Lean and Environment

National Links

Resources

Lean Dictionary
Lean Enterprise Institute
Lean and Green mapping process tutorial (PDF) (69 pp, 187KB, About PDF)

Background

Originally developed in the manufacturing sector, Lean is a methodology that strives to eliminate non-value added activity or “waste” from processes. Lean is often associated with the Japanese term, “Kaizen,” which means “ change for the better.” Lean principles and philosophy are still being used in manufacturing, but also in business and office processes in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Lean is not just about efficiency but about respecting the people and their institutional knowledge of the process before improvements can be identified.

EPA is working with Lean practitioners to maximize the environmental benefits of Lean so that environmental and natural resources wastes are considered as part of non-value added activities in any process. These natural resources wastes should be accounted for and minimized. EPA’s interest in Lean methods and tools (e.g., Six Sigma, 5s / 6s, Value Stream Mapping) is in identifying the environmental wastes associated with public and private processes.

Region 4 started a Regional Lean Initiative to identify processes that could benefit from the application of Lean methods and the identification of environmental wastes. Through this initiative, Region 4 and its States identified five processes for Lean events – two State government processes, one small business process, and one local government process. The goals of these events were to:

train process teams on the fundamentals of Lean thinking and Lean methods,
identify areas of potential improvement for the teams,
identify wastes, and
work with the teams to develop solutions.

Many institutions in the private sector as well as the public sector are interested in applying Lean concepts to processes, especially in times of reduced budgets and staff resources. Region 4 will continue to work states and local governments, manufacturers and other interested institutions to help increase the awareness of how Lean methodologies and tools can help reduce costs, reduce natural resources wastes, and improve worker productivity and competitiveness.

Lean and Sustainable Offices Whitepaper

This whitepaper defines Lean and explores the relationship between Lean and Environmental Management Systems (EMSs).

Case Studies

Region 4 partnered with states, local government, and businesses to facilitate the following Lean events:

Georgia

Ecolink’s Lean Kaizen Event: A Green cleaning company identifies and corrects inefficiencies in logistics, software, facilities, energy use, and solid waste.
City of Roswell, GA’s Building Construction Permit Process. As part of Region 4’s work on the Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit, Region 4 supported a Lean Value Stream Mapping event with the City, focused on identifying improvements in their commercial building permitting process. The efficiencies identified in the permitting process will help developers prepare better plans for review and help them reduce costs up-front by getting input on development plans prior to investment of capital costs. The City also benefits from the improvements in the process as their review team needs to spend less time on reviewing permits with incomplete or missing information. These process efficiencies could be used by the City in the development of a “Green Permit Program” where developers could potentially receive reduced permit review times or permit fees if the development includes certain green building features.

Florida

Wastewater Compliance Lean Kaizen Event: A section of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) improves their internal procedures resulting in time savings and a cleaner environment.
Sanitary Sewer Spill Response Lean Kaizen Event: The Wastewater Management Office at the FDEP improved their standard operating procedures (SOP), resulting in a quicker response time to wastewater treatment plant overflows.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), NE District Submerged Lands and Environmental Resources Permit (SLERP) Program (Dredge and Fill Permit Process: Lead time for the upstream permit process reduced by greater than 50%.

North Carolina

North Carolina Zoo Lean Kaizen Event: The fourth largest zoo in the country looked at how to improve staff time spent with the animals and visitors by reducing work redundancies and transportation on Zoo grounds. In the process, the Zoo also looked at reducing fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
North Carolina Department of Air Quality (DAQ) Lean Event: the event documented the current permitting process, identified non-value added activities and revised permitting review process. After the Lean event, on average, applicants received the permits 40% sooner and each permit writer was be able to process 52% more permit applications.

South Carolina

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Process (PDF): (2 pp, 308KB, About PDF) DHEC worked with staff and customers of their permitting process to implement Standard Work procedures on permit reviews and permit applications, thereby reducing lead times for permit process review from 28 days to an average of 8 days.

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