How Industry 4.0 Drives Sustainable Manufacturing
Sustainability has outgrown CSR tokenism to become an integral part of manufacturers’ business agenda. Manufacturing enterprises are embracing sustainable practices not only because they need to comply with regulations or care deeply for the environment or want to save resources but also because their customers, employees and investors expect them to “do what is right.” Respect for environmental and social principles stands at the top of that list.
According to a sustainability survey report by the National Association of Manufacturing (NAM), 80% of its member companies across North America have implemented or are devising sustainability policies and around 76% are taking a product lifecycle approach to sustainability.
Helping manufacturers implement their sustainable policies on the shop floor is a bunch of Industry 4.0 technologies.
Ida Byrd-Hill is a futurist, economist and CEO of Automation Workz, a cybersecurity reskilling and diversity consulting firm. She is author of Invisible Talent Market, a Black Labor Economics History book. She holds an MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University, with a specialization in People Management/Strategy and a BA Economics from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. Byrd-Hill has appeared in Associated Press, BBC, Crain’s Business Detroit, CW Street Beat, Cybercrime Magazine, Daytime NBC, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Essence Magazine, Good Morning America, Let It Rip, Michigan Chronicle, Model D, NPR, PBS, and X-conomy. www.autoworkz.org/diverse-lens
