Bill Spenceley is president and owner of Flexahopper Plastics Ltd
When Bill Spenceley makes a decision about new technology for his company, he always keeps the environmental impact in mind.
Mr. Spenceley is president and owner of Flexahopper Plastics Ltd., a rotational moulding plastics company in Lethbridge, Alta. that was named after its first agricultural product, a plastic hopper that sits on the end of a grain auger. Flexahopper manufactures and exports products like plastic tubs, tanks and troughs to customers all over the world, in industries such as oil and gas, agriculture, food production and aerospace.
Founded in 1967, Flexahopper's been in business for nearly 50 years, but it's on the leading edge of innovation when it comes to "going green" in the plastics industry. Mr. Spenceley says he was initially inspired to look at green technologies when Canada first signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We felt that with Kyoto we were obliged to reduce our footprint, and it sort of snowballed from there. It became ingrained in the culture and we've really embraced it," he says. "When you are faced with a challenge, you have to start asking the question, 'Why do we do it this way?' We started to look at our processes and how we could be more efficient."
In 2007, Flexahopper green-sourced all its energy by switching to Canadian-owned green energy retailer Bullfrog Power. For every kWh of electricity a customer purchases, Bullfrog will inject a kWh into the grid from a pollution-free, renewable source, like wind or low-impact hydro.) Flexahopper has streamlined production to reduce waste plastic and recycle more. It has also invested in research and development to improve oven efficiency, notes Mr. Spenceley.
"We use a polymer in our process and it goes into a mould at room temperature," he explains. "We've done some research to see how we can use waste heat to preheat that polymer, and being able to use some waste heat, we can shave close to 20 per cent off our cycle times."
Since Flexahopper started going green, Mr. Spenceley says they've saved close to 5,000 tonnes of CO2. "It's substantial because there are big cities that are far below what we have done," he adds.
Though drumming up business has never been the motivation for his green innovation, Mr. Spenceley says Flexahopper does make sure clients know that this is a priority for the company. "We're not trying to find an unfair advantage in the marketplace; we're doing it because we want to do it. And I think that slowly people are starting to come around and say, 'If I can have this produced with no-carbon-footprint manufacturing, I would buy that one instead.' "
Going green can be a boon for business in addition to being good for the environment, says Darren Meister, who is the John M. Thompson Chair in Engineering Leadership and Innovation at the University of Western Ontario and an associate professor at the Ivey School of Business.
"Taking care of the environment is an important issue for many people, and taking small actions makes a difference to many individuals and companies," he says. "While not everyone will pay for this, it can increase loyalty and in general [it] makes the product more competitive to a larger marketplace."
At the same time, it's important to make sure you're communicating your environmental improvements to clients and be ready for scrutiny, advises Mr. Meister. Companies have recently come under fire for false claims of "green" products, so transparency is important.
"People have to know and understand that you have improved your product, but simply saying that they are better when they are not will backfire," he says. "Companies need to explain how they achieved their breakthrough – while maintaining their intellectual property – and how their new product is sustainably better over their old products and their competitors."
While moving towards more environmental processes and products may take some investment, it can be beneficial in the long term. "Going green will often incur R&D costs, but in the long run more competitive products should lead to increased long-term profits," he says. "Environmental regulations usually become more restrictive, and not innovating your products in this area can make them uncompetitive or even unsaleable."
Mr. Meister points out that a company like Flexahopper works in industries where very strong attention is paid to environmental impact. "As this scrutiny [increases], positioning and preparing to be at the front of the pack is a good idea, as these factors become more important," he says.
Being proactive about green technology is a good idea in the face of increasing pressure to reduce emissions, Mr. Spenceley agrees. "It's not just the big polluters that [they'll] be going after; it's everybody, down to the smaller enterprises. I'd sooner be in a proactive position or help guide how that's going to happen than have someone impose it on [me]."
Mr. Spencely, who has travelled all over the world to talk about his company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, hopes to create some "peer pressure," so others will follow suit. "We're trying to be environmental stewards. If we start to put our story out there, the other companies will start looking at it too," he explains. "But you have to craft your message in a certain way. Some people don't want to hear about climate change. You sometimes have to focus on 'saving energy saves money.' "
Flexahopper will continue its research into improving the energy efficiency of the company's processes, says Mr. Spenceley. "With some of the ways we produce our product right now, we're going to have to move beyond some basics in our process. For example, instead of heating an oven to heat the moulds, [in future] we're just going to heat the moulds. We've been working on that to try and get rid of a lot of the heat waste."
Mr. Spenceley is confident that their research will pay off – for everyone.
"I think we'll make some pretty good breakthroughs in the next five years, and we want to see if we can share that technology with the rest of the industry."
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with CIBC. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.