Milestones on the Road to Sustainable Manufacturing

- Deeva Uthayakumar

1970s: E orts to reduce air and water pollution

Industry-made environmental calamities and pollution led to the rise of envrionmentalism. The resulting global movement led to tighter government-imposed restrictions on industrial waste production. Example: Clean Air Act (USA) and Canada Water Act (Canada) in 1970

North American and European countries were the first to implement these standards, despite not enforcing them in manufacturing endeavors on foreign soil. This emphasizes the need for a globalized effort to reduce pollution.

1980s: Strategies for cleaner production

Pioneer industries adopted Cleaner Production (CP) strategies, to conserve resources, reduce harmful wastes, and reduce the envionmental impact of products throughout their life cycle. Example: Green chemistry is the use of alternative starting materials to reduce toxic waste from chemical synthesis.

The Boots/Hoechst Celanese process replaced excess reagents with the usage of catalysts to produce ibuprofen, significantly reducing the chemical waste produced from maufacturing this drug.

1980s Toward

1700s - 1800s

1700s - 1800s: The First and Second Industrial Revolutions

Early 2000s

Resource conservation

Health and environmental potential risk

Revalorization

Mass intensity

Energy intensity Service extension

PROCESS 1

2

(MORE ECO-EFFICIENT)

Developed by the Dow Chemical Company, Eco-compass is a compilation of data about the eco-efficiency of a product’s life cycle based on 6 “pillars” of sustainability.

1990s: “Eco-e ciency”

Eco-efficiency describes environmental management strategies that ensure competitively-priced high-quality products which are also progressively environmentally-friendly. Example: The Eco-compass tool models sustainable product innovations and compares them to base methods.

2000s: Closed-loop production

Adoption of the “6Rs” to CP and eco-efficiency: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign, remanufacture Example: Biodegradable products

Population Pollution Manufacturing Recover

Biodegradable products can break down into non-toxic materials when exposed to naturally-occurring bacteria. Replacement of traditional plastics with biodegradable ones reduces landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Post-consumerRemanufacture Production Redesign

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