Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

Conventionally, improving productivity has been the primary focus of product design and manufacturing research reported in the literature. However, over the past two decades, increasing attention has been paid to the systematic study of the complex issue of simultaneously reducing energy consumption, production costs, and environmental and social impacts during product design and manufacturing. In response to increasing legislative pressures, calls for environmental responsibility, and need to meet changing customer preferences, product design and manufacturing companies are facing tremendous challenges to improve their sustainability-related competitiveness in the global market. As such, sustainable product design and manufacturing is not only about reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but also about strategically considering the full range of environmental and social aspects alongside economic aspects in the development of new products, processes, and services. This Special Issue is devoted to the broad field of sustainable product design and manufacturing, which requires simultaneous consideration of economic, environmental, and social aspects during the design, production, and delivery of goods, as well as strategies for product takeback and recovery. Such efforts will result in a deeper understanding of the optimal operational structure of product design and manufacturing systems for enabling a sustainable world. Our objective with this Special Issue is to collect papers that explore recent research into the concepts, methods, models, tools, and applications for sustainable product design and manufacturing. Topical areas for consideration include, but are not limited to, life cycle engineering; design for sustainable manufacturing; design for sustainable solutions; sustainable product development; green manufacturing; cleaner production; reconfigurable manufacturing systems; sustainable manufacturing with cyber–physical systems; smart factories; sustainability of additive manufacturing; high-efficiency subtractive manufacturing processes; industrial energy use and efficiency; advanced energy technology; food–energy–water nexus; renewable energy manufacturing; resource and energy management; standardization and regulation for sustainable design and manufacturing; and related topics.

Dr. Lin Li
Prof. Dr. Karl R. Haapala
Prof. Dr. Sophie I. Hallstedt
Dr. Yiran (Emma) Yang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.