A critical review on the environmental impact of manufacturing: a holistic perspective

Abstract Manufacturing sector is considered to be the second highest contributor in greenhouse gases emissions in EU, secondary to energy sector. The environmental impact of products, processes, and infrastructures of manufacturing is defined as the mass equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions, also known as carbon footprint, because carbon dioxide accounts for the largest portion of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of this review is to show the impact of manufacturing on carbon emissions and to investigate the importance of carbon emission factors on the carbon footprint of manufacturing. This was performed via (1) mapping and categorizing the sources of carbon emission at process, machine, and system level; (2) identifying the weight factor of carbon emissions factors via sensitivity analysis; and (3) determining which carbon emission factor has the heaviest contribution in carbon footprint calculation. In all examples of the sensitivity analysis, it was shown that carbon emission factor for electrical energy was the only contributing factor at process level while being the strongest at machine level. At system level, the strongest contributor was the carbon emission factor for material production. To reduce the carbon emissions, one must identify the tuneable parameters at process, machine, and system level, from material, machine tool, and energy point of view. However, the highest reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved by reducing the carbon emission factors of electrical energy using renewable power sources such as solar or wind and by reducing the carbon emission factors for material production using recycling materials as “raw” material.