This text has been printed in partnership with Merino Industries.
In 2023, Merino Industries — a pacesetter in ornamental laminates, restroom cubicles, modular furnishings, and floor options — introduced that it had achieved roughly 75 % water neutrality by constantly lowering its water utilization depth. How did Merino accomplish such a milestone? By a sequence of sustainable choices, says Mr Prakash Lohia, Managing Director of Merino Industries.
Underscoring that sustainability has been ingrained within the DNA of Merino Industries’ operations proper because the firm’s inception over 5 a long time in the past, Mr Lohia factors to how water conservation types an integral a part of this strategy.
For years, Merino Industries has actively pursued its aim of water neutrality — making certain the quantity of water consumed is replenished inside the similar ecosystem to fulfill or exceed regulatory necessities. These efforts have intensified over the previous decade, driving the corporate nearer to its sustainability targets. Merino is now working in direction of reaching additional ranges of ‘Water Neutrality Objectives’.
Water conservation is only one of Merino Industries’ environmental priorities. Mr Lohia references these as the corporate’s efforts to push its sustainable frontiers to new limits. Viewing environmental safety as an “inseparable half” of financial exercise, the corporate launched the ‘Nirmal’ programme to deal with the 5 key components of nature — Bhūmih (soil), Apah (water), Analah (hearth), Vayu (air), and Khang (house) — in a fashion that aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs).
Right here, we zoom in on the water venture that’s being championed by Merino Industries, thus setting a precedent for different industries.
The 5R strategy
Reaching operational eco-efficiency isn’t a person feat even on the trade degree. Merino Industries’ success stems from a synergistic strategy fostering collaboration with academia, governments, and members of the analysis and scientific communities. It’s via this shared trade of sustainable concepts that the corporate is ready to scale its ‘Triple Backside Line Framework’ — addressing its environmental, social, and monetary impacts.
To reinforce water effectivity and conservation, Merino Industries has efficiently adopted the 5R strategy: Scale back, Recycle, Reuse, Replenish, and Restore.
As an integral a part of its sustainability programme Nirmal, they actively monitor and minimise water consumption throughout all manufacturing processes by implementing revolutionary water-saving measures. These embody:
- Effluent Therapy Vegetation (ETPs) which deal with and recycle water for varied purposes.
- Sewage Therapy Vegetation (STPs), which allow the reuse of home wastewater for actions like gardening.
- Replenishing pure water techniques via rainwater harvesting.
- Adiabatic cooling techniques.
- Restoring degraded water sources by setting up recharge buildings in current ponds, making certain that ecosystems are returned to their pure and even enhanced state.
- Use of back-pressure generators which cut back water consumption by eliminating the necessity for condensers and improve steam effectivity.
- Repurposing and reusing reactor distillates which save roughly 200 KL of contemporary water yearly.
- Sludge dewatering machines and tube settlers which, via four-stage reverse osmosis (RO) models, maximise wastewater restoration — conserving practically 20,000 KL of contemporary water yearly.
The outcomes of those processes have been telling — throughout the years 2023 to 2024, 82,517 kilolitres of water have been reused in manufacturing. Whereas water conservation is prided on, so is water replenishment. Rainwater harvesting techniques have been applied throughout all institutions as are sustainable water administration practices like groundwater recharge.
The reservoirs and groundwater recharge techniques in and round manufacturing facility premises — together with three ponds in Hapur — collectively restore roughly 5,53,815 kilolitres of water per yr.
The above rests on the mannequin ‘zero discharge and double recharge’, which interprets to the corporate’s purpose to recharge double the quantity of water utilized in its manufacturing processes.
Though Merino has a robust tradition of optimising pure assets, implementing water conservation strategies at an industrial scale has not been with out challenges. One main impediment has been technological failures, which may result in surprising downtime and useful resource wastage. These setbacks require further time and effort to resolve.
Nevertheless, Merino has embraced a mindset of studying from these failures, specializing in steady enchancment to beat obstacles. This entails often refining processes, upgrading equipment, and integrating superior applied sciences to maneuver nearer to the aim of reaching 100% water neutrality.
As for a way the trade is main change from the entrance in water conservation, Mr Lohia says the components lies in a twin strategy — maximising the utilisation of each drop of water and implementing water-saving measures wherever doable.
Edited by Pranita Bhat; Footage supply: Merino Industries
