Abstract
Sustainable manufacturing is, however, broader than just green manufacturing. A sustainable system simultaneously covers three pillars of environment, economic, and social aspects with the ultimate goal of addressing the needs of people, profit, and planet. It is part of a larger effort to make industry activities congruent with goals of sustainable development in a community. Sustainable manufacturing is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity for manufacturers who seek to have less resource-intensive more energy-efficient processes. Creating a sustainable design appears to be the first step toward developing a sustainable manufacturing system. The data on consumers' usage behaviors can be employed to improve the efficiency of sustainable designs. A key point in sustainable manufacturing is to facilitate the conservation of resources and energy throughout the entire product lifespan. Adoption of new manufacturing technologies will benefit from novel business models. Distributed manufacturing system is a new concept toward promoting sustainable manufacturing.