click on star to go back to Joseph Sarkis' HomepageA key challenge facing domestic manufacturing industry is the maintenance of its role as a global technological leader while avoiding environmental pitfalls. Increased costs of violations, public pressure, and potentially tighter legislative actions have caused corporate environmental goals to radically change. Manufacturing enterprises from all industries are going "green." Companies are integrating environmental concern into their corporate cultures by forging environmental policies and practices and appointing "green managers" who oversee environmental initiatives. This will allow companies to transfer their production to anywhere in the world market without extra cost or delay. They have found that a well-planned “green” strategy can reduce risk of expensive environmental law violations, appeal to the consumer, and increase corporate competitiveness. This paper addresses the emergence of new strategies and business practices firms have adopted that incorporate environmental concerns. The structure is divided into three sections. The first segment describes the state-of-the-art in environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM) models. ECM is the transformation of materials into useful products through a value-added process that simultaneously enhances economic well-being and sustains environmental quality. This section outlines the two components of ECM, design and analysis and management strategies. A review is given of current practices and the companies that have implemented these cost-saving programs. The second section outlines areas of future need that include the development of technology and modeling tools as well as the acceptance of ECM in organizational management. The final section provides a summary and some conclusions.
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