Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.8
3.9
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Transforming Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future
sustainability-logo
Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Transforming Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2023) | Viewed by 2672

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mark Jolly

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Professor and Director of Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK
2. Director of Transforming the Foundation Industries Research and Innovation Hub, Bedford, UK
Interests: novel casting processes; process modelling; resource efficient manufacturing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Konstantinos Salonitis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre, School of Aerospace Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Interests: sustainable manufacturing systems; green manufacturing; environmental impact assessment; simulation; modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anne Velenturf

E-Mail
Guest Editor
1. Senior Research Fellow in Circular Economy, School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
2. Technical Programme Manager of Transforming Foundation Industries Research and Innovation Hub, Bedford, UK
Interests: circular economy; participation process management; governance; business model innovation; network analysis; sustainability; transdisciplinary research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sanjooram Paddea

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
TransFIRe, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK
Interests: materials; metals; sustainble manufacturing; foundation industries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Foundation material industries, namely, cement, ceramics, chemicals, glass, metals, and paper, are at the root of most supply chains providing fundamental products to the industrial sector. They are generally water-, resource- and energy-intensive, and usually require high-temperature processing. They produce voluminous and often pernicious waste streams and heat. Profit margins are generally low, making them vulnerable to competition and lowering innovative capacity to transform.

Decades of innovations have allowed foundation material industries to manufacture materials at a higher volumes and reduced costs.  However, the need for long-term sustainability has become the most important challenge, not just for the present, but for the decades to come. Foundation material industries must transform to preserve and generate social, environmental and economic value throughout the consecutive lifecycles of materials within economies.

With this Special Issue, it is our ambition to stimulate and circulate the latest knowledge on the topic of “Transforming the Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future”. This Special Issue will focus on the emerging concepts of circular economy and industrial symbiosis in foundation material industries, and concerns all aspects related to reducing resource use, energy efficiency, waste minimisation and valorisation, designing longer lasting products and reprocessing materials. It also deals with research on the development of novel materials and processes that enable more sustainable lower-energy and lower-carbon processes, supported by innovation in collaboration and business models, the supply chain and governance.

Researchers are invited to share their original research, case studies, and comprehensive review papers contributing to this Special Issue, entitled “Transforming the Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future”.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Materials.

Prof. Dr. Mark Jolly
Prof. Dr. Konstantinos Salonitis
Dr. Anne Velenturf
Dr. Sanjooram Paddea
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • foundation industries
  • circular economy
  • industrial symbiosis
  • resource use
  • dematerialisation
  • resource efficiency
  • sustainable manufacturing
  • sustainability transition
  • business model innovation

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 2389 KiB  
Article
An Innovative Approach to Organizational Changes for Sustainable Processes: A Case Study on Waste Minimization
by Eva Krhač Andrašec, Tomaž Kern and Benjamin Urh
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 15706; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152215706 - 07 Nov 2023
Viewed by 614
Abstract
It is necessary to adapt constantly to the business environment with its changing demands. Understanding the objectives, scope, and limitations of actual process changes is crucial, and can be achieved with numerous measures, methods, and techniques. This research demonstrates an innovative approach to [...] Read more.
It is necessary to adapt constantly to the business environment with its changing demands. Understanding the objectives, scope, and limitations of actual process changes is crucial, and can be achieved with numerous measures, methods, and techniques. This research demonstrates an innovative approach to organizational changes to enable sustainable processes. In the first part of this research, relevant measures, methods, and techniques are selected through an in-depth literature review. Then, an international online questionnaire is executed among 213 enterprises from four countries. In the last part of this research, the developed approach is tested for the example of waste minimization in the process of developing coatings. Based on the analysis of the survey questionnaire, the usability and benefits of various measures are demonstrated, namely from the point of view of their positive impact on structural and operational efficiency indicators. At the end of the article, a case study presents the success of the innovative approach in terms of 88% waste minimization and up to 48% time and cost reductions in the process of developing coatings. The proposed approach enables better choices to be made and the more efficient use of various measures, which can lead to more sustainable processes and improve the efficiency of enterprises. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transforming Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 1005 KiB  
Article
Context Analysis for Transformative Change in the Ceramic Industry
by Ahmed M. E. Khalil, Anne P. M. Velenturf, Masoud Ahmadinia and Shaowei Zhang
Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12230; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612230 - 10 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1757
Abstract
Foundation industries are under increasing pressure to transform for sustainable development. Ceramics play a key role within foundation industries as a necessary material for building manufacturing facilities. Therefore, transforming the ceramic industry could support changes across other foundation industries as well, making it [...] Read more.
Foundation industries are under increasing pressure to transform for sustainable development. Ceramics play a key role within foundation industries as a necessary material for building manufacturing facilities. Therefore, transforming the ceramic industry could support changes across other foundation industries as well, making it one of the most important industries to transform. Given the limited finances, staff time, and other resources to support transformative change, this study aims to identify a set of key intervention points to enable transformative change in the ceramic industry in the United Kingdom. A desk-based study, reviewing written industry, government, and scientific materials available in the public domain, was carried out to identify initial key intervention points for transformative change. The PESTLE approach was used to analyse macro factors in political, environmental, social, technological, legal, and economic domains in order to understand how the context enables or constrains change in the ceramic industry. A SWOT analysis was conducted to further consolidate the findings. Our analysis detected over 50 transformative change drivers and barriers and showed that decarbonisation and energy-saving strategies were the main drivers for transforming the UK ceramic industry. On the other hand, foreign government policy and legislation, trade barriers, skills shortages, and costly alternative energy sources were among the major barriers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transforming Materials Industries for a Sustainable Future)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop