China 
Africa 
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Life Cycle Assessment
Published in Surjya Narayana Pati, Life Cycle Assessment, 2022
Resource depletion is related to the inputs of materials into the industrial system under study. Although resource depletion is identified as a single environmental issue for the purposes of environmentally preferable purchasing, in fact, resource depletion is an umbrella term for several sub-issues, which collectively can be considered of equal importance as all the remaining environmental issues related to emissions. Resource depletion directly measures the sustainability of industrial systems. If resources are being used at or below their replacement rate, then their use does not affect the ability of future generations to maintain their quality of life. An example of a material used which has sustainable resource is preferred for its consumption. It was discussed in the earlier chapters. Resource depletion impact values can be presented as a single value or as sub-values that represent each of the major types of resources being consumed. Limestone is the single major resource for the cement sector; hence it was the only substance considered.
Circular Economy
Published in Anil Kumar, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Syed Abdul Rehman Khan, Circular Economy for the Management of Operations, 2020
Industries have battled to maintain an equilibrium in a value chain context amongst their ecological impacts, community welfare and cost benefits in recent years. This compels the industries to employ circular economy (CE) to optimize resources and administer carbon emissions (Urbinati et al., 2017; Winans et al., 2017). Industries need to revolutionize the need for resource depletion rates for some new economic model – CE facilitates the creation of an efficient and regenerative resource model by optimizing the resource used and the waste generated (Guo et al., 2017; Mangla et al., 2018). Things are changing at a greater speed than ever, the challenges of today are being converted into profitable opportunities of tomorrow. CE is one such hidden opportunity seeking to be utilized. CE also adds to the economy of both industry and nation by creating investment and new job opportunities, optimizing the cost of materials, stabilizing product prices, improving the resilience of the supply chain and reducing environmental impacts (Lieder and Rashid, 2016). In the context of production activities and business process, the preposition to enhance the sustainability of the value chain has become a contemporary issue (Jose Chiappetta Jabbour and Beatriz Lopes DeSousa Jabbour, 2014; Alcalde-Heras et al., 2018; Brown and Bajada, 2018; Mishra et al., 2018).
Natural Resources and Environmental Management: Prospects and Challenge
Published in Rohini Prasad, Manoj Kumar Jhariya, Arnab Banerjee, Advances in Sustainable Development and Management of Environmental and Natural Resources, 2021
Manoj Kumar Jhariya, Arnab Banerjee, Rohini Prasad
From the uses of resources, it is clearly revealed that the economy is regulated and governed by the availability of the resources. Resource reserve is directly proportional to its use, and therefore, there should be proper regulation in the process of resource extractions. Availability of resource also regulates the production rate followed by the economic growth of a country. To address the issue of resource depletion, sustainable management policies need to be designed to maintain the balance between environment and economy. There are several factors which affects the resource base on a global basis. Further, they are creating the crisis situation of resource depletion and degradation (Table 1.1).
‘I'm lost’ – a qualitative analysis of student teams' strategies during their first experience in problem-based learning
Published in European Journal of Engineering Education, 2020
Seren Mabley, Esther Ventura-Medina, Anthony Anderson
As the world faces the challenges around resource depletion, increasing population and higher living standards engineering professionals face the difficult task of providing solutions to the current and future world problems in order to ensure social and economic growth in a sustainable manner (Davidson et al. 2010). In the 2017 global university employability ranking problem-solving and collaboration were identified by over 80% of respondents as two of the key qualities graduates need (Baker 2017). This is not surprising perhaps in light of the fact that engineering graduates have to be able to face the ever changing demands of current workplaces. Hence, the ability for engineers to work as a team to deliver viable solutions in the short and longer term to the local and global problems would be contingent on the manner in which they would have developed these skills. The need for engineers to be able to face such challenges has instigated important changes in the engineering education curriculum and in particular, in the skills that are required of an engineering graduate to operate in such fast-paced environments.
Environmental sustainability and production: taking the road less travelled
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2018
Related to the concept of micro-factory retailing is the product-service systems idea, which is closely related to servitisation (Mahut et al. 2017). In manufacturing servitisation, the product is never really sold, but is lent out or leased as a service. This idea may generate and become more popular as extended product responsibility and product stewardship is either mandated or expected by markets. The idea of a servitisation economy will require significant changes in consumer behaviour and social expectations and norms. Given the shortened product life cycles that have been recently occurring, it seems like a natural progression that no longer will consumers be purchasing products but the services these products provide. This situation will also occur in industrial purchases. The environmental advantages of this approach are the extension of the products life cycle, resource depletion reduction and further building of a circular economy.
Exploring moderating effects of industry 4.0 adoption on sustainable performance of Malaysian manufacturing organizations
Published in Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 2023
Maria Ijaz Baig, Elaheh Yadegaridehkordi
Population expansion and economic growth are thought to have an impact on organizational sustainability demands [6–8]. As a result of expansion and the development of technology, businesses are facing increased pressure to address environmental issues brought on by manufacturing processes [6,9]. However, in order to meet economic targets on time, overall organizational sustainability must be improved [6,9]. A sustainable approach is required since organizational development has been largely unsustainable up to this point [7,10]. The earlier studies identified a wide range of business benefits from practicing sustainability [10,11]. Companies are working harder to increase their sustainability, which enables them to fulfill both their economic objectives and their social and environmental obligations [6,12,13]. The most significant contribution to global economic growth has come from the manufacturing sector [14]. However, it has been established that the manufacturing industry plays a sizable role in resource depletion. Organizational participation is required for sustainable resource production and performance [10,15,16]. Previous research focused on the outcomes of sustainability rather than the underlying contexts [10,13,15]. So far, several studies have been conducted that individually examine social or economic performance to investigate sustainable performance [10,13,14]. However, it is necessary to examine organizations’ sustainable performance holistically by combining key aspects that have an impact on sustainability. Consideration of economic, environmental, and social variables is essential for effective and sustainable performance [15].