Sustainability strategies of manufacturing companies on corporate, business and operational level

Abstract

Throughout society sustainability has gained great awareness and consumers expect producing companies to act sustainably. Research has shown that companies are starting to develop and communicate their sustainability agenda, but leaving the customer wondering if and how sustainability is really executed down the line. Therefore, this paper investigates sustainability strategies in manufacturing and their communication by first defining a research methodology and then applying it to a case study. Sustainability goals and strategies are studied on corporate, business and operational level. They are rated on their conveyance and correlation. These results are visualised in a matrix. A case study with the web-based information of 100 companies revealed that energy, waste and diversity are the most named sustainability goals. Support of charity programs, smarter programming, reuse of waste heat, efficient lighting systems and childcare/work time models were the most cited sustainability strategies.