Panel 2. Sustainable production design and supply chain initiatives
Circular economy business models represent a unique opportunity for increased sustainability, but are also a huge challenge for industry, policy making and society as a whole. For this reason, they have been raised to the top of European policy agenda, considering that, compared to the research efforts in the field of energy and resource efficiency in the recent past, a lasting implementation of innovative concepts in this field into daily practice seems to be rather low.
Indeed, such new approaches call for a holistic view on the whole process chain and the entire supply chain, as well as to adjacent functions like production design and development, production planning, and distribution, with much greater commitment by the several stakeholders involved in the supply chain of sustainable technologies and practices.
In this regard, starting from increased energy efficiency that surely represents a relevant approach, greater attention should be paid towards increased resource efficiency in a broader sense, thus stimulating the existing synergies between increased efficiency of production resources like energy, materials or water as much as possible. Therefore, in order to offer best practices and useful suggestions to properly shape future policies in the field, this panel looks at the impact of several emerging and innovative approaches to increased energy and resource efficiency, such as:
- LCA analyses and approaches regarding products,
- innovative manufacturing approaches like 3D printing,
- novel business models on the supply chain of energy-efficient and resource-efficient technologies and practices,
- barriers and drivers to the adoption of sustainable technologies and practices.
For this reason, papers and presentations from the industry on how companies effectively deal/dealt with this topic are warmly welcome, in particular regarding sustainable production solutions with high effort implemented in daily practice, so to take inspiration from them, with possible transferability to other enterprises and industrial sectors. The panel also welcomes papers focused on the policy challenges of implementing a circular and resource efficient economy.
Panel Leaders
Andrea Trianni, Politecnico di Milano, Dept. Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Italy
Andrea Trianni is Assistant Professor of Industrial Eco-Efficiency, Energy Management Lab and Fundamentals of Industrial Plants at Politecnico di Milano. In March 2012, he got a PhD “cum laude” at the Department of Management, Economics & Industrial Engineering – Politecnico di Milano. He also holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering.
Andrea’s current research activities are focused on the evaluation of barriers and driving forces for the promotion of energy efficiency measures, the development of methodologies for energy audits and benchmarking for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and the investigation of the energy efficiency indirect benefits within industrial activities, together with barriers to industrial sustainability and business models for closed-loop supply chains applied to critical raw materials. Italian representative (invited) within the IEA–IETS Annex XIV on “Energy Efficiency in SMEs”. He has co-authored more than 70 publications in journals and conference proceedings, and serves as reviewer for several relevant international peer-reviewed journals in the field of industrial energy efficiency and industrial eco-efficiency.
Enrico Cagno, Politecnico di Milano, Dept. Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Italy
Enrico Cagno is Professor at the Department of Management, Economics & Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He holds the courses of “Industrial Systems: Sustainability and Social Challenges” (PhD) and “Design and Management of Production Systems” (MSc). His primary research interest is Industrial Sustainability in Manufacturing Systems, with a particular focus on Energy and Resources Efficiency.
Enrico is the author of more than 300 publications. He serves as associate editor and a member of the editorial board and regular referee for several international peer-reviewed journals. He has promoted, coordinated, and managed in a number research projects. He has worked as a consultant in various projects, ranging from strategic to organizational and operational development, for numerous international enterprises, and he is member of a number of technical, professional and evaluation committees.
