Study on sustainability developments in industrial practice

Traditionally, manufacturing companies focus on the value-adding processes at production sites but during the last decades, life-cycle thinking is emphasized. The principle of Sustainable Development contributes as a significant driver for this way of thinking. It demands manufacturing companies to implement sustainable aspects into their engineering actions. The state of the art shows that theoretical solutions to integrate sustainability into a company exist at all corporate levels (normative, strategic and operational). Against this background, the question arises how companies are actually implementing sustainability. Within this study, the company’s internal implementations were examined. Eventually, the need for action is identified and future recommendations are described