Integrating energy and environmental management in wood furniture industry

Abstract

As energy costs continue to rise, industrial plants (even those of energy nonintensive industries such as furniture industry) need effective way to reduce the amount of energy they consume. Besides, there are a number of economic and environmental reasons why a company should consider environmental management initiatives. This paper provides a detailed guideline for implementing joint energy and environmental management system in wood furniture industrial company. It covers in detail all essential aspects of the system: initial system assessment, organization, policy development, energy and environmental auditing, action plan development, system promotion, checking system performance, and management review.

Figure 1

Structure of energy and environmental management system (EEMS).

Figure 2

Distribution of electricity consumption in a wood furniture industry company.

Figure 3

Dependence of (a) energy consumption (b) generated waste on production volume.

Figure 4

Dependence of specific energy consumption on production volume.

Figure 5

ECCs in a company XY which produces furniture from wood-based board materials.

Figure 6

Identifying base (target) line.

Figure 7

Example of CUSUM application in wood industry.