From the review of the last section, it can be found that it is not until recent decades that the
‘Sustainability/Green’ issues have come to be main-stream concerns of industrial development. This section reveals some of the milestones of awareness made to environmental problems along with industrial evolution in both society and in the academic field.
The evolution of awareness to environmental issues
Long ago the neoclassical economists have (as early as 1920s) recognized the insufficiencies associated with the technical externalities generated by production and suggested that governments tax polluters an amount equivalent to the social cost of pollution that would harm the whole
community (Pigou 1924). But the severity of these negative externalities of human activities was not made aware to public until the book ‘Silent Spring’ and following a motion drafted in 1960(Carson 2002).
Carson’s book has had the largest impact of its kind to raise public awareness about the issues of pesticides and also the ecological systems of earth, encouraging society to re-examine human being’s relationship to the natural world. The book’s impact directly resulted in greater restrictions being made on the use of chemicals and the banning of DDT. The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970 partially due to this environmental movement. The Table 2.3 summarized some kind milestones in environmental protection after Carson’s calling.
Main Stream of Manufacturing Models Objectives
Scientific Manufacturing Scale Driven
Ford’s Method Scale Driven
Just-in-time/Lean Manufacturing Cost Driven, Quality Driven Agile Manufacturing Response-rate / Flexibility Driven
Bionic manufacturing, fractal manufacturing, CIMS, etc. Flexibility Driven, Technology Innovation Driven Predictive Manufacturing Information transparency for optimization
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Table 2.3. Milestones in Environmental Protection
(Source: Worldwatch Institute and Environmental History Timeline3)
The conflict between industrial development and environmental protection
For a long time, the traditional stream of operation management aims to improve performance on quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston 2010; Slack, Lewis, and Bates 2004), or basically similar objectives, or namely competitive priorities by Skinner’s manufacturing strategy paper, which are cost, quality, dependability, flexibility, innovation (Skinner 1969). Pursuing the optimum of these goals are not wrong, but the background assumption that underpins all these objectives are the infinite ability of environment to support pollution from
manufacturing and the infinite supply of natural resources. Not only the damage of production activity to the environment is not sustainable, but also the speed of consumption to natural resources in modern industrialization is beyond the capability of the earth’s environment. In a small scope of a company’s operating environment, firms have constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment (Hart 1995; Brown, Kane, and Roodman 1994; Meadows, Meadows, and Randers 1992).
3 Worldwatch Institute--https://www.worldwatch.org/brain/features/timeline/timeline.htm; Environmental
history timeline--http://66.147.244.135/~enviror4/21st-century/20-teens/
1962 Carson's remarkable book ‘Silent Spring’, calling attention to the threat of toxic chemicals to people and the environment. 1970 Forming of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
1972 The Club of Rome, a group of economists, scientists, and business leaders from 25 countries, publishes The Limits to Growth,
which predicts that the Earth's limits will be reached in 100 years at current rates of population growth, resource depletion, and pollution generation.
1974 OZONE LAYER problem-Chemists Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina publish their landmark findings that
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) can destroy ozone molecules and may threaten to erode the Earth's protective ozone layer.
1987 The Brundtland Report--The World Commission on Environment and Development publishes Our Common Future (The
Brundtland Report), which concludes that preserving the environment, addressing global inequities, and fighting poverty could fuel—not hinder—economic growth by promoting sustainable development.
1992 The Convention on Climate Change sets non-binding carbon dioxide reduction goals for industrial countries (to 1990 levels by
2000). The final treaty calls for avoiding human alteration of the climate, but falls far short of expectations, largely due to lack of support from the United States
1992 1st Earth Summit-Most countries and 117 heads of state participate in the groundbreaking UN Conference on Environment and
Development (Earth Summit), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Participants adopt Agenda 21, a voluminous blueprint for sustainable development that calls for improving the quality of life on Earth.
1997 Kyoto Protocol--The Kyoto Protocol strengthens the 1992 Climate Change Convention by mandating that industrial countries
cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 6 to 8 percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012. But the protocol's controversial emissions- trading scheme, as well as debates over the role of developing countries, cloud its future.
2001 U.S. President George W. Bush announces that the United States will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying that the country
cannot afford to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
2003 1st Emission Trading Law in Europe--Europe adopts first climate emissions trading law, giving carbon dioxide a market value
across the EU when trading begins in 2005.
2005 With a majority of the world’s nations ratifying, the Kyoto Protocol officially goes into force without the U.S. Countries signing
the treaty agree to cut back emissions of heat-trapping gases to levels 5.2% below their 1990 emissions levels.
2006 The Stern Review, a report on scientific evidence of global warming— is published.
2007 European Union agrees to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Under the Kyoto protocol, the EU was
already committed to an 8% decrease
2009 US EPA announces new Clean Air Act regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants. And India
and China agree on a joint approach to climate talks “that promotes the interests of developing countries”
2009 Copenhagen Fail. Collapse of climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Representatives from 193 countries failed to reach a
consensus on replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol emissions treaty, set to expire in 2012.
2010 France sets a carbon tax of 17 Euros per ton on all fossil fuels, following similar but much higher taxes in Sweden (imposed as
early as 1991), Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland
2013 The city of Beijing struggles through months of life-threatening toxic smog in the winter of 2012 and spring of 2013.
2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), fifth assessment, says climate scientists are 95 percent certain that “human
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In broad scope, human society as whole, also have constraints from the biological ecosystem of earth. Two decades ago, it was expected that is would be necessary to increase economic activity of that time five- to tenfold to provide the basic amenities needed to a population of 10 billion(MacNeill 1989; Hart 1995). The concept of an ecological footprint(Rees 1992) was created to measure human demands on the Earth’s ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet’s ecological capacity to regenerate it. According to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2012, the average biologically productive area per person worldwide is approximately 1.8 global hectares (gha) per capita. The U.S. footprint per capita is 9.0 gha, which means that if the life style of U.S. people was adopted by the world population, about 5 Earths would be needed to sustain it(“Living Planet Report 2012” 2013). Moderate UN scenarios suggest that if current
population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s, the equivalent of two Earths is needed to support demand. Although manufacturing industry is not the only industry that utilizes the planet’s resources, but there are other sectors, including farming in modern times, that are also linked with the products of manufacturing industry. And the industry as a whole (including manufacturing industry, construction, agriculture, etc.) consumes 28% of the total world energy use according to IEA(ENCY 2013). So manufacturing industry has to play a key role in tackling the environmental issues.
Although as early as the late 19th century research discussed issues about the creation of pollution
waste in manufacturing process (Wallace 1885), but there was little reference in the manufacturing literature that was considering environmental issues(Corbett and Van Wassenhove 1991) before 1990s. It was not until 1996 that the term ‘Green Manufacturing’ appeared and saw the first bloom of related research, by the journal paper with this term that was published by the Society of
Manufacturing Engineers(R. T. Smith and Melnyk 1996). The green manufacturing goes along with the effort of human society for sustainable development. As the field of manufacturing research expands to study the supply network, the green manufacturing expands to network level as well. The green supply network research and especially low carbon supply network review will be introduced in the Section 2.3.
As a basis, the next section 2.2.3 reviews the traditional supply chain and supply network management review.