The SATW Sustainable Manufacturing Expert Group: Pathways to a sustainable industry

The SATW Sustainable Manufacturing Expert Group: Pathways to a sustainable industry

Author: Adrian Burri, ZHAW. April 2024

1 Sustainable Manufacturing in 2030 and beyond

In the near future, manufacturing processes in Switzerland will be deeply rooted in circular principles. Products will be designed for durability, reuse, repairability, and recyclability, and the associated production processes will be capable to exploit and prioritise recycled or renewable resources, reducing reliance on virgin materials. Those products’ performances, during lifecycle stages, will be declared through easily recognizable digital passports to support informed decisionmaking by heterogeneous stakeholders.

Manufacturing plants – largely powered by renewable energy – will leverage advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, and robotics to optimize resource utilization and energy efficiency, minimizing waste and excess inventory, and assuring context-aware production choices. Supply chains will be transparent, accountable, and traceable, ensuring ethical sourcing of materials and fair labour practices and promoting stakeholders’ awareness By adopting novel business models –focused on service and sharing practices – Swiss manufacturing will commit to innovation and sustainable stewardship while optimizing its profitability.

In the context of this vision, the related developments, and the growing importance of the field, the Swiss Academy of Engineering Science SATW established a new Expert Group Sustainable Manufacturing as part of the SATW Research Alliance Advanced Manufacturing. This expert group offers support for the transformation of industry away from a linear economy to a circular economy. This change poses many challenges for companies that develop, produce, and market material goods. The group aims to establish and promote a common understanding of the broad field of sustainable manufacturing It offers easy access to experts and their specialist knowledge, providing researchers and industrial companies with specific information through frequent publications, workshops, and events

This article provides an initial overview of relevant topics in sustainable manufacturing that require a more detailed analysis This includes the challenges of net zero targets and those posed by new laws and bans, as well as assessing sustainability with the help of life cycle assessments. Finally, the article provides an overview of the SATW expert group, other existing networks, and training opportunities in Switzerland.

2 The transition from a linear to a circular economy

The urgent transformation of society from a linear economy to a circular economy poses several challenges for the industry. The Butterfly diagram elaborated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (Figure 1) visualises a circular economy in which products are designed for long-term use and reused in several cascades while retaining value as long as possible Companies will put in place

The SATW Sustainable Manufacturing Expert Group: Pathways to a sustainable industry

offers for repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing. New products are made from either biobased or recycled materials. These materials will have new properties, which affect the design of goods and the parameters of existing production processes Therefore, there is a need for new production and manufacturing processes to produce economically small and unpredictable batch sizes – as is already the case for, e.g., additive manufacturing.

The circular economy will make local production increasingly attractive, as material cycles must be closed in a local economic system. Thanks to the circular economy, production processes previously carried out in less expensive countries could be relocated to Switzerland To achieve this change, it is necessary to overcome the prevailing focus on performance goals via specialization of parts and efficiency via economies of scale in most current supply chains.

3 Sustainable manufacturing and net zero

With the “net-zero” emission targets in connection with the climate crisis and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that Switzerland, the EU, and other economic regions have committed to, it goes without saying that production is also being challenged. In line with those goals, CO2 emissions from producing goods must be reduced to zero or offset by other measures. The efficient use of renewable and other low-carbon energies is a simple solution that can be applied immediately to existing production processes. However, a holistic perspective needs to consider other aspects than Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to ensure that future sustainable production pathways and supply chains achieve minimal negative impacts on the environment and human health and are socially accepted and economically competitive. Water and land consumption, the critical materials used, fertilizers, pesticides, lubricants, process gases, the infrastructure required for production, transportation routes, and the waste generated during production are some aspects to be considered and are systematically assessed in LCA

Figure 1: The Butterfly System diagram explains the biological and technical ways in which materials can be endlessly reused in a circular economy (www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy-diagram)

The SATW Sustainable Manufacturing Expert Group: Pathways to a sustainable industry

4 New EU regulations and challenges

The EU commission is currently implementing different regulations to reach the goal of net-zero GHG (Greenhouse Gases) emissions by 2050 and economic growth decoupled from resource use1 Stricter laws have already been passed, forcing the industry to adapt Specific materials and entire material groups have been and will continue to be banned The proportion of recycled material in products and the traceability of resources are prescribed. The Supply Chain Act – currently in the final voting process in the EU Parliament – will force companies to provide evidence of their products' environmental impact, including their suppliers' environmental impact

Every manufacturing company in Switzerland will be affected by these legislative measures – be it directly because of operating or selling products in the EU or indirectly by being supplying companies operating in the EU The Swiss government might also adopt these laws – perhaps with delays or modifications. These new regulations will most often require a fundamental redesign of products, and consequently, the corresponding production processes will have to be adapted.

The new ecodesign requirements

2 – aiming to boost circularity – will cover among others:

- recycled content, product durability, reusability, upgradability, and repairability

- presence of chemical substances that impede reuse and recycling of materials

- energy and resource efficiency, carbon and environmental footprints

- available product information, in particular a Digital Product Passport.

The EU is considering introducing a Digital Product Passport (DPP): a digital identity of products that provides a unique record of information throughout the product's lifecycle. This includes information about the product's origin, composition, associated upstream and downstream supply chains, usage (incl. consumptions and repairs), and end of use (reuse, refurbish, and recycling). The DPP illustrates a product’s sustainability attributes and enables circular practices to extend the life span of materials, components, and the product itself (Figure 2).

1 https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

2 Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation - European Commission (europa.eu)

Figure 2: Exemplary non-exhaustive information shared in a DPP – in “The EU Digital Product Passport shapes the future of value chains”, World Business Council for Sustainable Development & Boston Consulting Group. 2022

5 Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts

The scientifically established method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to quantify the environmental impact of products and the materials and resources they use. Thanks to this methodology, environmental impacts that influence the greenhouse gas effect as well as environmental impacts on land, air and water can be quantified, measured and assessed in a standardized manner. For known and existing systems, materials and processes, an assessment is possible to conduct and helps to compare different existing solutions.

Especially in the conception of new products and product processes no or only limited data is available. Nevertheless, easy-to-use decision-making methods must be used, even without LCA, to correctly classify the quality of the solution in terms of circularity. A LCA still must be continuously done in the development process and missing data must be evaluated such that a reliable LCA study is available for the final solution. This additional effort in development projects is crucial to ensure that circular, and therefore better, solutions are developed and brought to market.

The SATW expert group has great expertise in this area and will continue to work on this topic in the future. One aim is to enable companies to set up their development projects correctly by involving the aspect of circularity and LCA as well.

6 New, sustainable materials and their processing

Materials selection, use, and recovery are critical to all industries. Much research and development activities and established technologies are addressing new, sustainable approaches for short-lived mass products and packaging Applications featuring more complex and customized material inventories – e.g., medical products or microelectronics – are highly challenged regarding material substitution or recycling Appropriate solutions are in great demand and still emerging.

For products designed and manufactured according to the principles of the circular economy, many of the materials, material compositions or processes currently used are no longer suitable, or even prohibited or restricted by law. Materials that cannot be returned to a raw state with 100% purity after use should be avoided. Research into new materials has been ongoing for years, resulting in more materials being produced from biological starting products. Here biodegradable materials and non-degradable materials must be distinguished Biodegradable materials can be returned to nature as nutrients. For non-degradable materials – technical materials made from a biological or ore-based material – the aim is to use them indefinitely to manufacture new products.

Copper is a good example of a material that can be reused for new products with the necessary purity. Such materials are getting more expensive as they are also abundantly used in today's steadily growing ICT industry, which makes reuse an economically viable solution. Plastics – still predominantly fossil-based – should also be used in a way that they can be reused infinitely through mechanical or chemical recycling. Infinite plastic recycling works already with PET bottles where broken molecules are chemically repaired by a post-condensation Multilayer films – like those used in the food industry – do not meet this criterion and will be banned in the future. Alternatively, plastics can be produced from biological source materials For those the consumption of resources to produce the biological source material must be considered and minimized with the help of LCA studies.

Processes in the field of plastics recycling (mechanical and chemical) must undergo significant further development. Quality losses during multiple recycling stages can be avoided by

The SATW Sustainable Manufacturing Expert Group: Pathways to a sustainable industry

implementing cascade recycling, a combination of mechanical and chemical steps where building blocks from low-quality materials are fully recovered. New processes are needed for sorting and separating goods and their materials: separating textiles into individual textile yarns, electric batteries, photovoltaic panels, steel-concrete, composites, alloys, and many more. Since every manufactured product must be completely recycled back into the various source materials within a few days, months, or decades – depending on its useful life – the product design, materials, and manufacturing processes must be selected specifically for this purpose.

7 Research and teaching activities in Switzerland

Switzerland already has many research and funding activities to make companies fit for a circular economy. Projects typically involve several partners because the transformation of one company alone is difficult and costly Some activities funded by Innosuisse are particularly worth mentioning:

• Innovation Booster Applied Circular Sustainability: www.boostitcircular.ch

• Innovation Booster Plastics for Zero Emissions: www.plastics4zeroemission.ch

Various new courses on master’s level prepare future professionals for the circular economy. Furthermore, a wide range of continuing education courses help companies in managing the transformation from a linear to a circular business model.

• BSc Specialization in Sustainable Production Systems, SUPSI

(https://www.supsi.ch/en/sustainable-production-and-supply-chain)

• MSc Circular Economy Management, ZHAW

(https://www.zhaw.ch/en/sml/study/master/circular-economy-management/)

• MSc Circular Innovation and Sustainability, BFH

(https://www.bfh.ch/en/studies/master/circular-innovation-and-sustainability/)

• MSc Business Administration in Sustainability and Circular Innovation, FFHS

(https://www.ffhs.ch/en/degree-programmes/master/business-administration-insustainability-and-circular-innovation)

• CAS Develop Agile and Sustainable Organisations, SUPSI (https://www.supsi.ch/en/cas-sviluppare-organizzazioni-agili-adattive-e-sostenibili2)

• CAS Sustainable Innovation, ZHAW (https://www.zhaw.ch/de/sml/weiterbildung/detail/kurs/cas-sustainable-innovation/)

8 Outlook: Next Activities of the SATW Expert Group

The SATW Expert Group Sustainable Manufacturing held its first physical kick-off meeting in the Proof of Concept Lab at the ZHAW in Winterthur at the beginning of March. The experts will be available to answer questions and assist all interested parties. Further activities, workshops and publications will follow to make the knowledge of the expert group accessible to Swiss industry The goal is to co-develop sustainable and profitable manufacturing processes by supporting them on their way to a climate-neutral and circular economy.