Successful workshop on sustainable manufacturing held on 1 October in Brussels

45 participants, all of whom with direct relation to the topic of industrial manufacturing, followed the invitation of the CleanProd consortium supported by Greenovate! Europe to a workshop on "Sustainable Manufacturing - Potentialities for clean products and production in the process chain from forming & machining to surface finishing ".

A full agenda brought together relevant stakeholders involved in different aspects of sustainable manufacturing in order to accumulate the critical mass to make the revolution in the manufacturing industry happen.

There was broad agreement that a transformation of the industrial processes into the  factory of the future - green and knowledge-based - was a promising response to the triple pressure of competitiveness, climate change and increasing resource prices.

The great challenge ahead are

• to create the knowledge base for this transformation at R&D level,
  
• to convince politicians of the great opportunities of green manufacturing in Europe and gain their support for it,
•  to get the innovation into the myriad of industrial SMEs that make up the major part of the manufacturing sector without putting a financial strain on them, and
• to finally ensure that industrialised countries and emerging economies beyond Europe embrace similar philosophy for their companies.  

Clearly, these tasks can only be achieved if the many promising initiatives around cleaner production join forces in a targeted effort to put sustainable manufacturing as priority issue on the agenda of all relevant stakeholders.

Therefore, the participants agreed to propose to the High-Level-Steering-Groups of the well-established and recognised European Technology Platform MANUFUTURE to establish a "sub-group" on sustainable manufacturing". This sub-group should become the driving force behind the sustainability issue that should ultimately become an integral part of all manufacturing. 

Actions have to follow discussion and decisions now to fill the ambitions with life.

The presentations are available for download below.