Sustainable Manufacturing

Learning objectives and expected outcomes

Understand the important role of sustainable manufacturing in mitigating the environmental footprints of materials
Understand the basic concepts and terminologies of sustainable manufacturing.
Be aware of five standards related to sustainable manufacturing and understand how to use those standards to facilitate decision making
Understand the basic principles of characterizing and evaluating environmental aspects of manufacturing processes

Lecture slides and multimedia materials

Part I Background and Terminology PDF

Part II Evaluating Environmental Sustainability for Manufacturing Process PDF

Active learning exercises

Part I

Pretend you are the Chief Sustainability Officer for a company that makes bubble gum using the manufacturing process described in the video below. Create a KPI objective for this product with the intent of improving the product’s overall sustainability. Write one paragraph describing how your KPI objective is accessible/usable, comparable, and actionable.

Bubble Gum Manufacturing

Part II

Watch North Face’s video on how they make their Denali Jacket, provided at the link below.
The North Face: Behind the Seams – Denali Jacket

(1) What Denali Jacket UMP’s are mentioned in the video?

(2) What KPI’s (evaluation metrics) does North Face use to measure improvement in the sustainability of their products? Are these KPI’s top-down or bottom-up?

Homework and Reading

Read More About Five Standards Covered in This Module