Environmentally Sustainable Manufacturing: A Survey on Industry Practices

Industry practices in environmentaly sustainable manufacturing have emerged in various ways in different regions around the world. Depending on local environmental requirements companies have adopted practices with different priorities and different intensity. An industry survey in three regions of the world was conducted with the aim to find out what the current trends and differences of industry practices are. The issues considered in the survey were strategic issues, product development, manufacturing, product recovery, and legislation. The paper discusses the survey results and tries to identify differences and commonalities in the companies’ approaches to implementing environmental requirements in their operations.