our part but from a stricter business perspective. It also makes a world of economic sense because it, in the simplest of terms, it just saves money. Using less resources saves money. Reducing waste, saves money. It's really a pretty basic and simple concept, but it can have huge positive impact on business operations. 

How has spray technology evolved to meet the sustainability needs of industry?

Spray technology has come a long way from the days of, you know, using a simple hole drilled into a pipe to, inject or introduce water into a process. Although we still sometimes see that from time to time, which obviously is not good, but most notably I think that spray technology has just gotten smarter, right? From utilizing more advanced engineering techniques to produce more precise products, to actually developing smart spray systems or technologies that can help us monitor the performance of those products over time. Spray technology is, yeah, it's, constantly evolving and that evolution is always, always spurred by demand and market need.

How will spray technology continue to advance industrial sustainability?

Continuing to develop smarter products. Smarter systems, smarter programs it's certainly going to play a pretty big role in the future innovation for sure. But I think the role that spray technology will play in the advancement of other innovations is really what's going to be key. So for example, here at Spraying Systems, we're constantly working with our partners to develop completely new forms of sustainable technology from draw down carbon capture systems to advanced energy storage. Even sustainable nanotechnology, which, you know, is something that was kind of unheard of just a few decades ago. To answer the question, I'd have to say that the future prospects for spray technology sustainable spray technology are virtually limitless.

What does the future of industry look like, and what role will spray technology have?

So I don't think it's hard to envision an industrial sector that's carbon neutral or even one that's completely carbon negative, right? I think that's the ultimate goal for everyone who's kind of working in this field. And it certainly can happen. I can see it happening, but if we're being completely honest, there's still a lot of work to be done and not a whole lot of time to do it. So, even though sustainable spray technology is already, I would say, deeply integrated in almost every industrial process there's still a lot more that we can be doing. So I think that's what I would want to see in the future. You know, I would want to see sustainable spray technology at the heart of industrial innovation. And I would want to see an environment where that limitless potential can really be cultivated quickly and to great effect.

What challenges do companies face when pursuing sustainable improvements?

So companies can face several challenges when pursuing sustainable improvements, right? Including some rather unique technical challenges. I don't wanna minimize that, but I'd have to say that in terms of the companies that I work with, the two biggest challenges I see them facing are just common misconceptions and a general lack of understanding surrounding sustainability and what it truly means to be sustainable. So, I say that because. Far too often I see companies with even the best intentions initiating overly complex projects that either get drawn out for years and years or they just get scrapped entirely and eventually these companies find themselves in what we call a say do gap. Where they start to struggle to meet the goals or the sustainability commitments that they've made publicly. So this creates a number of issues. It can kind of, generate this positive feedback loop, which further perpetuates those misconceptions that pursuing sustainability is too difficult or it's too expensive. And this can not only end up deterring that particular organization, but other organizations as well who have witnessed this and have seen the outcome, but they don't necessarily understand how they got there, the inputs that went into it. 

Do certain industries face more challenges than others in adopting sustainable practices?

So there's no one specific industry that's jumping out to me as being particularly challenging. Like I said, there's definitely some technical challenges involved with making sustainable improvements, and I think in some industries those challenges are a little more apparent, but in a broad sense the concepts are, are pretty simple across the board. So for example, it might be harder to physically implement sustainable solutions in, let's say a paper mill versus a food plant. Because a paper mill usually is only going down like every six weeks or so, right? While A USDA food plant could be going down every weekend to clean, sanitize, things like that. But if the goal in both of those instances is just to reduce water, then in both cases, the focus should be on optimizing all the water use applications within that process ensuring that from the get go, we're just bringing in the amount that we need to complete the job at hand.

What are the associated costs with sustainability?

So just like anything, cost is always going to be a factor. And generally speaking, the main consideration is how much. Right? People want to know how much is this going to cost me? But to me, I think a more appropriate consideration is how long, right? As in how long before the generated savings of this investment cover the costs of that investment? But even if we, you know, stick with the how much mentality, then why not consider, how much is this costing us not making these improvements, these sustainable improvements. There's no doubt that some of these projects will be expensive. But what we want to focus on here at Spraying Systems are really the immediate opportunities.
Those simple solutions that can provide significant results. You know, simple stuff like ensuring proper spray equipment is being sized and being utilized being diligent about equipment maintenance. You know, these are really simple ideas, simple solutions, but they can generate extraordinary short term savings and long term savings, all of which can, be invested into some of those larger scale and longer term projects. Spraying Systems helps our partners improve their sustainability efforts through first and foremost just decades and decades of experience. I brag about this all the time but Spraying Systems really was focused on sustainability since the very start. And if you care to take a look back through our company history, you'll see a pretty consistent pattern that supports that statement, right? From product design to system development from launching new programs and offering new services like our sustainability assessments. I really do think that everything Spraying Systems does, has done and will continue to do is going to prioritize sustainability. Which is ultimately what partners are looking for. That's, our end goal is to help our partners do more with less.

What is a sustainability assessment?

A sustainability assessment is a comprehensive analysis of resource usage specifically aimed to help our partners make the most informed decisions when it comes to their sustainable improvements. Our assessments definitely prioritize water use reduction, process optimization but given the relationship between water use and energy consumption they also offer some extremely valuable insight into emissions reduction. All sorts of things that can really help companies work towards carbon neutrality. We've helped so many partners through our assessment program, but one in particular that stands out was actually responsible for our first billion gallon assessment. So they had a massive plant in California in a water risk area. So naturally they were very much concerned about their water usage and partnered with us to, to help assess that usage and hopefully generate some potential improvement opportunities for them. In the end, we were able to assess about 90% of all the applications in that facility. Which identified about 300 million gallons of water savings opportunity. The results for their business were really fourfold. First our primary focus was of course, water savings. And our realized water savings for that project was just over a hundred million gallons a year. That translated to approximately $110,000 in both water and sewer cost savings, but it's also predicted that the plant will reduce their energy consumption by roughly 35 megawatt hours per year and their emissions by about 170 metric tons per year.

Why would a company want to partner with Spraying Systems Co.?

There are a number of reasons why a company would want to partner with us. I'd have to say we do work with a lot of facilities in, water risk, in water stressed areas. So of course there's, going to be a strong push for water reduction within those facilities. Similarly, we've, assessed facilities that are not in water risk areas, but they were the largest consumers within their municipality, right? So, kind of different motivations, but the same end goal. We've worked with small scale operations, single site operations. We've worked with large multi-site multinational enterprises. If a company is interested in becoming more sustainable, then Spraying Systems absolutely wants to help. 

Does a company need to use our nozzles to partner with us on a sustainability assessment?

Absolutely not. A company does not have to be using Spraying Systems product to partner with us on a sustainability assessment. Like I said, if a company is interested in becoming more sustainable then we want to help, whether that's through our assessment program application optimization, or even just general consulting. Like I said, sustainability is a shared responsibility and we are committed to doing our part.

Contact us today to learn more about the Sustainability Assessments program.