How can you map value streams to reduce environmental impact?

1 What are environmental aspects and impacts?

Environmental aspects are the elements of your activities, products, or services that interact with the environment. For example, energy consumption, water use, emissions, waste generation, and raw material sourcing are environmental aspects. Environmental impacts are the changes or effects that your environmental aspects cause on the environment. For example, greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss are environmental impacts.

3 How to prioritize environmental aspects and impacts in VSM?

To prioritize environmental aspects and impacts in VSM, you need to evaluate their significance and relevance for your organization and stakeholders. You can use criteria such as legal requirements, environmental risks, stakeholder expectations, improvement potential, and alignment with your goals and values to rank your environmental aspects and impacts. You can also use tools such as matrixes, scoring systems, or life cycle assessment to quantify and compare your environmental aspects and impacts.

4 How to reduce environmental aspects and impacts in VSM?

To reduce environmental aspects and impacts in VSM, you need to identify and implement improvement opportunities that can eliminate or minimize waste and enhance value. You can use lean principles and techniques such as 5S, kaizen, kanban, poka-yoke, or standard work to optimize your processes and reduce environmental aspects and impacts. You can also use green practices such as renewable energy, water conservation, emission reduction, waste management, or eco-design to improve your environmental performance and sustainability. You can then create a future state map that reflects your improved value stream with reduced environmental aspects and impacts.

5 How to monitor and improve environmental aspects and impacts in VSM?

To monitor and improve environmental aspects and impacts in VSM, you need to establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure your environmental performance and progress. You can use tools such as dashboards, charts, or reports to display and communicate your KPIs to your team and stakeholders. You can also use feedback loops, audits, or reviews to evaluate your results and identify gaps or opportunities for further improvement. You can then update your value stream map and plan accordingly to continuously improve your environmental aspects and impacts.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?