| Industrial sustainability, a critical level in the sustainability hierarchy, demands industries to significantly improve material and energy efficiencies, product quality and variety, and productivity, while simultaneously minimizing waste, all of which are great challenges to the manufacturing industries. Today, industries seek new approaches toward sustainable development, especially due to new challenges caused by industrial globalization, the increase in energy and raw material costs, the decrease in raw material availability, increased environmental and social pressures, and new technological advances. While process systems within individual plants could and should be further improved, major opportunities also exist for improvements and collaborations to take place among plants. That is, an industrial zone based synergistic effort on material and energy use efficiency and waste reduction are more critical for sustainable development. |
