“The train has left the station.”
Earth Day, plastic waste ‘islands’ floating in the ocean, carrier bag charges, the car emissions test scandal…high profile environmental stories now regularly make the headlines. With a few notable exceptions, governments, industry and individual consumers the world over have realised that changes must be made to protect the environment.
Fastener manufacturers – and distributors – have not been exempt. Laws designed to protect the environment have directly impacted on fastener production, not least in China, where industrial polluters now face an Environmental Protection Tax. While factories and supply chains adapt, the volume of fastener product making its way to the rest of the world has reduced, causing some short term pain for suppliers.
Tapping into this burgeoning ‘green’ trend is Ship & Shore Environmental. The US pollution abatement firm was founded in Long Beach, California, specialising in air pollution capture and control systems for industry. The diversifying business has now set its sights on fastener manufacturers, following a serendipitous rise in enquiries from fastener-related businesses, for which Ship & Shore has helped improve plant efficiency.
“We’ve recently been getting more requests from the fastener market,” Ship & Shore Environmental CEO Anoosheh Oskouian tells Torque Magazine. “We figured the expansion was interesting and we’ve been investing in new equipment so it made sense for us to hit the fastener world.”
Ship & Shore Environmental works closely with fastener companies to best design and integrate pollution abatement systems into their current plants. Illinois-based J&M Plating – which provides heat treating, coating, playing plating and sorting solutions to the fastener industry – is one of Ship & Shore’s fastener industry customers.
The duo started working together six years ago, when Ship & Shore engineers installed a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) to enhance J&M’s plant efficiency. Then, after J&M’s air compressor room kept overheating, Ship & Shore engineered an airflow system for the room to ventilate the air and keep air compressors cool in the summer. Furthermore, in 2016, Ship & Shore installed a heat recovery system so J&M could take waste heat and bring it back into the plant, resulting in significant cost savings.
Cutting expenditure and doing the right thing for the environment? That sounds like a win-win.
Environmental movement
Business is growing for Ship & Shore Environmental, despite President Trump’s lack of enthusiasm for cutting emissions. “We’ve been doing well, despite the challenge with the current administration,” Oskouian tells Torque. “But the train has left the station. The current US administration does whatever it wants to do, but we hope that the movement can resume in future.”
Ship & Shore’s reach extends globally, with sales offices not just in its home state of California but also in Toronto (“we do a lot of business with Canada”), China and with reach into other territories. “There’s a really big opportunity in Dubai and we are working with a business there.”
Globally, the Ship & Shore boss has seen the manufacturing sector acknowledge the need to protect the environment: “We see more and more focus on the environment. There’s a global consensus and there has to be – you can’t stop pollution crossing borders.
“It’s growing in manufacturing. New factories all take the environment into account. More factories are having to spend a lot on pollution control and we can help.
“One of the philosophies we have is to try to serve all industry and all types of equipment, so we are not limited to one technology. We work with just about all types of industry, including petrochemical, expanded polystyrene, fibre glass manufacturing and many more.
“People are more aware of our impact on the environment, particularly the next generation, like my young son. There’s a focus on conscious living and not being wasteful. It’s about being responsible and doing the right thing.”
The train has indeed left the station. Find out more at www.shipandshore.com.