This Special Issue highlights the wide range of challenges facing sustainable design and manufacturing research communities with the hope of inspiring the future work of authors and readers of the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering.
This Special Issue contains extended manuscripts based on research publications presented in the 3rd International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing which was held in Crete, Greece, featuring 10 high quality papers, written by scholars from China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK and USA in collaboration with their industrial partners. These papers discuss how to achieve a long-term balance between environmental and economic sustainability through added value and improved production capability whilst decreasing the consumption of natural resources. In particular, the papers address important theoretical, methodological and application aspects of sustainable manufacturing related to improved energy and water efficiency, zero waste management, life-cycle assessment, and sustainable business practices.
The Special Issue includes three contributions on sustainable design. The implications of open source design for sustainability is discussed in the paper by Bonvoisin who suggests that two important aspects of open source design, namely product modularity and design for local manufacturing, are particularly beneficial in terms of environmental sustainability. The article by Papachristou and Bilalis analyses the role of technology in reducing the environmental impact of fast fashion. The authors propose a new apparel product development model and supporting digital tools for design and prototyping, which extend the useful life of clothes. The paper by Campana et al. focuses on design tools and sustainable innovation in the aerospace sector, and proposes an approach to reduce time-to-market while facilitating better decision-making in support of sustainability.
The next three papers explore how to improve the energy and water efficiency in manufacturing applications. The paper by Li et al. presents an energy consumption model for CNC continuous grinding machine tools to monitor and improve energy efficiency. Energy management in small-to-medium enterprises is the focus of a paper by Cosgrove et al. who claim that significant saving could be achieved through changes to operational and behavioural practice. Their methodology for electricity monitoring and targeting could be applied from the highest factory level down to a specific machine, and is particularly useful in selecting optimum production pathways. Water is another important natural resource. While most manufacturers typically know the amount of water they use in their facilities, they have little knowledge about the indirect effects they have on water resources. This issue is addressed by Bras and Carlile who examine the indirect impact of automakers’ electricity use on water resources. Their research indicates that the water withdrawal and consumption by the workforce caused mainly by the use of electricity is larger than the direct water use and consumption in the facilities themselves.
New manufacturing paradigms such as eco-industrial parks, re-distributed manufacturing and circular economy are discussed in the final four papers. Layton et al. use structural ecosystem metrics to analyse the performance of eco-industrial parks and compare them with natural ecosystems. Freeman et al. advocate the view that re-distributed manufacturing could be beneficial to business and urban society through creating jobs, reducing the environmental impacts of production, and improving resilience to future disturbances. Their paper presents a conceptual framework developed through an integrated assessment approach, aimed at building sustainable and resilient cities. Prendeville et al. explore the role of makerspaces in circular economy and their potential for radical innovation by identifying a set of circular economy strategies at micro- (individuals, objects), meso- (communities, places) and macro- (societies, regions) levels. Finally, Cayzer et al. explore how to measure product performance with respect to circular economy principles.
I would like to thank all authors who contributed papers to this Special Issue, and express my gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable comments. Finally, I would also like to thank the IJSE Editorial Team for their support and guidance.
Mechanics, Materials and Advanced Manufacturing Research Theme, Cardiff University, UK
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