Sustainable

Production
Submitted By:-

(26)

Anmol Pathak (04)

Anurag Anand (05)
Ravi Shankar (22)
Shubham Bhandari
DFT Semester VI

1. Sustainable Production
Sustainable Production is the creation of goods and services using processes and systems that
are:

Non-polluting

Conserving of energy and natural resources

Economically viable

Safe and healthful for workers, communities, and consumers

Socially and creatively rewarding for all working people.

If production is sustainable, then the environment, employees, communities, and organizations
all benefit. These conditions can lead, always in the long term, and often in the short term, to
more economically viable and productive enterprises.
1.1.

10 Principles of Sustainable Production

Products and packaging are designed to be safe and ecologically sound throughout their
life cycle.

Services are organized to satisfy real human needs and promote equity and fairness.

Wastes and ecologically incompatible byproducts are reduced, eliminated or recycled

Chemical substances or physical agents and conditions that present hazards to human
health or the environment are eliminated.

Energy and materials are conserved, and the forms of energy and materials used are most
appropriate for the desired ends.

Work places and technologies are designed to minimize or eliminate chemical,

ergonomic and physical hazards.

Work is organized to conserve and enhance the efficiency and creativity of employees.

The security and well-being of all employees is a priority, as is the continuous

development of their talents and capacities.

The communities around workplaces are respected and enhanced economically, socially,
culturally and physically.

The long-term economic viability of the enterprise or institution is enhanced.

1.2.

An Investment in Long-Term Growth

The conceptual spark of Sustainable Production lies in valuing longer term consequences and
benefits over short term profits. By investing in well-designed safer products, resource efficient
technologies and processes, and trained employees, organizations could thrive. With todays
public rally behind fighting global warming and greening cities and towns, the benefits of
sustainable production are even more apparent.

2. Sustainable Production Aspects

2.1.

Economic Aspects

Economic progress is evaluated in terms of welfare (or utility) measured as willingness to pay
for goods and services consumed. Thus, economic policies typically seek to increase
conventional gross national product (GNP), and induce more efficient production and
consumption of (mainly marketed) goods and services. The stability of prices
and employment are among other important objectives. Mainstream (neoclassical) economics
provides the concepts underlying this framework.

At the same time, the equation of welfare with monetary income and consumption has been
challenged for many years. For example, Buddhist philosophy (over 2500 years old) classified a
comprehensive list of human desires and stressed that contentment is not synonymous with
material consumption.

At the macro level, some researchers have highlighted the role of economic forces like
international trade to explain differences in growth rates among nations.

2.1.1. Economic Sustainability

The modern concept underlying economic sustainability seeks to maximize the flow of income
that could be generated while at least maintaining the stock of assets (or capital) which yield this
income . Fisher had defined capital as a stock of instruments existing at an instant of time, and
income as a stream of services flowing from this stock of wealth. Hicks argued that peoples
maximum sustainable consumption is the amount that they can consume without impoverishing
themselves. Economic efficiency plays a key role in ensuring optimal consumption and
production.

Many argue that unrestrained economic growth is unsustainable, and point out practical
limitations in applying the economic sustainability rule without additional environmental and
social safeguards. Problems arise in defining the kinds of capital to be maintained (for example,
manufactured, natural, human and social capital have been identified) and their substitutability
(see next section). Often, it is difficult to value these assets and the services they provide,
particularly in the case of ecological and social resources. Even key economic assets may be
overlooked e.g., where non-market transactions dominate. Uncertainty, irreversibility and
catastrophic collapse also pose difficulties.

Many commonly used microeconomic approaches rely heavily on marginal analysis based on
small perturbations (e.g., comparing incremental costs and benefits of economic activities. From
the viewpoint of resilience theory, such a mildly perturbed system soon returns to its dominant
stable equilibrium and thus there is little risk of instability. Thus, marginal analysis assumes
smoothly changing variables and is not appropriate for analyzing large changes, discontinuous
phenomena, and rapid transitions among multiple equilibrium. Economic system resilience is
better judged by the ability to deliver key economic services and allocate resources efficiently in
the face of major shocks (e.g., 1973 oil price shock or severe drought). More recent work is
exploring the behavior of large, non-linear, dynamic and chaotic systems, in relation to system
vulnerability and resilience.

2.2.

Environmental Aspects

Unlike traditional societies, modern economies have only recently acknowledged the need to
manage scarce natural resources in a prudent manner because human welfare ultimately
depends on ecological services . Ignoring safe ecological limits will increase the risk of
undermining long-run prospects for development. Munasinghe reviews how economic
development and the environment have been linked in the literature since Malthus. Das Gupta
and Maler point out that until the 1990s, the mainstream development literature rarely
mentioned the topic of environment. More recent examples of the growing literature on the
theme of environment and sustainable development include books by Faucheux et al.
Describing models of sustainable development, and Munasinghe et al. addressing the links
between growth and environment. Several researchers argue that environmental and geographic
factors have been key drivers of past growth and development
.
2.2.1. Environmental Sustainability
The environmental interpretation of sustainability focuses on the overall viability and health of
living systems defined in terms of a comprehensive, multi-scale, dynamic, hierarchical
measure of resilience, vigor and organization .These ideas apply to both natural (or wild) and
managed (or agricultural) systems, and cover wilderness, rural and urban areas. Resilience is the
potential of a system state to maintain its structure/function in the face of disturbance.
An ecosystem state is defined by its internal structure and set of mutually re-enforcing
processes. Holling originally defined resilience as the amount of change that will cause an
ecosystem to switch from one system state to another. Resilience is also related to the ability of a
system to return to equilibrium after a disruptive shock . Petersen et al argue that the resilience
of a given ecosystem depends on the continuity of related ecological processes at both larger and
smaller spatial scales. Adaptive capacity is an aspect of resilience that reflects a learning element
of system behavior in response to disturbance. Natural systems tend to be more vulnerable to
rapid external changes than social systems the latter may be able to plan their own adaptation.
Vigor is associated with the primary productivity of an ecosystem. It is analogous to output and
growth as an indicator of dynamism in an economic system. Organization depends on both
complexity and structure of an ecological or biological system. For example, a multicellular
organism like a human being is more highly organized (having more diverse subcomponents and
interconnections among them), than a single-celled amoeba. Higher states of organization imply

lower levels of entropy. Thus, the second law of thermodynamics requires that the survival of
more complex organisms depends on the use of low entropy energy derived from their
environment, which is returned as (less useful) high entropy energy. The ultimate source of
this energy is solar radiation.

In this context, natural resource degradation, pollution and loss of biodiversity are detrimental
because they increase vulnerability, undermine system health, and reduce resilience. CiriacyWantrup introduced the idea of safe thresholds (also related to carrying capacity), which is
important often to avoid catastrophic ecosystem collapse . Sustainability may understood also
in terms of the normal functioning and longevity of a nested hierarchy of ecological and
socioeconomic systems, ordered according to scale.

Sustainable development goes beyond the static maintenance of the ecological status quo. A
coupled ecological-socioeconomic system may evolve so as to maintain a level of biodiversity
that will ensure long-term system resilience. Such an ecological perspective supercedes the
narrower economic objective of protecting only the ecosystems on which human activities
directly depend. Sustainable development demands compensation for opportunities foregone by
future generations, because todays economic activity changes biodiversity in ways that will
affect the flow of vital future ecological services.

The linkage between and co-evolution of socioeconomic and ecological systems also underlines
the need to consider their joint sustainability. In brief, what ecological (and linked
socioeconomic) systems need is improved system health and the dynamic ability to adapt to
change across a range of spatial and temporal scales, rather than the conservation of some ideal
static state

2.3. Social Aspects

Social development usually refers to improvements in both individual well-being and the overall
social welfare, that result from increases in social capital typically, the accumulation of
capacity for individuals and groups of people to work together to achieve shared objectives.

Social capital is the resource which people draw upon in pursuit of their aspirations and is
developed through networks and connectedness, membership of more formalized groups and
relationships of trust, reciprocity, and exchanges. The institutional component of social capital
refers mainly to the formal laws as well as traditional or informal understandings that govern
behavior, while the organizational component is embodied in the entities (both individuals and
social groups) which operate within these institutional arrangements. For our purposes we
assume that human capital (e.g., education, skills, etc.), and cultural capital (e.g., social
relationships and customs) are also included within social capital although fine distinctions do
exist.

The quantity and quality of social interactions that underlie human existence, including the level
of mutual trust and extent of shared social norms, help to determine the stock of social capital.
Thus social capital tends to grow with greater use and erodes through disuse, unlike economic
and environmental capital which are depreciated or depleted by use. Furthermore, some forms of
social capital may be harmful (e.g., cooperation within criminal gangs may benefit them, but
impose far greater costs on the larger community).
Equity and poverty alleviation are important. Thus, social goals includes protective strategies
that reduce vulnerability, improve equity and ensure that basic needs are met. Future social
development will require socio-political institutions that can adapt to meet the challenges of
modernization which often destroy traditional coping mechanisms that disadvantaged groups
have evolved in the past.
From the poverty perspective, social capital may be classified into three basic types that overlap
in practice: bonds, bridges, and links. Bonding social capital is centered on relations of trust and
common activities among family, friends and groups within the same community. It helps to
create broad-based social solidarity, meet the daily needs of the poor, and reduce their risk
vulnerability. Bridging social capital relies on individuals and local groups building connections
with nearby communities, as well as regional and national organizations, which share similar
values or interests (e.g., credit organizations and livelihood networks, that provide social
protection and job opportunities). Such bridging has facilitated the emergence of many nongovernmental and civil society organizations. Linking social capital is built on influential
associations e.g., having access to powerful people or organizations like government ministries

and international agencies. Such links are useful to facilitate access to benefits (e.g., loans, jobs,
help with small enterprise development, etc.) and lift people out of poverty.
Trust, power and security are also important elements of cognitive social capital. Levels of trust
in individuals, groups or institutions provide an indication of the extent of cooperation. Where
networks are weak, people generally have lower levels of trust. Power is usually equated with
influence and connections. If leaders are distant and do not deliver beneficial changes, people do
not recognize them as powerful. Leaders often fail to link with the poorest groups, thereby
disempowering them further. Secure relationships play a key role in good governance. Analysis
of the dynamics of community relations provides a social map that allows practitioners to tailor
specific programs to targeted groups, thereby creating better opportunities for the poor to
participate in decision making.
Recent research has emphasized the role of institutions in explaining differences among nations
in terms of economic growth or stagnation i.e., how behavioral norms govern social conduct,
which ultimately determines economic behaviour .

2.3.1. Social Sustainability

Social sustainability parallels the ideas discussed earlier regarding environmental sustainability.
Reducing vulnerability and maintaining the health (i.e., resilience, vigor and organization) of
social and cultural systems, and their ability to withstand shocks, is important .Enhancing human
capital (through education) and strengthening social values, institutions and equity will improve
the resilience of social systems and governance. Many such harmful changes occur slowly, and
their long-term effects are overlooked in socio-economic analysis. Preserving cultural capital
and diversity across the globe is important there are about 6000 cultural groups with different
languages worldwide, while indigenous cultures (as opposed to state cultures) may represent
over 90% of global cultural diversity . Munasinghe drew the parallels between the respective
roles of biodiversity and cultural diversity in protecting the resilience of ecological and social
systems, and the inter-linkages between them. Several subsequent reports from international
organizations have highlighted cultural diversity . Strengthening social cohesion and networks of
relationships, and reducing destructive conflicts, are also integral elements of this approach. An
important aspect of empowerment and broader participation is subsidiarity i.e.,
decentralization of decision making to the lowest (or most local) level at which it is still
effective.

Understanding the links that radiate out from poor communities , and their interface with
agencies and government is critical for building connections and channeling resources more
directly to make social development more sustainable. Emphasis has sometimes been placed on
the formation of new community-level organizations, which occasionally undermine existing
networks and local groups ultimately causing the locals to feel that they have no stake or
ownership in the project. Thus, the focus is shifting towards improving governance by giving
poor people the right to participate in decisions that affect them. Working with existing
community-based social capital generates pathways to lever people upward from poverty. It also
results in a more sustainable link with communities, and creates opportunities for more
meaningful participation.