Sustainable Industries and Business

The approach for sustainable industries and business or industrial sustainability primarily advocates consideration of economics, environment, ecology, equity, and ethics in decisions made in business context. While the focus is on efficient “lean” manufacturing and operations that save materials, energy, and money, care must be taken to ensure that the focus is not only on financial sustainability from operations standpoint. In the broader context of general business, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a growing concept. It frequently is indistinguishable from similar concepts such as corporate sustainable development, corporate responsibility, and corporate citizenship. Some people believe CSR to be the private sector’s way of integrating the environmental, economic, and social imperatives of their activities, resembling the concept of the triple bottom line.

Sustainable business, or green business, is an enterprise to be that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy – a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand for nongreen products and/or services.
3. It is greener than traditional competition.
4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations. A sustainable business is any organization that participates in environmentally friendly or green activities to ensure that all processes, products, and manufacturing activities adequately address current environmental concerns while maintaining a profit. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” It is the process of assessing how to design products that will take advantage of the current environmental situation and how well a company’s products perform with renewable resources.

The Brundtland Report emphasized that sustainability is a three‐legged stool of people, planet, and profit. Sustainable businesses with the supply chain try to balance all three through the triple‐bottom‐line concept – using sustainable development and sustainable distribution to affect the environment, business growth, and the society (Cooney 2009; Rennie 2008a, b; WCED 1987).

Eco‐Efficiency

The term eco‐efficiency was coined and defined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD 1992, 2000) in its 1992 publication “changing course.” It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution. Eco‐efficiency is achieved through the delivery of “competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life while progressively reducing environmental impacts of goods and resource intensity throughout the entire life‐cycle to a level that is compatible with the Earth’s estimated carrying capacity” (Carvalho et al. 2017).

Sustainable Supply Chain Systems

Products such as aircraft, automobile, and computers, which involve a series of discrete manufacturing and assembly processes along the supply chain, can generate a significant ecological footprints in terms of material, energy, and land use as well as industrial wastes and emissions. Manufacturers have used a variety of design techniques to reduce the resource intensity of their manufacturing and logistical systems. These techniques include simplifying product architecture to reduce the number of distinct parts and assembly operations (which also enables easier maintenance and disassembly); utilizing recycled materials or refurbished components; avoiding substances with undesirable properties such as carcinogenicity, toxicity, flammability, ozone depletion, or environmental persistence; reducing electrical and thermal energy use through process modifications or transportation efficiency (e.g. improved product geometry for pallet loading); utilizing quality improvement and “lean” manufacturing techniques (e.g. just‐in‐time inventory replacement) to reduce work‐in progress and scrap; and collaborating with customers and suppliers to streamline the supply chain and minimize waste (Bag et al. 2017; Clift 2003; Clift and Wright 2000).

Sustainable Green Economy

Everyone affects the sustainability of the marketplace and the planet in some way. Sustainable development within a business can create value for customers, investors, and the environment. A sustainable business must meet customer needs while, at the same time, treating the environment well. The green economy presents an alternative vision for growth and development in which economic growth and improvements in people’s lives are generated in ways consistent with sustainable development. While there are varying visions of what the green economy encompasses, this concept has piqued the interest of policymakers and businesses alike because it presents the possibility of new opportunities for economic growth. Green investment firms are consequently attracting unprecedented interest. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the Green Investment Bank is devoted exclusively to supporting renewable domestic energy. However, the United Kingdom and Europe as a whole are falling behind the impressive pace set by developing nations in terms of green development (Das 2005f; The CERES Principles n.d.; Harvey 2011). Thus, green investment firms are creating more and more opportunities to support sustainable development practices in emerging economies. By providing micro‐loans and larger investments, these firms assist small business owners in developing nations who seek business education, affordable loans, and new distribution network for their “green” products.