The manufacture of products (increasingly also services) is described as sustainable production if it is more resource-efficient, particularly in comparison to competing products. Resources here refer to both ecological and social resources. Sustainable production is particularly important in sectors in which
- production is particularly energy-intensive (e.g. aluminium),
- increasingly scarce natural resources (e.g. sand, precious woods),
- the extraction of resources often causes environmental damage (e.g. many metal ores),
- people are employed to extract or process the resources under poor or even dangerous working conditions (e.g. cotton)
Ideally, however, the sustainable design of a product or service does not end with production, but also includes the consumer's utilisation phase and the disposal phase.
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