Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability

Water use, energy use, and global warming potential (GWP) are investigated to assess the environmental impact of the manufacturing supply-chain in the interest of developing sustainable manufacturing systems. Because a major component of the supply chain is transportation, four methods of transportation are investigated: shipping, rail, trucking, and air freight. Additionally, location-specific manufacturing considerations such as water scarcity, resource availability, and energy mix are discussed. Finally, a tool is introduced to enable the visualization and computation of manufacturing supply-chain environmental impacts. This information enables decision making for designing and implementing sustainable supply-chain networks.