Why Industries Must Look Beyond the Obvious to Cut Manufacturing Emissions

Optimising a factory-floor machine to operate with minimal energy consumption while extending its operational lifespan can generate a robust downstream impact. This can systematically reduce the inherent carbon footprint of all industrial components across the value chain, leading to significantly greater carbon-reduction benefits.

August 14, 2026. By News Bureau

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articles

Sustainable manufacturing

Low-Friction Bearings

Predictive maintenance

Carbon reduction

Tribology

Industrial Decarbonisation

Energy efficiency

Shashi Shetty

SKF India (Industrial)

Worldwide, manufacturing companies across industries are striving to reduce their carbon footprint through a range of decarbonisation initiatives to achieve their net-zero ambitions. Yet, one often overlooked source of energy loss on the manufacturing shop floor is friction. Few realise that nearly 20 percent of the world's energy consumption is used to overcome friction, making it a significant opportunity to improve energy efficiency, lower emissions, and enhance operational performance.

The Relationship Between Energy and Friction
Organisations that understand this are constantly working to minimise friction and energy waste to ensure optimal use of resources. Simply put, less friction means more energy is saved. Since most firms fail to understand the role of friction in energy conservation, industrial decarbonisation through legacy means has become a business in its own right.

According to estimates, the global industrial decarbonisation market stood at USD 23.85 billion in 2025. This is expected to rise from USD 27.56 billion in 2026 to around USD 101.20 billion by 2035, recording a CAGR of 15.55 percent between 2026 and 2035. A considerable proportion of this growth is driven by stringent norms, demand for sustainable manufacturing and innovations in green technologies and CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage). Heavy industries such/ as cement, chemicals and iron and steel are among the hard-to-abate segments.

Research indicates that around INR 3 trillion (USD 34 billion) in upfront investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives could prevent 1,055 million metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions between 2025 and 2030, reducing industrial emissions by about 35 percent (of 2022 levels).

The Role of the Factory Floor in Reducing Emissions
Therefore, the time has come to evaluate how friction can be reduced in industrial machinery and manufacturing to ensure greater energy conservation. To make this a reality, the corporate narrative in India must shift from boardroom-driven ESG commitments to one that recognises the factory floor as another contributor to the industrial decarbonisation campaign.

As noted earlier, around 20 percent of global industrial energy consumption is lost to mechanical friction. In India's steel, cement, infrastructure, automotive manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries, this inefficiency is a direct and avoidable contributor to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. The best way to address this is to minimise friction-related energy loss in gears, manufacturing equipment and other heavy machinery. This can be done through low-friction bearing technologies, including magnetic bearing systems that eliminate physical contact altogether. It also involves real-time condition monitoring and asset-efficiency solutions that detect and correct friction-related losses before they escalate.

These interventions are backed by the principles of tribology and advanced precision engineering. Tribology, the scientific study of friction, wear and lubrication, gives industries a systematic way to identify and fix the mechanical problems that cause energy loss. It also improves the safety, reliability and service life of machinery. By addressing this hidden source of energy loss, manufacturing and other heavy industries can achieve real emissions reductions without compromising productivity.

Understanding Multiple Mitigative Measures
Financial offsets or passive carbon credits risk attracting greenwashing charges. Conversely, concerted efforts to reduce friction in industrial equipment are firmly anchored in tribological principles. But these efforts must be done in conjunction with other circular economy practices. The first step is to decarbonise core processes by replacing polluting fossil fuels with advanced chillers, compressors
and high-efficiency heat pumps in critical thermal and utility processes.

The second step involves promoting industrial circularity and regenerative assets, with manufacturers abandoning the take-make-waste approach by expanding industrial oil regeneration and component remanufacturing. This will require refurbishing heavy-equipment ball bearings to meet their original performance benchmarks, thereby slashing the carbon footprint of raw materials by up to 90 percent.

Another crucial step concerns the digitalisation of the shop floor. Sensors and IoT-enabled monitoring systems can track vibration, temperature and lubrication levels in real time, flagging early signs of friction-related wear before they escalate into equipment failure or energy waste. This data-driven approach allows manufacturers to move from fixed maintenance schedules to condition-based and predictive maintenance, ensuring machinery runs at optimal efficiency for longer. Finally, data-driven diagnostics can help prevent mechanical friction and the resulting asset degradation, reducing overall energy consumption.

Cascading Benefits of Friction Reduction
Optimising a factory-floor machine to operate with minimal energy consumption while extending its operational lifespan can generate a robust downstream impact. This can systematically reduce the inherent carbon footprint of all industrial components across the value chain, leading to significantly greater carbon-reduction benefits.

Eliminating energy loss at the elemental level will yield more holistic benefits than merely focusing on the obvious carbon-reduction options. Pinpointing all visible and invisible friction points and reducing each will make manufacturing and other industries more energy-efficient and competitive. India’s net-zero targets can then be achieved much faster than by focusing only on the visible ones. Eventually, re-engineering the factory floor will help accelerate the country’s net-zero journey.

- Ms. Shashi Shetty, Head – Sustainability & CSR (ISEAM), SKF India (Industrial)