NEW Manufacturing Insights, the official podcast of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance (NEWMA) and Insight on Manufacturing (IOM) magazine sponsored by Wintrust Commercial Banking at Town Bank, N.A., celebrates Earth Week by welcoming Bryant Esch, corporate sustainability manager at Waupaca Foundry, to talk about why one of the heaviest-duty companies in our region is also one of the greenest.
Esch, whom the American Foundry Society calls the “leading voice for green manufacturing,” has spent almost his entire career with Waupaca Foundry and has had a front-row seat to the foundry industry’s evolution. The episode dives into some of Waupaca Foundry’s greatest green success stories that are playing a key role in that evolution.
While a foundry may not be the first thing a person thinks of when picturing green manufacturers, Esch says it’s actually an industry that’s been leading the concept of recycling for centuries.
“Foundries, going back for thousands of years, have been an important foundation or building block of society in that we take things that other people don’t want, as in scrap metal, and we turn it into something new,” Esch told co-hosts Ann Franz and Kate Bruns. “So really on the basis of that we have a pretty good sustainable argument, but it really matters how we run the rest of our business.”
Esch went on to explain that Waupaca Foundry’s commitment to sustainability in running the business has played a key role in the company remaining competitive within the global foundry industry; the energy savings Waupaca Foundry has achieved through its sustainability initiatives, for example, has led to significant cost savings that make it an all-around win.
Esch’s insights on this week’s episode are not only applicable to foundries but to manufacturers of all types. Take a listen and subscribe to NEW Manufacturing Insights wherever you get your podcasts, or listen online here.
New episodes are available every Thursday at www.spreaker.com/show/new-manufacturing-insights. Production support is provided by Woodward Community Media.
