Hygienic Design as an Aid to Sustainability Initiatives

Presentation Motivation: 

Sustainability and hygienic design elements are of growing interest to producers and processors. As the individual merits of these elements are self-explanatory, their implementation, monitoring, and realization are generally only viewed through the lens of their primary motivation. Sustainability initiatives are implemented such that an organization's sustainability goals can be pursued or met and are specific to a given set of metrics based on that company's goals. Similarly, hygienic design provisions are implemented to follow guidance from FSMA and are based on a company's production environment and processes. What is less frequently discussed is how hygienic design not only benefits a company from a compliance and quality point of view but also how it provides corollary benefits to sustainability goals.

Presentation Content:

Housekeeping, environmental conditioning, and sanitary provisions are all necessary elements of a hygienic facility design. Given that these are utility, time, labor, and energy-intensive elements, it should be no surprise that their efficient implementation benefits sustainability metrics. Examples will be given to illustrate how hygienic design benefits water and climate aspirations, people-focused and innovation-focused initiatives, and finally to land stewardship initiatives.

Final Notes:

The synergies between sustainability and hygienic design are numerous but must be more commonly analyzed to aid implementation. The intent of this talk is to provide practical illustrations and case examples of these mutually beneficial links.