Energy- and water-integrated management system to promote the low-carbon manufacturing industry: an interdisciplinary Mexican case study

The deficient water and energy management for manufacturing products negatively affect the environment, hence a customized and integrated management system is critical as part of the business sustainable development framework. In this work, the experimental results related to the CO2 emission factor of a manufacturing company are presented through the application of an energy- and water-integrated management system based on the ISO 50001 and ISO 46001 standards as part of the global supporting trend to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Regarding the methodology, the deming cycle and the high-level structure characteristic of the aforementioned standards were used to establish concurrent organizational and technological actions to achieve the efficiency objectives. In particular, data curation, analysis, and translation were used as arguments for countermeasures to improve energy and water efficiency. As a result, energy and water use reduction was achieved, ≈ 12.66% and ≈ 15.23%, respectively, implying that the CO2 emission factor by manufacturing items during 2021 decreased by ≈ 19.88% compared with 2020. In addition, relevant findings, challenges, and opportunities were also determined that can serve as recommendations to improve the overall CO2 emission factor through the use of various renewable energy systems, actions related to bioclimatic architecture, and optimization methods for the energy-water nexus. The aforementioned has important managerial implications based on the Deming cycle which are mentioned in the conclusion section, such as the more detailed analysis of the technological and organizational options and methods that allow for improving efficiency for later years.