Applying Regenerative Sustainability Principles in Manufacturing

Book chapter, 2024

With the increased recognition of the sustainability imperative, many manufacturers have formulated and enforced environmental strategies such as zero waste and zero emissions to minimise their negative impact on our planet. However, the aim of zero impact or ‘no intervention’ is not only challenging (or impossible) for manufacturing organisations, but also too narrow to meaningfully identify operational practices to achieve it. Instead, we can conceptualise ways to operate within the planetary boundaries as a starting point by considering the possibility to generate environmental benefits while delivering goods and services with the minimum requirements to meet human needs. In this paper, such an approach is proposed to help manufacturing organisations adopt the concepts of regeneration and restoration by moving away from ‘doing less bad’—i.e. eliminate or reduce negative impacts—and shifting toward ‘doing more good’—i.e. create benefits or positive impacts.