News & Insights
VIDEO: Sustainability challenges in manufacturing
Why this matters now
Manufacturers are being asked to cut emissions, reduce water use, and report Scope 3 emissions while protecting output and margins. Customer scorecards, supply chain pressure, and incoming reporting rules are reshaping what counts as competitive. Plants that have run a certain way for decades are now being measured against expectations that did not exist when they were built.
What leaders are weighing
Plant and corporate leaders are negotiating between ambition and feasibility. Corporate sustainability teams set targets; plant teams have to hit production every shift while figuring out how to deliver them. There are trade-offs around process changes, utility upgrades, electrification, and on-site generation. Each one touches reliability, safety, and capital. Leaders are also weighing how much to invest in data and metering before committing to large projects. Real progress usually comes from a mix of process improvements, equipment upgrades, and behavior change, sequenced so operations keep moving.
How Salas O’Brien is helping clients respond
Our manufacturing teams help clients translate sustainability commitments into plant-level engineering and operational plans. We assess utilities, process loads, and energy and water flows, then help leaders prioritize among practical options. We work shoulder to shoulder with plant teams, so changes are designed for the real environment, not the conference room. Our goal is sustainability work that holds up under audit, under production pressure, and under capital scrutiny. Hear Bryan Cousino and Munjal Sanghavi describe what they are seeing across manufacturing clients.
Bryan Cousino PE, MBA
Bryan Cousino, PE, MBA brings a business-led approach to complex engineering challenges, helping clients turn unclear paths into practical solutions. He works across industrial, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, lab science, and mission-critical sectors, aligning teams and applying business insight to technical decisions. Bryan serves as a principal at Salas O’Brien. Contact him at [email protected].
Munjal Sanghavi, PE CEM
Munjal is a distinguished subject matter expert in Energy &
Sustainability programs and Capital Project Management for industrial
clients, with over 45 years of engineering experience. His extensive
background includes engineering, technical design, construction
management, maintenance, and plant operations. Over the past 15
years, Munjal has dedicated his career to driving energy efficiency and
sustainability initiatives, particularly for clients like Abbott.