Cleaner Production for Sustainable Industrial Development: Concept and Applications

Abstract

In the 21st century, no business can successfully operate in an economic and social vacuum. Enterprises can achieve enduring success only by meeting the needs and the expectations of all their key constituents: customers, investors, employees, and the greater society. Sustainable development (SD) demands attaining the three-dimensional balance between economic growth and social and environmental responsibility; therefore, sustainability entails the continuous fulfillment of the varying needs and sometimes-conflicting objectives of the multiple stakeholders. Cleaner production (CP) is a proactive environmental strategy, a step beyond waste handling or management (based on the “cradle-to-cradle” approach). It deals with the source of the problem (i.e., pollution prevention,