Event recap: Maintenance and the Environment

On June 26, MRO professionals from across Canada’s manufacturing sector gathered virtually for Maintenance and the Environment, an event focused on how modern industrial maintenance strategies intersect with environmental sustainability. From predictive maintenance and energy monitoring to circular inventory practices and ESG alignment, the sessions offered practical insights for organizations seeking to reduce their environmental footprint without compromising performance. Building value with resilient assets for Canada 2050 Tanya Doran, Western Canada Carbon Lead at Stantec, opened the event with a keynote on the importance of creating resilient and sustainable infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of climate change. With buildings responsible for 38 per cent of global energy-related carbon emissions and 50 per cent of all extracted materials, Doran emphasized the urgency of effective asset management. “Part of this asset management plan needs to include decarbonization strategies,” Doran said. “We need to do things like carbon-neutral studies, energy audits. We need to include retro and reconditioning, and we need to have building condition assessments to inform all of those.” She also called for a broader mindset shift around energy transition and technology adoption: “We need to talk about energy transition… How do we transition to low-carbon thermal energy systems and renewable energies and include technologies like heat pumps in some of those markets that haven’t readily adopted them?” Doran walked attendees through Canada’s climate commitments, the risks of climate extremes, and the financial implications of inaction—including rising insurance costs and asset devaluation. “The business case for net-zero energy and carbon exists today,” she said. “But codes are for laggards, not leaders. We need to go beyond minimum compliance and design for resilience.” OEE for environmental performance In the second session, Eli Latak, founder of Smart Lean Manufacturing, explained how total productive maintenance (TPM) and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) can be used to improve both operational and environmental outcomes. Latak emphasized that small stops and poor preventive maintenance can snowball into major losses in productivity and energy efficiency. He shared a case study in which implementing TPM and real-time OEE tracking led to an increase in throughput from 90 to 140 units, without overtime or additional hiring. They did this, he said, using a strategy that focused on three areas: the people, the system and the process. Latak explained that the first step was establishing a continuous improvement program and training all of the employees, including supervisors and management, creating an “army of continuous improvement.” “It’s nice to have a good system, it’s nice to have a good process, but if you’re not focusing on the people, it’s going to impact your productivity,” he said. The case study demonstrated how better spare parts management, operator training and data visibility can reduce downtime, waste and energy use, all while improving quality and reducing scrap. In one example of how their strategy was effective, Latak said they discovered 23 air leaks and overworking equipment overnight. “We fixed all those leaks and implemented equipment shut-off procedures. So now at the end of the shift, the operator knows exactly what to shut off, what to check and to close the lines,” he said. “The total savings was almost $20,000 per month.” Circular MRO: Resale, reuse and recycling Trey Closson, CEO of Amplio, tackled a persistent source of waste in manufacturing: excess and obsolete MRO inventory. According to Closson, a third of MRO parts in North America are never used and up to 90 per cent end up in landfills or incinerators. “There is a significant amount of money that’s sitting on balance sheets collecting dust in warehouses that never gets used, and that number each year is about $38 billion,” Closson said. Closson presented a case study from a Fortune 500 manufacturer that cleared 85 truckloads of surplus inventory across 17 sites, generating $1.2 million in cash and saving $6 million in carrying costs. Amplio’s AI-powered platform helped redeploy parts internally, resell high-value items, and recycle low-value assets, all while ensuring compliance and reducing environmental impact. The future of sustainable maintenance The event concluded with a forward-looking panel featuring Georges Ouellette (Honda of Canada Mfg.), Brian Richmond (Nanoprecise), Dan Erikson (OpsReady) and Vishal Rane (IBM Canada). Moderated by David Rist, from the Manufacturing Export Enhancement Cluster, the panel explored how modern maintenance practices are evolving to support sustainability and operational efficiency. They also highlighted the importance of cross-functional collaboration and cultural change to improve energy efficiency, extend equipment life and support broader sustainability goals across industrial operations. When asked how the role of maintenance has evolved to support sustainability goals, Ouellette shared Honda’s shift from reactive repairs to proactive reliability: “’Don’t just fix it, improve it’ has kind of become our motto…There’s many benefits when you look through ESG principles — it’s so intertwined now with our maintenance practices in trying to find those failures and improve them so we keep them happening again, which then of course reduces the use of materials and parts, loss of production as well as energy and utility improvements.” Later, Erikson discussed the importance of field data and cultural buy-in: “Good data comes from the field. But if people don’t see the value, they won’t record it. You need to show how it helps them—not just the organization.” The panelists emphasized the need for proactive, data-informed strategies that reduce waste, energy use and downtime. They also addressed challenges such as legacy data, contractor coordination and cultural resistance. As Richmond noted, “We’re not telling you your motor [is] broken. We’re telling you make the decision. Are you willing to lose that $500 by energy consumption?” Looking ahead, panelists expressed confidence that sustainable maintenance practices will become deeply embedded in industrial culture. As Ouellette said, “We believe that in the next generation to come, this is just going to become not second nature, but first nature.”