Location, location, location

Ten or even five years ago sustainability was a concept alien to society and certainly manufacturing, but with the environment increasingly on the political agenda it is a model that is becoming all pervasive within manufacturing. For many manufacturing businesses, sustainability has been limited to ensuring that waste and effluent are controlled and that operations do not adversely affect the environment. Broader issues of industrial sustainability remain little understood and many companies need tools and techniques to assess and manage their own sustainability. However, the manufacturing industry is beginning to take a central role in delivering sustainable development through the more productive use of materials and natural resources. Many companies have started to realize that it is not just the increasingly punitive legal reprimands that they will suffer for flouting regulation. In the face of growing consumer pressure, it will ultimately be sales and profitability.