Title: Industrial sustainability: challenges, perspectives, actions

Authors: Flavio Tonelli; Steve Evans; Paolo Taticchi

Addresses: DIPTEM, Faculty of Engineering, University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia, 15, 16145, Genova (GE), Italy ' Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, Alan Reece Building, 17 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0FS, UK ' Polytechnic Institute of New York University, 6 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA

Abstract: Our vision is a future industrial system that delivers high value to its growing base of customers around the globe, while using, at most, a quarter of the current resources. The urgency for change is now feeding through from scientists into mainstream government, business and academic thinking. This sustainable industrial system would be very different to today's global industry - less homogenous with different business models and different relationships, creating different products and services - requiring new strategies, frameworks, and tools. In order to achieve this target a system design approach is required. Systemic implications for sustainable manufacturing, supply chain design, sustainability performance measurement and management, and organisational change are provided in this paper. Open questions and discussion about tomorrow activities are derived, providing recommendations for educators, researchers, industrialists, and policy makers.

Keywords: industrial sustainability; system design; sustainable manufacturing; closed loop supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; supply chain design; performance measurement; performance management; organisational change.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2013.052576

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2013 Vol.7 No.2, pp.143 - 163

Published online: 27 Dec 2013 *

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