Podcast: Manufacturing and the journey toward a low-carbon future

Karen Lynn

Karen Lynn is director, Corporate EHS Technical Programs and Sustainability at Eaton, and is responsible for developing strategies that improve the company's sustainability performance and communications. She actively supports development of environmentally sound product development, life cycle assessment, green marketing strategies, and stakeholder engagement processes.

Ms. Lynn also served as the Eaton Vehicle Group's EHS Manager, supporting MESH program deployment at all Vehicle facilities globally. She was also responsible for managing the Group ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications, and for driving continuous improvement in EH&S programs. Before joining Eaton in 2007, she worked with International Paper for 14 years in a variety of EH&S positions and as a Manager of Sustainability Programs.

Ms. Lynn received her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Texas Christian University, and her master's degree in Environmental Management from Duke University in North Carolina.

SPEAKER: Welcome to Eaton's 10 in 10 podcast, where we focus on industry trends shaping the future of power management. In this series, our expert answers 10 questions about one of today's most talked-about industry topics in 10 minutes or less. From the energy transition to digital transformation and beyond, we explore trends and discuss strategies for delivering safer, more efficient, and reliable power. 

MARGARET HAGAN: Hi, I'm Margaret Hagan, communications manager at Eaton, here with another10 in 10 podcast. Today's topic is decarbonization and how global megatrends and government regulations impact the future of moving toward a low carbon future.

We're here with Karen Lynn, director of Eaton's sustainability strategy, to discuss what happens as more and more of our world, vehicles, homes, and buildings, decarbonize. We've got 10 questions and 10 minutes to answer. Karen, let's get started.

First, can you tell us more about what decarbonization means? 

KAREN LYNN: Sure, Margaret. The energy that we use to fuel our economy has typically come from fossil-based sources or very carbon-based-intensive sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. So decarbonization is the process of continuing to grow our economy, while, at the same time, reducing or eliminating those carbon-based fuels from our energy supply. 

MARGARET HAGAN: In the future, what will business and manufacturing look like under this low-carbon energy scenario? 

KAREN LYNN: Well, we'll see several different types of changes. We'll see increasingly more diverse energy or electricity generation, such as renewables, solar, wind, and additional processes like microgrids, where we store energy from renewables and energy will transfer back and forth on the grid. We'll also see changes in manufacturing, how we approach manufacturing, and from a fuel standpoint, but also from some of the technologies that we use. 

MARGARET HAGAN: And what industries face the greatest challenges to decarbonize?

KAREN LYNN: Well, I think there are two types of industries that will have the greatest challenge, energy-intensive industries that use quite a bit of fossil fuels as a direct part of their manufacturing process, also industries that incorporate fossil fuels as part of their manufacturing or generate greenhouse gases as a result of that manufacturing process. For example, the cement industry, the cement industry has been working for a number of years on tackling greenhouse gas just by the nature of their manufacturing approach.

MARGARET HAGAN: And what first steps should a manufacturer be taking if it wants to reduce its own carbon emissions?

KAREN LYNN: A manufacturer has several different options for reducing carbon emissions. The first step is really to categorize and baseline the emissions, understand where they're coming from. We call that calculating scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. So we need to understand what those energy users are, and then we can tackle ways to reduce that.

So the next step then would be to look at those high energy-using processes and make them more efficient. Once we've made an industry more efficient or manufacturing plant more efficient, then we can tackle a different sources of energy, such as green sourcing, finding options for off-site renewables.

And finally, we want to incorporate new technologies that are coming out as a part of industry 4.0. There's some opportunities there, such as additive manufacturing, that may really help us take a big leap forward. 

MARGARET HAGAN: Great. Thank you. And many companies are now tracking their scope 3 emissions. So what steps should end users be thinking about to support the health of the planet?

KAREN LYNN: That's right. Many companies are looking at scope 3 emissions, which include upstream supply chain-based emissions and then downstream emissions associated with product and use and disposal. Eaton has a goal of reducing our emissions in operations by 50%, which is a science-based target.

And that also includes a goal to reduce our scope 3 emissions upstream and downstream. So users that are thinking about supporting the health of the planet should be looking outside their own four walls, in addition to their direct impact. 

MARGARET HAGAN: So over the past three decades, just the term sustainability has taken on many different meanings. What does it mean in today's sense?

KAREN LYNN: Well, sustainability is a very broad term that covers a wide range of things. Initially, it was a term that was developed to address the environment and sustainable development, and it includes things as environmental protection, greenhouse gas, but also social issues, developmental issues, economic and issues of governance. It's a term that has been referred to in a variety of ways, such as leaving the planet better for future generations or doing well by doing good. Increasingly, it is a term that has been referred to as ESG, or Environmental Social Governance, by many of our investors. 

MARGARET HAGAN: Great. Thank you for that. So as a product manufacturer, how does Eaton think about sustainable design, that is, developing products and solutions that help reduce impact on the environment?

KAREN LYNN: Well, as a product manufacturer, we have a responsibility to think about the entire life cycle of our product. So we want to be focusing on how that product is manufactured, what the components are from a material standpoint, and look at how that product is used over its useful life, and then how it would be disposed of by the end user. And we want to look at all of those different aspects, including how that product would be disposed of and potentially recycled. So using some design thinking around the choice of materials, quantity of materials is very important in actually making a product more friendly for the environment. 

MARGARET HAGAN: So you mentioned product life cycle. Can you describe the critical factors an organization needs to think about to incorporate circular economy in its product design? 

KAREN LYNN: Sure. As I mentioned, the circular economy is really tying that product end use or intermediate products or end use products back into a useful source for the same or other products. So we want to cycle, upcycle, recycle, whatever approach is appropriate, and take those important resources that have been used to build that product and pump those resources back into the economy, rather than letting them waste or deteriorate in a landfill, for example.

MARGARET HAGAN: So the IPCC, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, declared a climate emergency and has called upon corporations to help limit global warming to not more than 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels. You've described how Eaton is meeting this challenge. And can you tell us more about why it is so important to Eaton? 

KAREN LYNN: Sure. Well, I mentioned that Eaton has taken on what we call a science-based target, and that's a commitment to reduce our emissions in our direct operations but also in our scope 3 emissions to meet that 1.5 degrees C target that you mentioned. This is critically important to us from an environmental standpoint, but we also believe it's the path to the future. And through our products and services that help our customers also meet their targets by being more efficient, longer lifetimes, better maintenance, things like that, we believe this is really where the future is going, a carbon-friendly world where we have great sources of energy and products that will help us get there. 

MARGARET HAGAN: That sounds great, Karen. So for the leaders within an organization, what's their role in achieving the goals we've talked about today?

KAREN LYNN: Well, for any organization, setting the goal is the first step and perhaps the biggest step. It's important to align the organization behind those goals and ensure that everyone realizes that they have a part to play.

Secondly, the leadership has an opportunity to engage their workforce to elicit new ideas and exciting new ways of doing work and then ultimately providing that oversight and accountability for all of the different parts of the organization around what they are doing to achieve the goal. So setting the goal, encouraging the company, and then providing that accountability around achieving it I think are the key pieces. 

MARGARET HAGAN: That's wonderful, Karen. Thank you so much for your expertise. 

If you'd like to learn more about how we improve the quality of life and the environment for all of our stakeholders, please visit us at eaton.com/sustainability.